Sebastian Meyer

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Meyer holds a professorship in Terrestrial Ecology at the TUM School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich. His work focuses on biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, plant diversity effects on ecosystem processes, and urban biodiversity conservation. He leads research in long-term grassland experiments and explores how human-designed urban spaces can support bird and arthropod communities.

Key research interests include multitrophic interactions, plant defense mechanisms, and the impact of land-use changes on ecosystem multifunctionality. He has pioneered rapid ecosystem function assessment (REFA) methodologies and investigates the role of biodiversity in stabilizing ecosystem productivity under climate extremes.

His publications analyze how plant species richness alters herbivory patterns, energy dynamics, and decomposition processes. Recent work demonstrates urban green infrastructure’s importance for biodiversity and evaluates the hyper-abundance of leaf-cutting ants in fragmented forests. Meyer collaborates internationally on projects linking agricultural practices to biodiversity preservation and advocates for standardized ecological monitoring tools like BirdNET for acoustic bird surveys.