Biodiversity is the variation in the living nature. Biodiversity includes species diversity, genetic diversity, and ecosystem diversity. Species diversity is made up of the many species, e.g., the approximately 400,000 species of vascular plants in the World. Genetic diversity is the genetic variation between populations and individuals of the same species, but also includes deeper-lying phylogenetic variation between species. Ecosystem diversity is the variation in ecosystems, e.g., the many habitat types in the Danish landscape. Biodiversity is very unevenly distributed across the Earth. Compare, for example, the 1,500 species of vascular plants in the Danish flora to the 19,000 species in Ecuador. Our biodiversity research integrates ecology, biogeography, evolution and systematic and has focus on of the main research questions for contemporary science: What determines the great geographical variation in biodiversity? Why declines species diversity with increasing distance to the tropics? Why are range-restricted (endemic) species typically concentrated in particular areas? How is the genetic diversity distributed, and why? How do biodiversity and ecosystem functioning depend on each other? How do humans and biodiversity interact? A very large proportion of Earth’s biodiversity remains undescribed, and discovery and registration of new species and occurrences are also important components of biodiversity research.

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