The Integrative Ecology Lab

We study nature.

The Integrative Ecology Lab works on the ecology, evolution, and conservation of animals and plants at multiple scales using a diverse range of multidisciplinary approaches. We’re particularly interested in nature in cities.  

Professor Dieter Hochuli

Academic profile and publications

Exploring the natural world in creative and diverse ways

Our work is motivated by a desire to understand how the natural world works and how we can find better ways to look after it.

In practice, this means when we do our science we study a diverse range of taxa using diverse methods and mindsets.  More specifically, we have focused on the ecology of insects, spiders, birds and plants in range of contexts, notably in urban ecosystems. We use diverse methods, including field surveys, big data, laboratory experiments, observations, and molecular techniques to study the relationships between organisms and their environments. This holistic perspective is essential for understanding the complex systems we work in but also to help find workable solutions for the protection and management of nature.

We are committed to communicating our work to a variety of audiences and having an impact on the communities we serve.  We share our science regularly with the media, diverse community groups, NGOs, industry, and government.  We want our work to have an impact beyond the ivory tower and enjoy developing relationships with people from these communities.

Our research

Our research can be broadly framed around 3 broad and intersecting research areas. There are a range of taxa and questions we study in a series of umbrella projects.

  • Promoting the unsung heroes - enhancing insect and spider diversity in urban ecosystems
  • Ecology of common vertebrates in the urban jungle, e.g. Big City Birds
  • Selection pressures of city life on plants and animals
  • Managing urban greenspaces for people and nature

  • The Urban Field Naturalist project
  • The entanglement of people and ecology in natural systems
  • Strengthening human connections to nature
  • Understanding links between nature engagement and wellbeing in diverse communities

  • Insect and spider ecology – understanding the little things that run the world
  • Exploring some of the world’s more unusual ecosystems and ecological interactions
  • Mechanistic understandings of pattern and process in ecology – why animals and plants do the things they do

Contact us

For further information about the Integrative Ecology Lab, please contact Professor Dieter Hochuli at dieter.hochuli@sydney.edu.au.