Ecology
Behavioral ecology
Behavioral ecology generally studies the interactions between behavior and environmental factors and what evolutionary consequences these, and behavior in general, have. Within our group, we conduct research in two directions in particular:
- Animal personalities: Individuals of an animal species differ in their behavior, i.e. they show different personalities. Among other things, we are investigating how pronounced these differences are and what effects they have on the lives of great tits.
- Sexual selection: Various traits can influence reproductive success before and even after mating. The former includes traits that provide advantages in the male versus male fight for a female or mating rituals that are intended to convince a female to accept the male for mating. The latter includes traits such as sperm count and quality, which can influence the number of offspring (e.g. the number of fertilized eggs). We investigate whether investments in one of the two categories (sperm count vs. sperm quality) negatively influence the other category.
| Research Groups | Topic |
|---|---|
| Prof. Dr. Niels Dingemanse | Behavioural Ecology |
| Prof. Dr. Herwig Stibor | Aquatic ecology |
Aquatic ecology
Research focuses on experimental studies of pelagic food webs in limnic and marine waters. All global biogeochemical cycles are essentially determined by the life cycle of pelagic organisms; e.g. the flow of carbon from the atmosphere into food webs through photosynthesis of phytoplankton.
Current research programs are investigating the efficiency of this transfer as a function of the functional diversity of phytoplankton communities, which is partly determined by the different pigmentation of individual phytoplankton species. Furthermore, experimental tests of theoretical food web models in simply structured marine ecosystems are currently being carried out.
Experimental analyses of aquatic food webs can help to causally link well-understood findings from theory and laboratory experiments with field observations. This requires the ability to carry out experimental studies in the field in as many different water bodies as possible. The LMU limnological station in Seeon, with over 50 lakes in the immediate vicinity and the possibility of conducting large field experiments, offers unique opportunities in Germany.