We investigate interactions between species and with their environment: predator - prey interactions, plant – herbivore interactions, or mutualistic and competitive interactions. Most of our studies focus on the agricultural landscape and range from lab experiments to a landscape level approach.

Our world suffers from biodiversity loss due to land use change, globalization and other factors. We study functional aspects of set asides, effects of energy plants and genetically modified crops on biodiversity, and the ecological impact of alien species.

Spiders always had been intensively investigated in our group: Analyses of structure and function of their venom, ecological and macroecological studies, as well as systematic projects in cooperation with the Natural History Museum Bern.