Projects

Active projects

• Wireworm-Control: Practical and sustainable control of wireworms
  Michael Brunner, Riccardo Favaro and Michael Traugott (PI)

• Assessing food web dynamics to improve biocontrol of pests
   Oskar Rennstam Rubbmark (PI) and Michael Traugott

• Food-driven movements of birds in urban landscapes
  Marion Chatelain (PI) and Michael Traugott

• Monitoring of animals via eDNA
  • Salamander project
  • Crayfish project
  • Makrozoobenthos project 

• Vector Detect: Detection and Quantification of vectors and their associated pathogens in host tissue
  Daniela Sint, Gernot Walder & Michael Traugott (PI), FFG-BRIDGE 1

• BioAWARE: Could Biodiversity Assure Weed regulAtion for Resilient Ecosystem service provision? ERA-net project
  Veronika Neidel, Corinna Wallinger, Michael Traugott (PI), http://c-ipm.org/research/bioaware/

• eDNA-Alpfish: Assessing alpine fish species using environmental DNA
  Bettina Thalinger, Christian Moritz, Richard Schwarzenberger, Michael Traugott (PI), FFG-BRIDGE 1
  

• ElatPro: Predicting wireworm activity in top soil for integrated pest management in arable crops
  Christiane Zeisler, Michael Traugott (PI), http://c-ipm.org/research/elatpro/
  
• New Approaches to control wireworms in potatoes
  Christiane Zeisler, Michael Traugott (PI), BMLFUW, https://www.global2000.at/arge-drahtwurm
• Trophic assessment of ecosystem services provided by carabid beetles in agricultural land
  Yasemin Guenay, Corinna Wallinger (PI) and Michael Traugott (Co-PI)
• Effects of fertilization type on biocontrol of pests
  Oskar Rubbmark, Daniela Sint (Co-PI) and Michael Traugott (PI)
• Sparkling Science: The effect of fertilization type on invertebrates and plants in cereal fields
  Corinna Wallinger, Michael Traugott, Johannes Rainer, Ulrike Traugott-Priester, Gabriele Pallua, Andrea Illmer-Zotlöterer, Ute Hiederer-Willi, Daniel Nigg, Daniela Sint (PI)
  

Previous projects

• Frosch im Wassertropfen - Citizen Science - 350 years University of Innsbruck anniversary project
• Structure, strength and invasibility of aphid food webs (APHIWEB)
  Nicolas Desneux (coordinator) and Michael Traugott (PI Austrian project part)
• Impact of biotic invasion on food web interactions: Tracking predation on native and invasive earthworms by molecular techniques
  Daniela Straube and Anita Juen (PI)
• Indigenous natural enemies of the invading maize pest Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae)
  Anita Juen (PI)
• The feeding ecology of cormorants
  Johannes Oehm, Bettina Thalinger, Andreas Zitek, Thomas Prohaska and Michael Traugott (PI)
• APPEAL: Assessment and valuation of Pest suppression potential through biological control in European Agricultural Landscapes
  Mattias Jonsson (coordinator & PI), Josef Settele (PI) and Michael Traugott (PI)
• The importance of natural enemy diversity and food-web structure for biological control
  Mattias Jonsson (PI), Cory Straub, Barbara Ekbom and Michael Traugott
• Agricultural intensification and aphid-parasitoid food webs
  Zhengpei Ye, Ines Vollhardt (PI) and Michael Traugott (PI)
  
• Promoting pest movement to enhance biological control of potato leafhopper
  Michael Traugott and Cory Straub (PI)

• Feeding ecology of an endangered Australian moth
  Anett Richter, Will Osborne (PI) and Michael Traugott (co-PI)
• Sustainable potato pest management in the Hindukush-Himalaya region
  Johannes Oehm, Bettina Thalinger and Michael Traugott (PI)
• Invertebrate food webs in recently deglaciated alpine areas
  Daniela Sint, Lorna Raso, Rüdiger Kaufmann (co-PI) and Michael Traugott (PI)
• Litter decomposition and humus formation in high alpine soils
  Julia Seeber (PI) and Michael Traugott
• Molecular assessment of herbivory in soil invertebrates
  Karin Staudacher, Klaus Schallhart, Anita Juen, Corinna Wallinger and Michael Traugott (PI)
  
• The genetic diversity of earthworm species
  
• New approaches to regulate wireworms
  
• Birds as predators of white grubs: a new molecular method to identify prey in bird faeces
• The influence of sown wildflower strips in biological cabbage fields on the parasitism rate of cabbage pests 
• Aphid parasitoids in organic and conventional farming systems (A cooperation with Dr. Jane Memmott & Dr. Sarina Pearce, School of Biological Sciences, Bristol University)

• Who is eating whom in the glacier fore field?
  

• The importance of birds as natural control agents of white grubs in grassland systems
  
• Assessing arthropod predation on parasitized hosts by molecular approaches
  
• The importance of scarab and non-pest prey for generalist predators: molecular assessment of a below-ground food web in an alpine grassland ecosystem 
• The diet of wireworms in arable land and its relationship to soil environmental conditions: a stable isotope analysis
  
• Molecular identification of white grub predators
  

• A DNA-based approach to detect key parasitoids of lepidopteran pests 
• Evaluation of electrophoretic techniques to identify the prey of Coccinella septempunctata larvae 
• The influence of Bt maize on the arthropod fauna 
• The influence of the entomopathogenous fungus Beauveria brongniartii on representing non-target-organisms 
• The prey-spectrum of Cantharis-species in agricultural land