About us
At the Group of Agro-ecological Modeling (AEcoMod), we study the reponse of ecosystems in general, and biodiversity in particular, to changes in land use and landscape structure. To identify and explain those changes, we mobilize various data generated through automated field monitoring, Earth observations, and surveys, together with artificial inteligence, probabilistic modeling, and causal inference. Our goal is to support the advancement of nature conservation and restoration science, and identify sustainable pathways for nature and people.
Projects
PhenoRob
DFG-funded Cluster of Excellence developing new technologies and frameworks to optimize food production while promoting and conserving biodiversity.
World Ecosystem Extent Dynamics (WEED)
ESA tender for the development of an automated ecosystem extent and change accounting system to monitor progress towards the Global Biodiversity Framework.
WISE
Seed funding project supported by Uni Bonn’s Transdisciplinary Research Area Sustainable Futures to develop a digital data platform for Campus Wiesengut.
BSc & MSc theses
We welcome contacts by MSc and BSc students looking for our supervision during their final thesis projects. If you are interested in working with us, please first have read our Guidelines for Bachelor’s and Master’s theses at the Professorship of Agro-Ecological Modeling. This document describes our expectations, and offers recommendations to help you identify a research topic aligned with our expertise.
To further help you in identifying a research topic, below we shared some our our key areas of research. In addition, you may look into our past theses topics (see here).
Key areas of research
This includes primarily, but not exclusively, SDMs on plants, birds, and mammals. We offer expertise in the development of such models, and in their use for nature conservation. The development of SDMs may include open-access data, but may also be supported by data collection efforts carried out in the scope of lab activities and projects
Contact: Stephanie Roilo
This includes the integration of various data sources (e.g., species observations, remote sensing) across spatial and temporal scales (from local to global, from daily to decadal) to learn about, for instance:
- Causal interactions between biodiversity and environmental change (e.g., due to agriculture, climate change)
- The impacts of biodiversity change on human well being (e.g., related to food security)
- The impact of synergies between biased data inputs (.e.g., data gaps, quality issues) on our knowledge of biodiversity
contact: Ruben Remelgado
This topic deals with the modeling of the temporal dynamics of crop production, their status, and their link with biodiversity. On-monitoring using semi-automated techniques such as Unmaned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or acoustic sensors (to monitor, e.individual birds) may form the ground work for your theses as part of ongoing research activities. Theses may be directed at monitoring in general, or at the development development of sustainable agricultural practices by enhancing the precision and accuracy of environmental monitoring.
Contact: Clara Bazzo
Courses
You will learn how to build and interpret ecological models for natural resource science and management. This will include an introduction to linear models, generalized linear models, generalized additive models, and mixed-effects models, as well as their use and application in R.
Level: Masters
Study program(s): Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology, Crop Science, Animal Science, Agricultural Sciences and Resource Management in the Tropics and Subtropics
Teacher: TBD
You will learn the basic principles of conservation biology, with a special focus on spatially-explicit applications in the management of natural resources. The course combines theory, debates on recent scientific papers, and practical sessions with spatial modelling exercises in R.
Level: Masters
Study program(s): Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology, Crop Science, Animal Science, Agricultural Sciences and Resource Management in the Tropics and Subtropics
Teacher: Stephanie Roilo
Teacher: Anna Cord
Teacher: Anna Cord
Teacher: Anna Cord
Teacher: Clara Bazzo
Teacher: Anna Cord, Stephanie Roilo
Latest news
As part of our scientific activities, we periodically collect audio data used for species detections. Please consult our complete data protection statement (in german) for details on how data is collected, stored, and processed under their supporting legal basis.
Contact
Group leader
Anna Cord
Team assistant
Annette Feder
+49 0228 / 73 60832
Postal address
PhenoRob Cluster Office
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Niebuhrstraße 1a
53113 Bonn
Germany