Main areas of research
– Taxonomy, biodiversity, distribution, ecology, myco-/photobiont interactions of lichens in Antarctica, subantarctic areas in South America, Alpine and Arctic areas.
– Investigations on symbiotic interactions in lichens, especially the specific diversity of mycobionts and photobionts correlated to climate data using molecular, chemical and morphological tools.
– Modelling of present-day climate-related preferences of photobionts, mycobionts and their symbiosis (ENM).
– Conervation: Red list species of lichens in endangered habitats of Austria.
– Diversity of photobionts in soil crust-forming lichens.
All studies are carried out in the Department of Biosciences/AG Comes
Technical and professional qualifications
– Bioinformatics (MrByes, Paup*, DNAsp, Genious, Beast, Canoco, MaxEnt, R, etc.)
– NGS, PCR- techniques, molecular cloning (single genes), Primer-design
– HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography), TLC (thin layer chromatography)
– Microscopy, staining techniques, cross sectioning on kryomicrotome, culturing
