History
The Chair of Vegetation Ecology existed from 1993 to 2010. It emerged from a research group in geobotany, which was establied after the appointment of Jörg Pfadenhauer to a C3-Professorship. Before that date the education in vegetation ecology for the students of Landscape Architecture and Landscape Planning was done by members of the chair of Landscape Ecology and external teachers. The importance of the scientific results in the field of vegetation ecology for the German environmental policy (above all since the new edition of the Federal Nature Protection Act 1971) and the rising numbers of students in environmental science backed the creation of the Chair of Vegetation Ecology.
With this establishment it was possible to widen the educational activities reflecting the necessities of the curriculum of the career of Landscape Architecture and Landscape Planning. Furthermore, vegetation ecology evolved to be an independent research field at the Weihenstephan Campus. Of primary importance ever has been research on restoration of degraded wetlands and concepts for landscape development. In 1993 Jörg Pfadenhauer was appointed as head of the Chair of Vegetation Ecology.
In 2010 the unit was renamed as Chair of Restoration Ecology after appointment of Johannes Kollmann. Today the major research theme is restoration ecology, a research field with increasing significance dealing with the rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems. To resolve such complex targets it is necessary to base the approach not only in vegetation ecology and population biology of rare species, but also to cooperate with and to integrate disciplines as soil science, hydrology, climatology and zoological ecology. Since 1990 research on agroecology of farmed lands is established supporting the project "Research Association for Agricultural Ecosystems Munich" (FAM). A research field with special interest for climate change ecology are wetland ecosystems. The chair coordinates the BMBF-Compound project "Ecosystem Management of Fens" (Ökosyn), which is located in the northern lowlands of Germany. Similar projects exist in southern Germany.
The scientific stuff is formed by landscape ecologists, biologists, agriculturists, horticulturists, geographers and geoecologists. The Chair represents the subjects of Restoration and Vegetation Ecology including Population Biology of wild species and partly Landscape Ecology and Landscape Planning for the university careers of Landscape Architecture and Landscape Planning, Biology, Agriculture, Geography and Geodesy.