Interdisziplinärer Ansatz zur funktionellen Biodiversitätsforschung 

Interdisciplinary approach to functional biodiversity research (IBR)

The IBR is a ministry of science and culture (MWK) of Lower Saxony funded Research Training Group aiming to provide graduate training in functional biodiversity research at the University of Oldenburg.

The Carl von Ossietzky University is a dynamic, continuously growing university with biodiversity research as one of its priority programs.

Understanding the response of biodiversity to the pressures of global change and its role for ecosystem functions requires integrative research across basic ecology, evolutionary biology and theory as well as interdisciplinary approaches to biodiversity conservation and management. The Research Training Group (RTG) "IBR: Interdisciplinary approach to functional biodiversity research" is aiming to investigate biodiversity in over-arching approaches across terrestrial and marine habitats studying microbes, primary producers, and higher-level consumers focusing on the link between biodiversity and ecosystem processes. 

Projects are organized in clusters: A) Spatial Dynamics: to study the potential for rapid evolution under changing conditions as well as phylogenetic constraints on the emergent properties of communities and ecosystems. B) Eco-evolutionary Dynamics: to understand how the ability of a species to adapt to unstable conditions contributes to “Ecosystem Functioning” C) Resilience and Biodiversity in coupled human – environment systems in light of biodiversity loss in anthropogenically dominated ecosystems.