Direct and indirect impacts of human activities are significant threats to the biodiversity within the cultural landscapes of the Alps and surrounding regions.

The over-arching aim of the research programme is to identify problems and propose management solutions that are for the benefit of the environment from both human and biodiversity perspectives.  There is a strong research focus on alpine biodiversity in terms of what dictates species distributions at high altitude, and the effects of environmental change, including climate change, human disturbance (e.g. winter sports) and changes in land management (e.g. livestock grazing practices). 

The main research programmes include: the impacts of skiing on alpine faunal biodiversity, and the identification of possible practical approaches to ameliorate its effects; forecasting changes in bird species' distributions and community composition in relation to future climate change in alpine habitats; identifying the factors that dictate altitudinal distributions of dung beetles and the ecosystem services that they provide; studies on the ecology of rare Alpine Carabids, in particular the endangered Carabus olympiae, with a view to improve the survival of the species through sympathetic management; the ecology of cave-dwelling spiders; and, factors influencing the biodiversity of mountain springs and bogs.