People


A diverse group of individuals with a wide range of interests and expertise from all over Central Europe (our study area) are lending their expertise to AgriWeedClim with skill sets ranging from agronomy over botany to biodiversity research. Together, we share a common passion for sustainable agriculture, weed management, and biodiversity and enjoy working in open collaborations within and beyond the project.

Project Partners

Franz Essl (project lead)

I am an ecologist focusing on biological invasions, specifically their impacts under climate change and possible mitigation strategies. With climate change accelerating and biological invasions showing no signs of slowing down we can expecn an increase in new, emerging weed species. Some of which may be able to resist currently practiced management strategies.

Swen Follak

I am a weed scientist at the Institute of Sustainable Plant Production of the Austrian Agency of Food and Health Safety (AGES). My research areas include the monitoring of (emerging) weeds, modelling their potential distribution, conducting risk assessments, and evaluating management strategies. In AgriWeedClim, I am involved in different work packages, such as the identification of the most important emerging weeds and their management.

Zdenka Lososová

I am a botanist and a plant community ecologist with both practical and theoretical experiences in the field of community ecology and macroecological studies. Particularly I study factors shaping dynamics and diversity of plant communities of human made habitats including ruderal and weed vegetation. My interests include habitat invasibility by alien plants and plant trait patterns including the phylogenetic approach.


Advisory Board

Christian Berg

Segetal vegetation in South-East Austria has been subject to strong changes over many years. The documentation and interpretation of these changes is highly interesting with regard to future developments.

Jana Bürger

My work is based on the agronomical perspective on arable weeds: How do management and environment influence weed vegetation? Recently, I initiated the AWME database which collects weed vegetation surveys that have detailed information on the crop and weed management of the surveyed fields.

Siegrid Steinkellner

When I was asked to be on the advisory board for this project, I could only say yes. Weeds are among the key challenges facing agriculture. This project creates an important database for the assessment of weed development and for future weed management decisions.