In recent years our research group used metabarcoding of environmental DNA (eDNA) from soil cores and DNA from bycatches out of pitfall traps for the environmental monitoring in different agricultural sites. We would like to further evaluate the possibility to use these molecular methods as a connection between soil and insect monitoring. This could lead to simpler sampling in the agricultural landscape without affecting daily farming practices. In addition, below-ground organisms, which are so important for nutrient cycling, are also recorded and used for habitat assessment. This also makes it easier to differentiate between small-scale management types than considering only the more mobile epigean fauna.

Our department is located in the tri-border region of Belgium and the Netherlands at RWTH Aachen University, a university of excellence in western Germany. The Department of Biology is made up of seven different institutes with research interests ranging from biotechnology to plant biology, neurobiology and ecology. One of our research strengths has long been 'community ecology', where we characterise and differentiate sites based on species composition and environmental factors. Other factors, such as pesticides and the influence of different forms of agricultural management, are also used to categorise sites so that we can then recommend actions to help biodiversity and agriculture interact.