Wolfgang Weisser

Prof. Wolfgang Weisser holds the Chair of Terrestrial Ecology at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) within the TUM School of Life Sciences. His research focuses on ecological interactions between organisms and their consequences for populations, communities, and ecosystems, with emphases on land-use impacts on biodiversity and sustainable land-use strategies. He studied Biology and Mathematics at the Universities of Gießen and Bayreuth, earned his PhD in Zoology at the University of Oxford (1994), and held postdoctoral positions at Imperial College London and the University of Basel before becoming Professor of Terrestrial Ecology at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (1999) before joining TUM in 2011.

His key research areas include biodiversity-ecosystem functioning, plant-insect interactions, and urban ecology. Specific interests include the effects of agricultural intensification, deadwood decomposition, and urban green infrastructure design on biodiversity. His work combines field experiments with advanced technologies like drone-based remote sensing and metabarcoding.

Publications highlight interdisciplinary approaches, such as using acoustic monitoring for biodiversity assessment and developing frameworks for integrating biodiversity into urban planning. Recent studies address global challenges like insect decline and the coexistence of urban development with ecological functions.

His contributions bridge ecology with applied solutions, influencing policy and sustainable land management strategies. Ongoing projects focus on multispecies urban design, forest biodiversity conservation, and the interplay between plant chemical diversity and arthropod communities.