Evolutionary Ecology and Genetics of Natural Populations

Our research interests focus on the ecology and evolution of natural populations. We are interested in how the dynamics and evolution of natural populations are being shaped by genetic, evolutionary, and ecological processes. We test our hypotheses using a variety of approaches at different levels of biological organization: the individual, the population, and the metapopulation. Our research explicitly considers the interactions among genetic, evolutionary, and ecological processes and combines field studies of ecologically important traits with population genetics theory and molecular analyses of genetic variation. We are fascinated by the evolutionary questions which we study, but it is also important to us that some of our work be relevant to conservation.

Head of group: Prof. Dr. Lukas Keller

Research themes

• Causes and consequences of inbreeding
• Hybridization as a source of evolutionary novelty and a threat to endangered species
• The ecology and evolution of dispersal
• Population dynamics in space and time