Romy Zeiss

Doctoral Researcher / SoilBON Data Manager

Experimental Interaction Ecology

Affiliations

Leipzig University

Postal address

Puschstrasse 4
04103 Leipzig
Germany

Room: B.00.11

Contact details

Email: romy.zeiss@idiv.de

Phone: +49 341 9733122

Websites

Twitter

iDiv Publications

Publications 2025

Ivimey-Cook, Edward R., Sánchez-Tójar, Alfredo, Berberi, Ilias, Culina, Antica, Roche, Dominique G., A. Almeida, Rafaela, Amin, Bawan, Bairos-Novak, Kevin R., Balti, Heikel, Bertram, Michael G., Bliard, Louis, Byrne, Ilha, Chan, Ying-Chi, Cioffi, William R., Corbel, Quentin, Elsy, Alexander D., Florko, Katie R. N., Gould, Elliot, Grainger, Matthew J., Harshbarger, Anne E., Hovstad, Knut Anders, Martin, Jake M., Martinig, April Robin, Masoero, Giulia, Moodie, Iain R., Moreau, David, O\\\’Dea, Rose E., Paquet, Matthieu, Pick, Joel L., Rizvi, Tuba, Silva, Inês, Szabo, Birgit, Takola, Elina, Thoré, Eli S. J., Verberk, Wilco C. E. P., Windecker, Saras M., Winter, Gabe, Zajková, Zuzana, Zeiss, Romy, Moran, Nicholas Patrick (2025): From policy to practice: progress towards data- and code-sharing in ecology and evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

10.1098/rspb.2025.1394

Publications 2024

Zeiss, Romy, Briones, Maria J. I., Mathieu, Jérome, Lomba, Angela, Dahlke, Jessica, Heptner, Laura-Fiona, Salako, Gabriel, Eisenhauer, Nico, Guerra, Carlos A. (2024): Effects of climate on the distribution and conservation of commonly observed European earthworms. Conservation Biology

Open Access 10.1111/cobi.14187

Publications 2023

Cano-Díaz, Concha, Zeiss, Romy, Carvalho-Santos, Claudia, Carvalho, Rui P., Costa, Sofia R., Duarte, A. Carolina, Fernandes, Paulo, Guerra, Carlos A. (2023): Mapping socio-environmental pressures to assess Portuguese soil vulnerability. Applied Geography

10.1016/j.apgeog.2023.103103

Publications 2022

Jochum, Malte, Thouvenot, Lise, Ferlian, Olga, Zeiss, Romy, Klarner, Bernhard, Pruschitzki, Ulrich, Johnson, Edward A., Eisenhauer, Nico (2022): Aboveground impacts of a belowground invader: how invasive earthworms alter aboveground arthropod communities in a northern North American forest. Biol Lett

10.1098/rsbl.2021.0636

Zeiss, Romy, Eisenhauer, Nico, Orgiazzi, Alberto, Rillig, Matthias, Buscot, François, Jones, Arwyn, Lehmann, Anika, Reitz, Thomas, Smith, Linnea, Guerra, Carlos A. (2022): Challenges of and opportunities for protecting European soil biodiversity. Conservation Biology

10.1111/cobi.13930

Scientific career

Since December 2021

PhD student at German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig and Leipzig University under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Nico Eisenhauer. Title: “Priorities for effective conservation of soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in Germany” funded by Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt.

2019 – 2021

M. Sc. Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution at the Leipzig University. Thesis at German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Nico Eisenhauer and Dr. Carlos A. Guerra: “How (well) does European policy protect soil organisms – Challenges of protecting European belowground biodiversity beyond productive systems”.

2016 – 2019

B. Sc. Biology at the Leipzig University. Thesis at German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Nico Eisenhauer and Dr. Malte Jochum: “Impacts of earthworm invasion on aboveground invertebrate communities in North American forest ecosystems”.

 

Projects

  • Co-coordinating the translation of the Frontiers for Young Minds “Soil Biodiversity” Collection
  • Running a podcast called „Solid Science“ that is available on most platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcast, Deezer, and PlayerFM. So(i)lid Science is a podcast about science and people with a certain focus on soils, in which Carlos Guerra and I are chatting with our diverse group of guests about their subjects.
  • Initialization and coordination of a Coding Club at the iDiv (iCode), which offers several exchange platforms for interested scientists at the iDiv to discuss coding issues and analyses.

 

Teaching

May 2023 & May 2022

Co-supervision of master’s students on their 3-week research projects & preparation of core materials for a 1-day introduction to Species Distribution Models (SDMs).

April 2023

3-day course introducing R, RStudio, and basic statistics for bachelor’s & master’s students, co-supervision together with Christian Ristok

April 2023

2-hour course introducing of R and RStudio for master’s students

April – June 2021

Co-supervision of a master’s course: preparation of course material & assistance with data acquisition and analysis.