Laboratory of Plant Ecology and Evolution, Pollination Services and Agroecology

The FLOWer Lab is part of the Centre for Functional Ecology - Science for People & the Planet from the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Coimbra and it is focused on the study of plant diversification and sympatric speciation through polyploidization processes and the plant-pollinator interactions that generate the current diversity patterns in plants. In applied science, we explore pollination as an ecosystem service critical to the sustainability of agroecosystems.

The group has made efforts towards the conservation of biodiversity, through studies of reproductive biology, ecology and in situ and ex situ conservation of endangered species and valuing of endogenous genetic resources.

More recently, we have promoted several citizen science initiatives to promote the valorization of wild pollinators but also the specific problem of the invasive brown marmorated stink bug, related with the sustainability of agroecosystems in Portugal.