Welcome to the LEF!

Our vision is to advance the understanding, predicting, and mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss in natural and agricultural ecosystems. We focus on the complex relationships between plants, microbes, invertebrates, and vertebrates in the soil and above ground. We aim to deepen our understanding of these interactions through a combination of conceptual and experimental research, ranging from evolutionary adaptations to community dynamics and ecosystem processes. Our ultimate goal is to apply this knowledge to promote the sustainability of life on Earth.

We aim to address several unanswered questions concerning:

• The ecology and evolution of species interaction, with particular emphasis on plant-herbivore-predator interaction, community ecology along climatic gradients, and eco-metabolomics research

• Soil sciences, including aspects of soil formation (pedogenesis), soil ecology, humus forms, soil organisms, and organic matter recycling

• Agroecology, in particular, pest control through plant defense mechanisms and plant-microorganism interactions. In addition, our laboratory has established an international partnership with the Institute of Environmental Processes and Pollution Control (Jiangnan University, China) to study the beneficial effects of modified nanoparticles on crop yield and pest control.

• Conservation biology, with a particular focus on conservation approaches that combine monitoring and species interactions.