The Institute of Landscape Ecology hosts the 49th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Information on the conference and the possibility to submit proposals for symposia and workshops can be found on the conference webpage.

The joint symposium of NUA NRW, ILÖK, WWU Münster and the BBN Landesgruppe NRW takes the 10th anniversary of the Landesgruppe as an opportunity to reflect on the future perspectives of nature conservation. As this is a very extensive field the discussion will focus on three aspects: first we will have a look on recent protest movements in nature conservation, second the growing mobility of people an goods in the context of globalization and the threats of introducing foreign organisms into sensitive ecosystems. The third theme of the conference is devoted to future tasks and goals in nature conservation, landscape management and professional work. The organizers are looking forward to a numerous participation and an exciting discussion. Flyer

The science magazine Logo on NDR Info reports on the Global Vegetation Database with more than one million vegetation surveys. Norbert Hölzel and Prof. Dr. Helge Bruelheide co-director of iDiv (German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research) Halle, Jena Leipzig discuss. Link to feature (in German).

The conference aims to provide information on plastic pathways, especially in waterways, but also in other ecosystems and the consequences for nature and the environment. Current solutions for the reduction of plastic and plastic waste are discussed. In a open session current scientific studies and solutions to reduce plastic and plastic waste are discussed. Concrete, innovative projects for reduction and avoiding plastic show up in the 'market of possibilities'.
Programme and registration are available at www.nua.nrw.de, Participation fee: 35 € incl. catering cost

For the second insect conference on 16th of February 2019 in Münster, the NABU NRW and the Institute of Landscape Ecology cordially invite you to a diverse program of lectures, discussions and workshops as well as a "Marketplace of Ideas".
Registration

Russia harbours significant populations of most Palaearctic birds, but only few information is available. During the Amur Bird Project annual meeting we will report on the progress of the ornithological work in the Far East and beyond. All presentations on the 15th of December 2018 at the Institute of Landscape Ecology in Münster are open for the public.
Programme

With contributions from the UFZ and WWU, the project MikroPlaTaS was represented at two scientific conferences last week: The "Umwelt2018" from 09. - 12.09.2018 in Münster and the annual meeting of the German Society for Limnology e.V. (DGL) in Kamp-Lintfort from 10.-14.09.2018.
There, the poster "Biofilme auf Plastikpartikeln und deren Nährwert für das Makrozoobenthos" (Biofilms on plastic particles and their nutritional value for the macrozoobenthos) of Diana Michler-Kozma and Rense Jongsma was honored by the vote of the conference participants as one of the five best posters with the poster price of the DGL.

Migration routes used by birds travelling from Eurasia to Africa and vice versa are well studied, but little do we know on the whereabouts of birds moving to Asia. Since 2016 we use light-level geolocators to track individual songbirds from Russia. This year´s field work started in the Far East, and followed the Trans-Siberian Railway across Siberia to Northwest-Russia. One of the target species was the critically endangered Yellow-breasted Bunting Emberiza aureola. To study the survival rate of this declining songbird, we colour-ringed several individuals in the Selenga river delta at Lake Baikal and near Syktyvkar. Furthermore, a total of 113 individuals out of 8 species were equipped with new tracking devices during our expedition at four more study sites. Further information......

Mid of July, a team of 13 students and researchers from all over Russia and Münster University continued the work in northern West-Siberia about fire impacts on the forest tundra, which started last year. Until some decades ago, wildfires have been a rather uncommon phenomena in Tundra ecosystems. Recent studies predict an increase in fire frequency and extent in the course of climate change but the ecological impact of tundra fires are so far poorly understood. Further information...

The Volkswagen Foundation funds a larger number of inter- and transdisciplinary projects both from the natural and social science in Central Asia and on the Caucasus within the funding measure Between Europe and the Orient.
The AG Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research was asked by the foundation to organize a status symposium of the funding measure jointly with our partner in Kazakhstan, ACBK. Further information....

Non-lecture period means field-trip time at the Geographical Institutes of the University of Münster. Thus, a group of 16 geographers and landscape ecologists under the guidance of Dr. Andreas Malkus and Christoph Nothelfer went on a scientific excursion to Nepal end of February. Inter alia a trekking tour through the Himalaya mountains and a multi-day stay in the bustling capital Kathmandu are planned.

To share their experiences, the group arranged a blog. Find out more...