Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland

• Promotion of basic and applied ecological research
• Supporting co-operation between all ecological disciplines
• Improving the scientific exchange of ecologists in German-speaking countries and beyond
• Supporting ecological education at universities and other institutions of higher education
• Promoting the application and implementation of ecological knowledge and methods in practice
• Representation of ecological interests in public

To this end, the society organises an annual conference with workshops, awards prizes, publishes the international journal Basic and Applied Ecology and writes statements such as on new genetic engineering (2023), biodiversity loss (2022) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (2015).

The annual meeting is one of the most important ecological conferences in the German-speaking region. Since 1972, the society organizes these meetings over five days at different Universities in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. One day is used for ecological excursions into the surrounding area. The meetings are organised under a conference theme that reflects current discourses in scientific-ecological research. The focus is on terrestrial ecology including limnology. The largest conference was held in Leipzig with over 1000 participants in 2023.^[1]

The society is member of the German National Committee of Biology (DNK), of the German Life Sciences Association (VBiO), of the umbrella organisation of agricultural research (DAF), of the European Ecological Federation (EEF) and the International Association for Ecology (INTECOL).

The society publishes the international journal Basic and Applied Ecology (Elsevier) since 2000. For members, information are distributed by the German-language magazine Nachrichten der GfÖ twice a year. The publicationVerhandlungen der Gesellschaft für Ökologie (ISSN 0171-1113) published from 1972 to 2000 articles of summaries of oral presentations or posters at the annual conference. A long-standing publisher was Jörg Pfadenhauer (1987–2000).

Many activities of the society are organized by the specialist groups. These working groups mirror the wide spectrum of ecological topics of the GfÖ. Specialist groups like Population Biology or Macroecology organize own small conferences.

• Agroecology (since 2021)
• Soil ecology (since 2002)
• Computational ecology
• Macroecology
• Conservation and restoration ecology (since 2015)
• Ecosystem science (since 1998)
• Plant population biology (since 1988)
• Urabn ecology
• Dryland research
• Environmental education
• Forest ecology (since 2012)
• Young Modellers in Ecology (seit 2005)