The scientific objective of ComBee is to investigate the direct and indirect interactions of the main causes of pollinator insect losses identified in the literature (i.e. land use change, bee diseases). In particular, the focus is on the interactions between different agri-environmental measures and landscape structure, as well as their effects on pollinator species communities, population development of wild and managed bees, prevalence of pathogens and natural counterparts, resource use and trophic interactions between plants, pollinators, pathogens and counterparts. Supervisors:
Prof. Dr. Catrin Westphal, head of the division Functional Agrobiodiversity, Dept. of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-University Goettingen
Prof. Dr. Robert Paxton, head of General Zoology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg
Dr. Annika Hass, Functional Agrobiodiversity, Dept. of Crop Sciences, Georg-August-University Goettingen