Omer Nevo, new Junior Group Leader a iDiv

“The evolutionary ecology of fruit traits”

Info hour from Speaker's Board

Prof. Diana Wall , University of Colorado

"Lessons from an Antarctic desert: documenting climate change and measuring its impact on soil life"

Abstract:

Extreme ecosystems such as the cold Antarctic desert provide a basis for unraveling the complexity of soil biodiversity found in temperate ecosystems and determining the response of individual species to climate change. The largest ice-free areas on the Antarctic continent, the McMurdo Dry Valleys, are composed of soils, glaciers, lakes and meltstreams. This plant-less terrestrial ecosystem has no animals aboveground but soils are similar to hot deserts with high salinity, high pH and extremely low soil organic carbon. Surprisingly, soil nematodes thrive in these harsh conditions and are the most abundant invertebrate across the valleys. Through combinations of long-term observations, manipulative experiments, laboratory and collaborative research, results indicate that climate change in this polar ecosystem alters soil habitat suitability, species distribution, community composition and ecosystem functioning, all with potential impacts across the landscape. Resilience of these ecosystems and policy implications will be discussed.

Prof. Laura Nahuelhual, Economics Sciences Department, Universidad Austral de Chile

Host: Ecosystem Services

Talk of Prof. Johannes Vogel cancelled

New speaker tbd

“Integrated approaches to study ecological and evolutionary responses to global change”

Dr Orly Razgour, Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter

Host: Evolution and Adaptation

sDiv Working Group sDevTrait, Streamlining development efforts in tools for ecological trait analyses

PI’s: Alexander Keller and Markus Ankenbrand

Titel & Speakers tbd

Christian Wirth, (Leipzig University)

„A national biodiversity hotspot beyond a tipping point: Science and policy for Leipzig’s floodplain forest”

Beziehungsgeschichten aus der Natur

iDiv exhibition in cooperation with UFZ, MLU and UL at the topic of pollination.

www.idiv.de/de/veranstaltungen/bluetenbesucher.html

Biodiversity monitoring for post 2020

The GEO BON Open Science Conference and All Hands Meeting 2020 will be a milestone event that will bring together all those involved and interested in the development of Biodiversity Observation Networks and Essential Biodiversity Variables, as well as their potential to support global biodiversity monitoring and conservation post 2020.

The conference will be held fully virtually. More information can be found here:

conf2020.geobon.org

Host: sDiv

Prof. Dr. Matthias C. Rillig (FU Berlin, Institut für Biologie, Plant Ecology)

" Microplastic effects in terrestrial ecosystems"

Dr. Alexander S.T. Papadopulos,

Senior Lecturer in Molecular Ecology and Genomics

(Bangor University, UK)

"Impacts of Anthropogenic Environmental Change on Plant Evolution"

Host: Biodiversity Economics

Prof. Dan Phaneuf (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

“The Social Cost of Water Pollution: A Research Agenda and some Initial Results“

Host: sDiv

Roel van Klink, Post-Doctoral Researcher at sDiv

“A global insect apocalypse? – The science and the media”

Prof Dr Daan van Soest  (Tilburg University, Environmental and Behavioral Economics)

“Towards(?) an optimal design of forest conservation interventions in developing countries: Evidence from the field“

sDiv working group sCOM: “Advancing inference for eDNA and other novel, high-throughput community data”

Douglas Yu (University of East Anglia):

Introduction to sCom working group:

Otso Ovaskainen (Helsinki University)

Wilfried Thuillier (CNRS - University of Grenoble Alpes): "eDNA using graphical and structural equation models"

Host: Evolution and Adaptation

Simon Loader, (Natural History Museum, London, UK)

“The Importance of Museum collections for understanding Vertebrate Biodiversity”

Bio-sketch (speaker)

Dr Loader has recently taken up the position as Principal Curator in Charge of Vertebrates at the NHM (2017) - managing a collection of over 3.5 million specimens. Previously he was a lecturer in Biogeography/Zoology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and The University of Roehampton, London. Dr Loader's research encompasses Africa as his geographical area of research, and amphibians are his group of expertise. Using both Africa and vertebrates Dr Loader applies a range of approaches in systematics to investigate the current patterns and processes behind the maintenance and formation of biodiversity.

Abstract

Museum specimens are important documents of biodiversity but often inaccessible and difficult to get data from. In this talk, I will discuss recent case studies from the Vertebrate collections of the Natural History Museum in London which outline the recent advances which have allowed us to unlock the potential of museum collections. Museums are important repositories of data and unlocking their potential will be key to understanding biodiversity and its change.

Christian Wilhelm (University of Leipzig), hosted by Physiological Diversity: “New ideas for landscape management for integrated support of biodiversity, agriculture and chemical industry in response to climate change"

Valerio Pillar, (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), sabbatical guest at the MLU, Institute of Biology, Geobotany and Botanical Garden: “Searching for traits linked to hidden factors in community assembly”

Wilfried Thuiller, (CNRS-University of Grenoble Alpes, France), hosted by GEO BON and Biodiversity Conservation: “A story of scale in Ecology”

Lenore Fahrig, (Carlton University), sabbatical guest at sDiv: “Why do several small patches hold more species than few large patches?”  

Alexandra Weigelt (Universität Leipzig), Liesje Mommer (Wageningen University) & Daniel Laughlin (University of Wyoming):

“sROOT - developing a coherent understanding of root trait variation across the globe”

Topics:

Content iDiv DFG Proposal 3rd funding period (Jon Chase)

Status quo new iDiv building (Sabine Matthiä)

Faktencheck Biodiversity (Christian Wirth)

CBD 2020 (Andrea Perino)

KoLa Leipzig (Eva Köhler)

Sharon Y. Strauss(University of Carolina, Davis): „Coexistence in close relatives - beyond competition”