Ground-nesting bees & Evidence-based conservation

The majority of wild bees nests below ground and spends most of their life in the soil. They are potentially vulnerable to agricultural practices implying soil disturbance, such as tillage.

I am interested in the ecology of ground-nesting bees in agricultural landscapes. Further, I work at the science-policy interface intersecting biodiversity research and practice. A conceptual approach on how to bridge the science-practice gap can be leaned from medicine. In medicine, evidence-based practice has revolutionized clinical practice by systematically synthesizing the available scientific evidence. I work on conceptual and methodological improvements in evidence-based conservation.

I am a professor of Animal Ecology at the University of Marburg. I am further co-leading the BMBF-funded socio-ecological research group BEATLE, a cooperation with the University of Hohenheim.