Research Focus
The focus of the PhD Programme "Environmental and Resource Management" includes selected areas of environmental science and technology, as well as biotechnology and environmental law.
Please prepare your PhD Research Proposal specifically for one of the research areas offered. The selection of suitable PhD research projects is very competitive and depends on the current capacity utilisation of the research area.
- Soil ecology
- Conservation ecology
- Predator & parasite ecology
- Spatial ecology
- Theoretical ecology
- Landscape ecology
- Entomology
- Grazing ecology
- Carcass ecology
- Forensics
- Protist ecology
- Bioleaching with regards to recycling, ecology, law and sustainability
Ecology of lakes:
- Ecology of acidic mining lakes – phytoplanktonic colonization under carbon limitation
- Restoration and trophic development of mining lakes
- Cyanobacteria in German lowland lakes
- Phosphorus in lake sediments - accumulation, transformation and remobilization
Ecology of streams and rivers:
- Carbon transformation in land-water interfaces of disturbed river corridors
- Biogeochemistry at the sediment-water interface
- When streams and river banks fall dry - ecosystem metabolism of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams
- Litter decomposition in in early successional landscapes and ephemeral streams
- Ecological stress by shifting sediments - microbial food web and metabolism in migrating sand ripples
The Environmental Data Science team aims to offer “AI-powered, Nature-based Solutions” that will balance nature and our society from the intersection of artificial intelligence x smart agriculture x biodiversity. Our current major focuses are the followings:
- Biodiversity modeling with AI
- Development of explainable/interpretable AI for environmental modeling
- Estimating the global potential of soil microbes for sustainable agriculture
- Agriculture-related drone and satellite imagery analysis with AI
- Global change threats for biodiversity and our society
- AI exploring optimal strategies among food provision, nature conservation, and development
We are always welcoming ambitious people to tackle various global issues together.
Joint Professorship with the Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF)
- Geomorphodynamics
- Pedogenesis
- Natural and anthropogenically disturbed landscapes
- Phytoremediation
- Investigation of natural resource potentials (raw materials, ground water, underground structures) with geological and geophysical methods
- Development of investigation concepts
- Development of investigation systems and techniques (ground/air-borne)
- economic analysis of environmental and resource policy instruments
- economics of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service preservation
- ecological-economic modelling
- economic valuation of environmental change
- cost-benefit analysis
- economic analysis of land use in developed and developing countries including forest degradation, economic analysis of agri-environment schemes and payments for ecosystem services
- Integrating land use planning, water resources and policy planning: Management challenges, opportunities and way forward in the context of sustainable development
- Climate change menace and its impact on natural resource: Coping strategies and adaptation measures for highly risk regions or countries for sustainable development and livelihood.
Area of focus:
• Agriculture, irrigation
• Land resources
• Water resources