Conveners
Morning Sessions: Approaches
- Stefan Knauร
- Marius Munschek (iDiv)
Morning Sessions: Functions
- Pia Loeffke (iDiv, EIE)
- Qing-Fang Bi (Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry)
Morning Sessions: Complexity
- Michael Gerth (German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig & Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg)
- Robert Rauschkolb (Friedrich Schiller University, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Senckenberg Institute for Plant Form and Function (SIP) Jena)
Morning Sessions: Complexity
- Robert Rauschkolb (Friedrich Schiller University, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Senckenberg Institute for Plant Form and Function (SIP) Jena)
- Michael Gerth (German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig & Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg)
Morning Sessions: Approaches
- Marius Munschek (iDiv)
- Stefan Knauร
Morning Sessions: Transdisciplinary
- A. Cristina de la Vega-Leinert (BIOP - iDiv - UFZ)
- Gavin Stark (iDiv/MLU)
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Pubin Hong (iDiv)08/09/2026, 11:45ComplexityTalk
Soil harbors a substantial proportion of global biodiversity, yet its large-scale biogeographic patterns remain poorly understood. Previous studies have primarily focused on local diversity (i.e. alpha diversity) within individual soil taxonomic groups, whereas global patterns of community turnover across sites (i.e., beta diversity) remains largely unexplored. To address this knowledge gap,...
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Gavin Stark (iDiv/MLU)08/09/2026, 11:45Approaches of integrative biodiversity researchTalk
Rapid climate change is undermining the long-term capacity of protected areas (PAs) to conserve biodiversity, yet exposure metrics alone cannot reveal whether species can realistically reach areas where suitable climates may persist. Here, we develop a climate-informed connectivity framework that integrates climate velocity, PA climatic residence time, PA size, and functional connectivity...
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Dr Qing-Fang Bi08/09/2026, 11:45FunctionsTalk
In forest ecosystems, tree diversity and associated mycorrhiza types greatly shape microbial activity and functioning by altering resource availability and interactions among trees, mycorrhizal fungi, and microbial communities. However, the extent to which tree- mycorrhizal interactions regulate microbial growth and resource use strategies across seasons remains poorly understood. Using the...
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Daria Lipsky (iDiv)08/09/2026, 12:00Approaches of integrative biodiversity researchTalk
Bird communities are fundamental to ecosystem functioning, yet how their community reorganisation under global change affects ecosystem energetics remains poorly understood. Using 58 years of North American Breeding Bird Survey data from 5,870 routes (1966-2023), we tracked co-variation among species richness, abundance, community evenness, and community-level energy demand. Total abundance...
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Aleksandra Pienkowska (iDiv; UFZ)08/09/2026, 12:00ComplexityTalk
Pollen deposition may be a major but overlooked seasonal nutrient input to forest soils. Wind-pollinated trees can release up to 4000 kg/ha of nutrient-rich pollen, most of which is deposited onto soil rather than reaching stigmas (Greenfield et al., 1996). Yet, its effects on soil microbial physiology and nutrient dynamics remain poorly understood. An additional layer of complexity arises...
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Adriana Rendon-Funes (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ))08/09/2026, 12:00FunctionsTalk
Forests cover nearly a third of Earthโs land and provide key ecosystem services. With climate change, forests face intensified drought episodes and shifting precipitation regimes. While important advances have been made to improve our understanding of tree responses to drier conditions, effects on belowground processes remain elusive, despite their importance for shaping forest functioning....
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Lisa Hildebrand (iDiv Halle-Jena Leipzig & Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz UFZ)08/09/2026, 12:15Approaches of integrative biodiversity researchTalk
Biodiversity is undergoing rapid decline driven by anthropogenic pressures and climate change. Addressing this trend has become a global imperative, with growing emphasis on the need to bend the curve of biodiversity loss. To effectively mitigate these changes, it is essential to improve our capacity to anticipate future biodiversity trajectories in order to plan and implement appropriate...
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Pratyaksh Singh (Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, and German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany)08/09/2026, 12:15ComplexityTalk
Symbionts are widespread across ecosystems and play fundamental roles in host biology. Over evolutionary time, some symbionts shift from one host species to another, where they must survive, transmit, and adapt to a novel host environment. However, we still have a limited understanding of how symbionts establish in new hosts, how rapidly they adapt, and how their effects on host fitness change...
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Emily Solly (Helmholtz-Zentrum fรผr Umweltforschung GmbH - UFZ)08/09/2026, 12:15FunctionsTalk
Droughts increasingly affect the functioning of forests worldwide and compromise their capacity to mitigate climate change. Over the past decade, forests in central Europe have experienced unprecedented sequences of consecutive drought years, resulting in widespread tree mortality and substantial economic and ecological losses. In our study, we examine tree physiological responses to a series...
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Till Deilmann (FSU Jena)08/09/2026, 12:30FunctionsTalk
Most phenological studies conducted in forests have focused on tree or woody species and early-season phenology, neglecting herbaceous species and autumn phenology. This leaves a gap in the mechanistic understanding of the entire life cycle of understory communities, despite their biodiversity, structural and functional role in forests. As autumn phenology is sensitive to summer droughts, this...
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Therese Ziegler08/09/2026, 12:30Approaches of integrative biodiversity researchTalk
With ongoing climate change, many plants are responding to changes in CO2 levels and temperatures. It was shown that frost events may become more frequent even with a general rise in temperature. In response, plants may shift their spring phenology to earlier dates and/or their range towards the poles and to higher elevations. Frost can become a potential risk for plant survival and...
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Michael Gerth (German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig & Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg)08/09/2026, 12:30ComplexityTalk
Many insect species harbour intracellular symbiotic bacteria that are passed on from mothers to offspring. These symbionts employ various strategies that enhance their proliferation, which may impact the hostโs fitness in multiple ways. Wolbachia is a common facultative endosymbiont of arthropods but is especially frequent in bees an ecologically important group of pollinators. The reason...
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Erik Teutloff (Department of Agroecosystems, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Halle (Saale), 06120, Germany)08/09/2026, 12:45ComplexityTalk
Temperate forests provide vital ecosystem services, but foundation species such as the European pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) are under increasing threat from extreme drought. The PhytOakmeter project studies how clonal oak trees and their associated microbiomes respond to, acclimate to, and eventually adapt to water limitations. Tree water and nutrient uptake are enhanced by...
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Florian Steinebrunner (Friedrich-Schiller-Universitรคt Jena)08/09/2026, 12:45FunctionsTalk
Post-disturbance forest sites represent a mosaic of microclimates depending on deadwood and understory characteristics. At the same time, early-successional plant communities vary in their species and functional composition. However, how fine-scale microclimatic variation drives trait patterns in this context remains insufficiently explored. Here, we quantified the short-term effect of...
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Shane Blowes08/09/2026, 12:45Approaches of integrative biodiversity researchTalk
Biodiversity varies in response to natural and anthropogenic drivers. Yet, most analytical tools for quantifying driver impact remain correlational, irrespective of the sophistication of the underlying statistical methodology. Unfortunately, at present, few patterns in biodiversity science have been subject to robust causal analyses, leaving even well-studied empirical patterns victim to...
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Kimberly Thompson (German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) / Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg)08/09/2026, 13:00Approaches of integrative biodiversity researchTalk
Understanding biodiversity change often relies on estimating temporal trends to quantify the direction and magnitude of population and community change. These trend estimates shape our conclusions about which assemblages are changing most rapidly and guide conservation decisions about where limited resources should be directed. Yet some populations and communities that appear to follow...
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Alexander Tรคuber (Technical University Dresden, DE; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, DE)08/09/2026, 13:00FunctionsTalk
Tree-tree interactions have been identified as a key mechanism linking biodiversity to ecosystem functioning. The complementary occupation of canopy space by coexisting species increases canopy packing and promotes community productivity. Several studies have applied the theoretical volumetric complementarity approach using the crown complementarity index (CCI). While effective at...
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Tibor Drost (Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg, Institute of Biology / Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Halle (Saale), DE; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, DE)08/09/2026, 13:00ComplexityTalk
The phyllosphere comprises the tissues and the surface of plant leaves and their microbiomes. Despite its ecological significance, the factors shaping foliar endophyte communities and their interactions with trees and shrubs remain largely unexplored. Here, we use the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) research platform BEF-China, where trees were planted in a broken-stick design along a...
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Thore Engel (iDiv, Uni Jena, UFZ)09/09/2026, 11:30Transdisciplinarity for biodiversity science and governanceTalk
Understanding long-term distributional changes of species is essential for effective conservation and biodiversity management, as well as for avoiding shifting baselines in ecological research. Historical sourcesโincluding archival documents, maps, oral histories, and paleoecological evidenceโcan help reconstruct past ecological patterns and processes. In this study we assessed long-term...
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Denis Streitmatter (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH - UFZ)09/09/2026, 11:30Approaches of integrative biodiversity researchTalk
Climate change is increasing the drought frequency and intensity, placing growing pressure on forest ecosystems. Assessing forest responses to such disturbances requires observations that capture both fine spatial variability and long-term coverage of multiple disturbance events. Existing approaches rely either on tree-ring data, which are spatially sparse, or on remote sensing products that...
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Karin Mora (Institute for Earth System Science and Remote Sensing, Leipzig University)09/09/2026, 11:30ComplexityTalk
Phenological changes are key indicators of climate change. While most studies focus on individual species, plant macrophenology examines large-scale patterns and processes in the timing of plant life cycle events, such as flowering, across extensive spatial and temporal scales. Traditional methods often struggle to capture the complexity of these patterns. To address this, we developed a novel...
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David Schellenberger Costa (iDiv Halle-Leipzig-Jena, Leipzig University)09/09/2026, 11:45Approaches of integrative biodiversity researchTalk
Climate change triggers long-term changes in temperature and precipitation patterns, among others, but also increases the likelihood of anomalies, like extreme heat, cold, or drought. The common tree species growing in Germany as well as potential candidate species from other regions planted in the iDiv research platform ARBOfun differ in their native distributions and thus in the climatic...
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Magali Weissgerber (MLU / iDiv)09/09/2026, 11:45Transdisciplinarity for biodiversity science and governanceTalk
Ecological integrity has become a central objective in international and national conservation and restoration policies, yet its practical definition and monitoring remain highly heterogeneous. Here, we review how ecological integrity is defined and measured across ecosystems and scales, and identify key challenges in translating broad conceptual definitions into operational indicators....
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Robert Rauschkolb09/09/2026, 11:45ComplexityTalk
Plant phenology is a key determinant of species performance and ecosystem functioning. While most phenological studies focus on individual species, assemblage-level patterns remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated how temperature and speciesโ habitat preferences shape the synchrony of vegetative and reproductive phenology among perennial herbaceous assemblages across temperate...
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Paola Barajas Barbosa (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research โ UFZ, Department of Community Ecology, Halle (Saale), Germany)09/09/2026, 12:00Approaches of integrative biodiversity researchTalk
Understanding the patterns and drivers of plant extinction is crucial for anticipating biodiversity dynamics under ongoing global change. Species niches, defined in geographic and climatic space, and particularly speciesโ positions within niche space are known to influence regional extinction. Thus, regional extinctions are unlikely to be evenly distributed across niche space due to variation...
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Elina Takola09/09/2026, 12:00ComplexityTalk
The ecological niche concept has shifted in the last decades from broad species-level definitions to include individual-level specialisation. Individuals within a species often differ consistently in behaviour, physiology, and habitat use, giving rise to โindividualised nichesโ. These niches can emerge through niche choice, construction, or conformance and are shaped by intrinsic (e.g....
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Tatiane Micheletti (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ)09/09/2026, 12:00Transdisciplinarity for biodiversity science and governanceTalk
Long-term effective management of ecosystems, such as forests, requires integrating ecological principles with diverse societal demands and values. Yet, such an approach is hampered by a disconnect between large-scale biodiversity monitoring data and the practical needs of decision-makers. There is an urgent need for predictive tools that can project biodiversity consequences of different...
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Thibault Coquery (Department of Species Interaction Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research โ UFZ, Leipzig, Germany, Department of Community Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research โ UFZ, Halle, Germany, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany, Department Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany)09/09/2026, 12:15ComplexityTalk
Experimental ecology and macroecology both contribute to predicting speciesโ responses to climate change, yet each has limitations. Recent integrative studies have shown that even coarse characterization of speciesโ climatic niche can help explain plant responses to experimental climate manipulations. Nevertheless, interactions between local factors, such as land-use, and the broader...
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14. Effects of Restoration Methods on Woody Plant and Bird Diversity in the Sidama Region, Ethiopia.Aklilu Wola (UFZ/MLU/iDiv)09/09/2026, 12:15Approaches of integrative biodiversity researchTalk
Abstract
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Land degradation and subsequent biodiversity loss are serious environmental problems, especially in Ethiopia where soil erosion is high and the human population is rapidly growing. Exclosures to prevent heavy grazing either by passive restoration (natural regeneration without planting) or active restoration (with planting) are widely used as methods to restore biodiversity, but their... -
Alexandra Mรผllner-Riehl09/09/2026, 12:15Transdisciplinarity for biodiversity science and governanceTalk
Africa harbours an exceptional diversity of plant life, yet major knowledge gaps remain regarding both species discovery and species distributions. These limitations, commonly referred to as the Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls, constrain our ability to conduct reliable biogeographical analyses, evaluate conservation priorities, and assess extinction risks.
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Here, we present the Database of... -
Dr KHALDOUN S.A ABUALHIN (Postdoc Scientific Researcher)09/09/2026, 12:30Approaches of integrative biodiversity researchTalk
Automated monitoring of root-zone soil moisture is essential for understanding tree water use and early drought stress. This study deployed an automated ERT time-lapse system along a transect with 100 electrodes at 0.5 m spacing, acquiring measurements every 8 hours in the ARBOfun Groรpรถsna. A preprocessing workflow ensured data reliability, including removal of rainfall- and snow-affected...
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Luis Borda de Agua (iDiv)09/09/2026, 12:30ComplexityTalk
The species abundance distribution (SAD) is a fundamental representation of biodiversity, describing both the number of species in a community and the allocation of individuals among them. In contrast to the speciesโarea relationship (SAR), which is inherently scale-dependent, the SAD is typically examined at a fixed spatial scale, despite the fact that its form must vary with sampling extent....
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Dr Reinhard Klenke (Martin-Luther-Universitรคt Halle-Wittenberg, Institut fรผr Biologie, Geobotanik und Botanischer Garten)09/09/2026, 12:30Transdisciplinarity for biodiversity science and governanceTalk
Noise pollution is an often-overlooked but significant factor contributing to the loss of biodiversity. It disrupts many biological processes, for example by increasing the energy required for communication, masking signals that are important for mating or warning, driving individuals away from feeding grounds, disrupting orientation, temporarily impairing hearing, or even causing damage to...
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Dr Pedro Mittelman (iDiv/MLU)09/09/2026, 12:45ComplexityTalk
Changes in species composition (beta diversity) provide key insights into the ecological processes structuring communities. Identifying the drivers of beta diversity is essential for predicting how communities may reorganize under increasing anthropogenic pressures.
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Here, we present a workflow that integrates camera-trap observations with remote-sensing data to model and predict spatial and... -
Rija Andriamifidy (University of Leipzig and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)09/09/2026, 12:45Transdisciplinarity for biodiversity science and governanceTalk
Anthropogenic landscape change increasingly brings wildlife into close proximity to humans and human-associated infrastructure, yet little is known about how its effects early social development in non-human primates. Because infancy represents a key developmental stage during which social interactions shape behavioral competence, disturbance during this period may have important consequences...
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Andrรฉs Felipe Vรกsquez (Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB-Halle))09/09/2026, 12:45Approaches of integrative biodiversity researchTalk
Natural products (NPs) remain a major source of bioactive molecules, yet chemical exploration of biodiversity is highly uneven across plant lineages and ecosystems. Orchidaceae, one of the largest and most diverse plant families, is ecologically and economically prominent, but its global chemodiversity and associated research biases have not been systematically quantified. In this work, we...
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