Our mission is to understand how plants interact with their (a)biotic environment in order to find ways to better preserve and protect the natural world.

For interacting with their environment, plants produce and release thousands of specialized organic molecules, both above and belowground. By studying the chemical signatures of plants, our objective is to address several unanswered questions relating to:

• The ecology and evolution species interaction, with strong emphasis on plant-herbivore-predator interaction, community ecology along climatic gradients, and eco-metabolomics research

• Soil sciences, including aspects of soil formation, soil ecology, humus forms, soil biota and soil organic matter recycling

• Agroecology, particularly focusing on pest control through plant defense mechanisms and plant-microbe interactions. In addition, our laboratory has built an international partnership with the institute of Environmental Processes and Pollution Control (Jiangnan University, Chine) for addressing the beneficial effects of engineered nanoparticles on crop yield and pest control

• Conservation biology, particularly focusing on conservation approaches that combine monitoring and species interactions.