Plant conservation and population biology

Research

We aim at understanding the dynamics of wild plant populations and their interactions with both the abiotic environment and with mutualists such as pollinating insects and mycorrhizal soil fungi. We highly value the societal relevance of our work in an era that is confronted with an ever increasing anthropogenic impact on biodiversity through habitat fragmentation, eutrophication and global warming. The techniques we commonly use include pollination experiments, demographic modeling, neutral genetic markers and recently also genomic approaches.

People

Olivier Honnay is the head of the lab. We currently have three post-docs and fourteen PhD-students in our team. Two technicians and a secretary complete the lab.

Publications

Peer reviewed publications in SCI journals of all our lab members can be found here.

We also authored and co-authored many articles in local nature conservation journals such as Natuur.focus, showing our commitment with the conservation of biodiversity in Flanders.

Education

Here you can find information about the ecological field course in France (Brenne). We also give you an idea of the carreer opportunities as a plant ecologist. Subjects for a Master thesis (2010-2011) and a list of past Master thesises at the lab are also available.