Chemical Ecology

Research topics & objectives

Chemical ecology deals with biological and chemical investigations of natural products that are involved in the communication between individuals within one or different species and which influence ecological interactions.

In our group we explore the role of natural products which mediate interactions between plants, herbivorous insects and their antagonists (predators, parasitoids) as well as interactions between mutualistic partners such as pollinators and fungi. We focus on the isolation and identification of such compounds and the elucidation of their chemodiversity and functions in an ecological, behavioural, genetic, population-biological and evolutionary context.