The regulatory functions of peatlands on the water and element cycles, their ecosystem services and their role in biodiversity conservation have increasingly become the focus of scientific and public debate; particularly in the course of climate change and more frequent occurrence of droughts and heat waves. The working groups Ecohydrology and Biogeochemistry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Modeling and Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, same as research groups from the Netherlands, Poland and Austria are going to collaborate on this project. The aim of the project is to investigate peatlands in the nemoral zone of central Europe regarding their historic development, their current condition and their potetial development. In the further course of the project the working group Animal Ecology and Biosphere-Atmosphere-Interaction will enhance the project team with their expertise.

 

The Institute of Landscape Ecology warmly welcomes Prof. Dr. Mana Gharun, who took up her position as Junior Professor with TT for "Biosphere-Atmosphere Interaction" at the ILÖK on 1 March. We are looking forward to working with her and wish her a good start in Münster. Mana Gharun's work focuses on the alteration in exchange processes between ecosystems and the atmosphere in the course of current climate change. Extreme events, such as the dry years 2018 and 2019, are used as natural experiments to gain insights into future changes in the carbon and water balance of ecosystems.
 

The Institute of Landscape Ecology warmly welcomes its new colleague Sascha Buchholz. He has formerly worked at the TU Berlin and is now leading the Animal Ecology Groupat the institute (the website is under construction) . He is working on urban ecology, invasion ecology, cultural landscapes, nature conservation, species protection, science-policy interfaces and many more. We are looking forward to fruitful collaboration.
 

The Climatology Research Group and the Micrometeorology Group of the University of Bayreuth concluded their intensive observation period of urban climate. The focus was on the analysis of weak wind situations in urban settings and their role in surface exchange processes. Further, the urban heat island of the city of Münster was intensively studied and its relation to the spatial distribution of the atmospheric aerosol concentrations. Further information... [de] (available in German language only)

 

A feature on the project "Microplastics in dams and reservoirs: sedimentation, distribution, effects (MikroPlaTaS)" has been published in the series Sustainability at the WWU (in German Language).
A new video informs about the project on which Dr. Friederike Gabel and Diana Michler-Kozma are the involved researchers at ILÖK. Numerous theses have also been written in this field of reserach.

Significant amounts of carbon are stored in Central European forests. In addition, forests and their soils are important for biological diversity, which in turn strengthens the adaptability and stability of the forest ecosystem. The aim of this project, which is carried out jointly by the Soil Ecology and Land Use Research group and the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group with the NABU-Naturschutzstation Münsterland [de] and the Landesbetrieb Wald und Holz Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW), is a synoptic view of the carbon balance and biodiversity - above and below ground. The studies planned for the next three years should help to better assess the influence of the intensity of use on the performance of forests in terms of biodiversity, carbon storage and climate stability.

Further information:
Project homepage [de]
Project homepage of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group

Plastic pollution of the oceans has gained broad media coverage. However, also freshwater ecosystems are heavily polluted by microplastics with crucial impacts on aquatic organisms. The Institute of Landscape Ecology is a partner of the joined research project MikroPlaTaS (funded by the BMBF), which investigates the distribution and sedimentation of microplastics and the impacts on aquatic organisms. In the framework of this project, a travelling exhibition to the topic of microplastics was developed that can be hired by schools for free. The exhibition was first presented at the Mariengymnasium Warendorf (school's report [de]). If you are interested in the borrowing the exhibition, please contact Dr. Friederike Gabel.
 

"Monitoring of modern agroforestry ecosystems - new cultivation systems as meeting points for agriculture, civil society and science" is the name of the research project that Julia Binder and Thomas Middelanis have designed. The two students of the “Master Landscape Ecology” want to develop and apply over several years an ecological catalogue of methods together with fellow students, the working groups of the ILÖK and above all interested volunteers, school classes, farmers or conservationist groups. The multi-perspective cooperation has the aim to examine ecological interactions and climatic advantages that the integration of trees in the arable context brings with it. The University of Münster supports the initiative within  the "WWU-Citizen-Science-Competition" with 7.500 € [de].

Soil is a huge habitat hidden beneath our feet, especially during this online semester. The education videos of the Research Group Soil Ecology and Land Use [en] deliver a first insight into pedologic methods and into soils which frequently occurr not only in the Münsterland.
 

From subtropical marshlands, methane fluxes and flood protection areas: 16 students of Geography and Landscape Ecology at the University of Münster set off for Taiwan to study the topics of climate, environmental meteorology, air hygiene and bio- and atmosphere. Click here for the blog [de]...