to the Animal ecology and multitrophic interactions lab
Teaching Winter term 2020/21
All teaching in the winter term will be held as e-learning courses. Further information is given to participants of lectures. For further questions please e-mail Sascha Buchholz (saschabuchholz@uni-muenster.de)
The Animal ecology group is founding a new Centre for Biodiversity Monitoring in Bonn
The animal ecology lab is moving to Bonn (Research Museum Alexander Koenig) to establish the new Centre for Biodiversity Monitoring. New address: Centre for Biodiversity Monitoring, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany; https://www.zfmk.de/en/zbm; c.scherber@leibniz-zfmk.de
Current thesis topics and research projects
Can be found in the section teaching.
The research group Animal Ecology and Multitrophic Interactions focuses on the following topics:
Biological diversity (biodiversity research) in land use systems
Global change
Multitrophic interactions (e.g. predator-prey and plant-herbivore systems)
We combine ecological field experiments with applications in agriculture and nature conservation.
The aim is to make a contribution to the protection of nature for future generations.
Thank you for visiting our website!
With more species knowledge to more species diversity
18. August 2020 - Federal Minister for the Environment Svenja Schulze and BfN President Prof. Dr. Beate Jessel visited the NABU-Naturschutz Station Münsterland to inform themselves about the first activities of our project "KennArt".
First information about the project here.
Press release here.
DIVERSify
Release of first three episodes
17. August 2020 - Within the framework of the EU project DIVERSify, a web series about the activities and results of the project partners was produced. The first three episodes of the web series were published today. The animal ecology working group is also part of it!
Link to the first three epsodes here.
KennArt
Die Zahl der Artenkennerinnen und Artenkenner nimmt seit einigen Jahren immer weiter ab. Mit dem Verbundprojekt „KennArt – Eine bundesweite Initiative zur Ausbildung von Artenkenner*innen“ möchten die NABU-Naturschutzstation Münsterland und die Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (ILÖK-AG Tierökologie) dem Abwärtstrend entgegenwirken. In den kommenden sechs Jahren soll ein mehrstufiges Schulungssystem mit Grund-, Aufbau- und Expertenkursen für verschiedene Organismengruppen mit einem Schwerpunkt auf Insekten entwickelt und bundesweit erprobt werden. Das Projekt wird gefördert durch das Bundesamt für Naturschutz mit Mitteln des Bundesministeriums für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit.
Link zur Pressemitteilung
DIVERSify meeting this year online
From 2 to 5 June, the General Assembly Meeting of the DIVERSify project took part online.
It was a great meeting with participants from Europe and cooperation partners from Kenia.
We discussed about the current state of research, various projects and planned publications. Jana Brandmeier and Silvia Papagallo gave presentation about their research and projects.
Kick-Off Meeting in the forest 08.05.2020
Michael Meyer, Christoph Scherber, students, colleagues form Wald und Holz NRW and a camera team were out in the forests in Ostwestfalen-Lippe.
More information about our new projekct can be found here RESEARCH and in the image film.
GfÖ 09.-13.09.2019
GfÖ 09.-13.09.2019
We look back on the successful 49th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland in Münster 2019.
Link to the conference homepage here
GFÖ 2019
The group Animal Ecology was represented this year with various topics and contributions:
Coordinator of the GfÖ: Dr. Julia Tiede
Session chair:
Tiede, Keller und Eitzinger, Session 24: Molecular biodiversity & interaction assessment
Scherber und Tscharntke, Session 20: Agroecology
Ott, Hamer, Kleinebecker, Session 4: Ecological stoichiometry
Ott, Jochum, Session 25: Multitrophic interactions
Oral presentations:
Hamer, Meyer et al. 20-15 Soil microbial indicators for the assessment of temporal diversification in agroecosystems
Reininghaus et al. 2-14 The importance of plant resources at multiple spatial scales for a key pollinator
Scherber 20-10 Farming for the future: Approaches to reconcile biodiversity in European farming systems
Scherber 31-18 A network perspective on biodiversiy effects in real-world farming systems
Poster:
Brandmeier et al. 20-P11 Effects of crop diversity ad managment on pollinators in an intercropping experiment
Pappagallo 20-P6 Network thinking in agroecosystem functioning and productivity
Workshop:
Scherber, W2: Mixed-effect models (Mixed-effects models in R)
Panel discussion:
Scherber, FAIR data principles in the scientific publication and funding process: expected implications for researchers
DIVERSify meeting in Copenhagen
From 11 to 14 June, the General Assembly Meeting of the DIVERSify project took part in Copenhagen.
It was a great meeting with participants from Europe and cooperation partners from Kenia.
We discussed about the current state of research, various projects and planned publications. An important topic was how to communicate our results to a broad spectrum of practitioners. We also visited the field site in Taarstrup. For sure, there was also enough time to visit the city center and the Little Mermaid.
Christoph Scherber, Jana Brandmeier, Hannah Reininghaus und Michael Meyer joined from Münster University.
European Conference on Crop Diversification
The Animal Ecology Group contributed to the European Conference on Crop Diversification (18.-21. September in Budapest).
Michael Meyer, David Ott and Christoph Scherber: „Influence of temporal diversification on aboveground arthropods”, talk
Jana Brandmeier, Hilke Hollens-Kuhr, Silvia Pappagallo and Christoph Scherber: „Interactive effects of crop diversity and management on pollinators in a summer wheat-bean intercropping experiment”, poster
We had many fruitful discussions and learned a lot about how temporal and spatial diversification of agroecosystems can contribute to sustainable land use.
For more information see here
Conference of Species 2019 - Together against species extinction, Bonn 30.08-01.09.2019
Topic: "The decline of insects: Dynamics, causes and solutions"
DIVERSify - Harvest is over.
DIVERSify film team in Münster
As part of the EU-project DIVERSify, a camera team visited us to produce a short documentary about our work.
A European wildcat has been seen on wildlife cameras in the Arnsberg forest
One of our BSc students was really lucky: She discovered European wildcats on her camera trap images from a series of cameras exposed in the Arnsberg forest. Congratulations!
Jena field trip 2019
Congratulations!
Plant mixtures on the DIVERSify field
30. April 2019 - The plants on the field of the DIVERSify project start to grow.
First sowing
On April 11, 2019, the field trial within the scope of the DIVERSify project started again with the sowing of the field crops.
Summer semester 2019 - Amphibian excursion
Pelophylax ridibundus
A camera team (WDR) visited the Animal Ecology Group 14.02.2019
Prof. Dr. Christoph Scherber was interviewed on the topic of insect decline.
Expert Symposium Agricultural Sciences - Hochschule Osnabrück, 20.11.2018
Topic "How can agriculture promote insect biodiversity"?
Excellence in Teaching Award for Michael Meyer
