Research Group
Stress physiology

The stress physiology group studies resilience and stress survival mechanisms of wild plants and crops with a focus on frost, heat and drought. Using the unique opportunity offered by the location in Innsbruck functionally divers plant groups are investigated across the environmental gradient from lowland up to the nival zone, from a molecular to a whole plant perspective and from laboratory to the field. Understanding of functional aspects of stress tolerance is critically important in view of global climate change. The investigations shall provide information on functional models of plant stress resilience that potentially will be transferable to crop species.