Strategic Projects
iDiv runs six so-called Strategic Projects across a variety of disciplines, scales and iDiv locations. Strategic Projects promote highly integrative longterm research approaches that rarely get third party funding.
Flexpool Projects
iDiv’s Flexpool is an internal funding mechanism with the main purpose of instigating integrative and innovative research and strengthening links among iDiv members. The list below shows currently funded Flexpool projects.
Postdoctoral Research Projects
A Window to the Past – The Use of Archive Data for Collecting Baseline Information on Biodiversity
Main PI: Markus Bernhard-Römermann, Univ. of Jena ; Patrick Mäder, TU Ilmenau
A spatial framework to assess cultural and intrinsic values of Nature for conservation planning and scenarios
Main PI: Néstor Fernández, MLU
BioACT – Act local and notice the impact: The emergence of personal and collective efficacy beliefs in biodiversity conservation
Main PI: Immo Fritsche, UL
BioSpec – Biological speciation revisited using the high Andean tree genus Polylepis (Rosaceae) as a model
Main PI: Isabell Hensen, MLU ; Alexandra-Muellner-Riehl, UL
Disease transmission in insect societies
Main PI: Yuko Ulrich, MPI-CE ; Robert Paxton, MLU
EcoGlassBird – Economics of avoiding bird collisions with glass structures
Main PI: Marten Winter, iDiv, UL
Ecomechanics under anthropogenic stress – Modelling motion patterns under different ecological parameters
Main PI: Manuela Nowotny, Univ. of Jena
Evofruit – Comparative genomic and macroevolutionary insights into the evolution of biotic dispersal traits
Main PI: Omer Nevo, Univ. of Jena
Future.Resto.Man – Synthesizing vulnerability to climate change for 30 grassland species as framework for future ecological restoration management
Main PI: Walter Durka, UFZ
HotSperm: Thermal effects on male reproduction and their relevance for predicting population and distributional responses to heat waves
Main PI: Claudia Fricke, MLU
LuCliVir: Impacts of land use and climate change on soil viromes, viral lifestyles and nutrient cycling
Main PI: Antonis Chatzinotas, UFZ
MINAS: Importance of tree diversity and mycorrhization as drivers of microbial growth and necromass accumulation in soil organic carbon
Main PI: Marion Schrumpf, MPI-BGC ; Bruno Glaser, MLU
OrthoDiv: Cryptic diversity and evolution in Orthoptera: A continent-wide perspective
Main PI: Holger Schielzeth, Univ. of Jena
PaDRE – Patterns and drivers of regional plant extinctions
Main PI: Sonja Knapp, UFZ
PhenEye – Having an eye on the fingerprint of global change: observing phenology using automated monitoring
Main PI: Christine Römermann, Univ. of Jena
PrioDiv: Prioritising biodiversity in decision-making: understanding information processing in the context of multiple crises and dynamic data using experiments and text analysis
Main PI: Ilkholm Soliev, MLU
ProtistQuant – Hidden key players in trophic interactions: combining metabarcoding and multispectral imaging flow cytometry for quantitification of protists
Main PI: Martina Herrmann, Univ. of Jena
Relating community assembly to ecosystem functioning (CAFE) across trophic levels in space and time
Main PI: Anne Ebeling, Univ. of Jena
RS4BEF – Remote sensing for mapping biodiversity and ecosystem functioning revisited
Main PI: Miguel Mahecha, UL
SYMBSIB: Symbiotic Interactions Impact to the Development and Evolution of the Siboglinid Tubeworms
Main PI: Andreas Hejnol, Univ. of Jena
TEMNM: Trait-Environment Matching in the Neotropical Mountains ; Macroevolution and macroecology of trait environment
Main PI: Alexandra Muellner-Riehl, UL
Towards a comprehensive National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) for Nigeria
Main PI: Alexandra Muellner-Riehl, UL
Flexpool PhD Projects
Across the South American dry diagonals: Genetic exchange and connectivity between naturally isolated ranges and fragmented habitats
Main PI: Marcus Lehnert, MLU
DeForESG – Deforestation explained by social-ecological dynamics and governance shifts
Main PI: Josef Settele, UFZ
iAnswer: Unveiling iDiv Knowledge Can Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs combined provide answers to people’s questions?
Main PI: Birgitta König-Ries, Uni Jena
Harnessing the power of RADseq data to achieve a more mechanistic understanding of rapid evolution
Main PI: Isabell Hensen, MLU
HYPERSOIL: Links between fine-scale HYPERspectral image data and hotspot zones of microbial biomass and diversity in forest SOIL profiles under different site conditions (Fläming, Düben Heath)
Main PI: Michael Vohland, UL
MACAGUT: Impact of pesticides on the gut microbiome of mammalian wildlife foraging on palm-oil plantations
Main PI: Martin von Bergen, UFZ
PrimInvasGen – Genomic analysis of human-mediated crested macaque migration: a conservation perspective
Main PI: Anja Widdig, UL, MPI-EVA
ViralWeb – Viral hotspots and fluxes across above- and belowground food webs
Main PI: Anton Potapov, SMNG
Flexpool Support Fund Projects
Testing machine learning approaches for species delimitation in taxonomically complex groups
Main PI: Jana Ebersbach, UL
ABBE – Linking ABove- and BElowground Phenology in Perennial Herbaceous Species
Main PI: Robert Rauschkolb, Uni Jena
Urban Biodiversity: Assessing Arthropod Communities Across Urban Gradients using novel molecular methods
Main PI: María Méndez Camarena, MLU
More Projects
iDiv researchers are engaged in so many projects that the selection shown is inevitably incomplete.