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Team 'Biodiversity & Evolution'

Mission

Documenting botanical diversity worldwide and understanding the evolutionary processes that shape this diversity.

Team’s activities

Our team fulfills a central scientific mission of Meise Botanic Garden: discovering, describing, naming, and classifying species of plants, fungi, and algae. Accurate knowledge of species, such as how to recognise and name them, where they occur, and how they interact with their environment, is essential to support effective conservation strategies, biodiversity monitoring, and sustainable development.

We apply an integrative approach that brings together traditional morphological research, supported by our extensive historical collections, with state-of-the-art molecular techniques and ecological data. This combination enables us to uncover previously undocumented biodiversity and to address fundamental questions concerning the origin, diversification, and geographical distribution of species, and the underlying evolutionary processes.

Beyond our scientific research, Team Biodiversity & Evolution acts as a national and international reference centre for the identification and application of knowledge on plants, fungi, and algae. Our expertise supports a wide range of stakeholders, from private citizens to industry and governmental agencies, and provides specialised services such as identification of building rot fungi and biomonitoring of water quality.

Finally, we are strongly committed to training the next generation of taxonomists and field botanists and mycologists. Through internships, supervision of graduate students, specialised courses, and field training, we help build the expertise needed to document, understand, and conserve biodiversity in the future.

Contact

Our Research scientists

Our Honorary Research Associates

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