We work on characterising biomes – how they are defined, where they are found, how they change over time, the diversity of plants they contain, and how they function. Our focus is mainly on tropical regions, such as dry and wet forests in Latin America, savannas across Africa, and montane grasslands from Madagascar to Bhutan.
To shape sound environmental policies, we need a clear and complete understanding of plant diversity and how it influences ecosystems and their changes. Our research brings together a wide range of methods and tools that build on RBGE’s international field networks and strengths in collections, taxonomy, phylogenetics, and informatics. We use long-term ecological monitoring and plot networks, biodiversity informatics of plant collections, field experiments, DNA studies, remote sensing, and data syntheses while also drawing on social sciences to better understand how people shape and benefit from nature.
Our work supports three main goals:
- Discovering and mapping biodiversity and biomes to guide conservation, land use, and management decisions.
- Identifying and predicting the forces that drive ecosystem change—such as shifts in biodiversity and the way ecosystems function—from individual species to entire biomes.
- Creating plans to assess threats, manage, and restore ecosystems in ways that support biodiversity and improve the benefits nature provides to people.
Key contact: Dr Caroline Lehmann