Active Projects

• The ecological role of silicon in tropical forests: effects on plant nutrient stochiometry, drought resistance and herbivory
  

  Silicon (Si) is the second most abundant element in the Earth´s crust and widely recognized to have a variety of functions in plants. Yet we know little about the ecological role of this abundant element in tropical forests, which are among the most species-rich systems on earth and provide important ecosystem services. In this project, we integrate observational data with experimental approaches in the greenhouse, the laboratory and the field to evaluate the effects of Si on nutrient and water relations, and on herbivore defenses in tropical forests. The study will thus substantially contribute to improving the understanding of tropical forests under current and future conditions.

  at Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

  [Details]
  
  
• E-SHAPE
  E-shape is a European project within the Horizon 2020 program consolidating Earth Observation data to promote its use towards the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). At the Biogeography Department we thematically focus on geospatial analyses of ecosystems, climate, biodiversity and protected areas. [Details]
  
  
• Ad Fontes VI
  AquaKlif is a collaborative project which has its focus on “Influence of multiple stressors on watercourses in climate change”. At the department of Biogeography, our subproject is focused on “Forest springs as climate indication systems”. [Details]
  
  
• Management von Aedes albopictus und importierten Arbovirosen
  Hauptziel des Projektes ist der Aufbau eines Stakeholder-Netzwerkes das Überwachungs- und Interventions-Strukturen für vektorkompetente Stechmücken und mögliche autochthone Arbovirus-Infektionen auf kommunaler Ebene festlegt. [Details]
  
  
• SFB1357: TPB03 Behavior of micro-plastic in fluvial systems
  Taotao Lu, Jan-Pascal Boos, Sven Frei, Ben Gilfedder, Jan Fleckenstein [Details]
  
  
• DeepEarthshape - Microbial element cycling as a driver of soil formation
  Andrea Scheibe, Marie Spohn [Details]
  
  
• AQUAKLIF TP5: Prognose und Analyse des Verhaltens kleiner Einzugsgebiete im Kontext des lokalen Klimawandels
  Die Durchschnittstemperatur der Erde steigt schon seit längerer Zeit, die daraus resultierenden Veränderungen in unseren Ökosystemen verstehen wir erst nach und nach. Es ist belegt, dass sich mit dem Klima auch die Wasserchemie der Bäche verändert. In diesem Teilprojekt werden die seit Jahrzehnten gesammelten Daten des integrierten hydrologischen Monitoring-Programms sowie das Quellenarchiv an der Universität Bayreuth statistisch durchleuchtet: Gibt es eindeutige Trends und Muster in den Zeitreihen, die sich auf lokal-klimatische Veränderungen in den Einzugsgebieten zurückführen lassen? Lassen sich ursächliche Zusammenhänge nachweisen? Und lassen sich daraus - in Abhängigkeit der lokalen Klimaszenarien des LfU Bayerns - Prognosen für die zukünftige Entwicklung wasserchemischer Parameter erstellen? [Details]
  
  
• Investigations on mycorrhizal associates and nutritional resources of mycoheterotrophic orchids in Taiwan
  Gerhard Gebauer [Details]
  
  
• Uptake, accumulation, and metabolic fate of thioarsenates in plants
  Stephan Clemens [Details]
  
  
• Untersuchung von ökologischen Nahrungsnetzen auf Windwurfflächen des Nationalparks Bayerischer Wald mittels Stabiler Isotopen Analysen
  Gerhard Gebauer [Details]
  
  
• Stechmückenübertragene arbovirale Krankheiten in Bayern - BayVirMos
  Auf der Grundlage unserer bisherigen Erfahrung in der Entwicklung von Artverbreitungsmodellen, epidemiologischen Modellen und Klimamodellen zur Ermittlung von Risiken stechmückenübertragener viraler Krankheiten auf kontinentaler und globaler Ebene werden wir in diesem Vorhaben eine räumlich und zeitlich differenzierte Risikoabschätzung für Bayern entwickeln. [Details]
  
  
• Mitigation of urban climate and ozone risks
  MiSKOR "Minderung Städtischer Klima- und OzonRisiken" "Mitigation of urban climate and ozone risks" Part of the joint project "Climate change and health (Klimawandel und Gesundheit) commissioned by the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety (Bayerischen Landesamts für Gesundheit und Lebensmittelsicherheit). The goal is to attain a better understanding of the relevant causes and processes to acquire applicable aids and new possibilities for improving urban planning. We intend to give suggestions how to reduce the negative consequences to human health caused by climate change in combination with the urban heat island effect and high troposheric ozone pollution in a middle-sized city like Bayreuth and comparable cities in Northern Bavaria. [Details]
  
  
• The influence of topography and other natural factors on the mobilization of dissolved organic carbon in the Bavarian Forest National Park
  This joint project aims to understand mechanisms influencing DOC export and mobilization in the streams of the Bavarian Forest National Park, with the focus on topography . [Details]
  
  
• Towards a predictive understanding of how mycorrhizal types influence the decomposition of soil organic matter
  Johanna Pausch, Matthias Gube, Richard Phillips, Saskia Klink [Details]
  
  
• Höhen - und Bewirtschaftungsgradient in einem deutschen Mittelgebirge zur Abschätzung von Veränderungen in Waldökosystemen im Klimawandel
  Daniel Osieko Okach, Gerhard Rambold [Details]
  
  
• Mechanismen der Phosphor-Akquise von Nutzpflanzen in Mischkulturen
  Ulrike Schwerdtner, Marie Spohn [Details]
  
  
• Herkunftszuordnung von Lebensmitteln: Pilze und Kakao
  Stefan G. Bindereif, Gerhard Gebauer [Details]
  
  
• Transport of New Environmental Pollutants in Porous Media: Micro-/nanoparticles
  Taotao Lu, Stefan Peiffer, Sven Frei [Details]
  
  
• Mikroplastikkontamination im Modellsystem Weser-Nationalpark Wattenmeer - Teilprojekt
  Sarmite Kernchen, Andreas Held [Details]
  
  
• Modellhafte Anwendung und Weiterentwicklung eines naturnahen, passiv-biologischen Verfahrens ohne Energie- und Chemikalieneintrag zur nachhaltigen Aufbereitung kontaminierter Bergbauabwässer
  Joscha Opitz, Stefan Peiffer [Details]
  
  
• The role of nutrients for the variability of drought effects on community composition and productivity across land use gradients in grasslands: a trait-based approach
  

  Land use and precipitation are important drivers for shaping community diversity, and ecosystem function in grasslands worldwide, and are two of the main global change drivers. The main aim of this project is to improve our capability of predicting consequences of global change for grasslands through assessing the combined effects of nutrients and drought at the trait and whole plant performance level and integrating them with drought effects on community composition and productivity across land-use gradients in grasslands.

  A project within the Biodiversity Exploratories, DFG Priority Programme 1374

  [Details]
  
  
• Drought stress priming in filamentous saprotrophic fungi, transcriptomic/ proteomic responses and the impact on C mineralisation
  Alexander Guhr [Details]
  
  
• Illuminating the dark side of surface meteorology: creating a novel framework to explain atmospheric transport and turbulent mixing in the weak-wind boundary layer
  Karl Lapo, Shravan Muppa, Anita Freundorfer, Lena Pfister, Mohammad Abdoli, Johann Schneider, Christoph Thomas [Details]
  
  
• AgrOr – ein ganzheitliches System zur Authentizitätsprüfung von Getreide (Sorte, Sortenreinheit, Herkunft, Anbauverfahren, unbekannte Verfälschung) mittels einer Kombination aus Stabilisotopenanalytik und verschiedenen spektralen Produktfingerabdrücken
  Carina Bauer, Stefan G. Bindereif, Gerhard Gebauer [Details]
  
  
• Drought and grazing impacts in semi-arid rangelands: Testing a novel trait-based conceptual framework
  

  Drought and land use are among the most important global change drivers, particularly for dryland ecosystems. Species and communities in dry areas are assumed to be resistant to both grazing and drought (Generalized Grazing model). However, the generality of this model has been called into question in semiarid rangelands dominated by winter annuals, which exhibit a substantially different strategy to cope with drought than perennials. To test a novel trait-based framework that can resolve the apparent inconsistencies, we use a steep rainfall gradient in the Eastern Mediterranean as a model system, and explicitly link traits, whole plant performance, long-term community responses, and distribution patterns.

  [Details]
  
  
• Reaktive Halogene in einer simulierten Vulkanfahne
  Julian Rüdiger, Andreas Held [Details]
  
  
• Einfluss von Totholz auf die funktionelle Diversität und biogeochemischen Eigenschaften in unterliegenden Böden
  Cynthia Minnich, Werner Borken [Details]
  
  
• Tritt partielle Mykoheterotrophie auch bei arbuskulärer Mykorrhiza auf? Eine Multi-Element-Isotopenhäufigkeitsanalyse
  Philipp Giesemann, Gerhard Gebauer [Details]
  
  
• Subsurface Stormflow - A well-recognized but still challenging process in Catchment Hydrology (DFG Scientific Network)
  Luisa Hopp [Details]
  
  
• Microbial phosphorus cycling in forest soils as dependent on carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus availability
  Giovanni Pastore, Marie Spohn [Details]
  
  
• Einfluss von Ionen auf das atmosphärische Partikelwachstum - Studien an einem Flussreaktor und einer Aerosolkammer (IONFLOW)
  Nikolina Leona Serdarević, Andreas Held [Details]
  
  
• Stoichiometric homeostasis of soil microorganisms as a driver of element cycling in grasslands
  Meike Widdig, Per-Marten Schleuss, Eduardo Vazquez, Marie Spohn [Details]
  
  
• Sustainable use of alpine and pre-alpine grassland soils in a changing climate
  Marie Spohn [Details]
  
  
• GBOL: German Barcode of Life – From Science to Application (GBOL-2) – Project 12: Design und Implementation of Fungal-specific Microarrays ('EcoChips') for Diagnostics
  Janno Harjes, Gerhard Rambold [Details]
  
  
• SUSALPS - Sustainable use of alpine and pre-alpine grassland soils in a changing climate
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• Biochemical link between plant volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and CO2 metabolism - from sub-molecular to ecosystem scales
  Frederik Wegener, Maren Dubbert, Christiane Werner [Details]
  
  
• DroughtNet - International Drought Experiment
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• Consortium for Research in East African Tropical Ecosystems
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• Variation of plant drought tolerance in grasslands: effects on community assembly and ecosystem resilience
  

  Under conditions of climate change, water availability in temperate grasslands is projected to decrease, and extreme events – including droughts - to increase. A thorough understanding of species responses to drought, of the traits governing drought responses, and how they affect community assembly and ecosystem function is necessary for projections of consequences of climate change for the future. In this study, we comparatively assess whole-plant drought tolerance of 38 grassland species, and identify the key traits for differential drought responses, through directly linking physiological, anatomical and morphological traits that influence species water relations to the species’ drought tolerance.

  A project within the Biodiversity Exploratories, DFG Priority Programme 1374.

  [Details]
  
  
• DarkDivNet - Dark Diversity Network
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• NutNet - Nutrient Network
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• HerbDivNet - The Herbaceous Diversity Network
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• Linking nutrient cycles, land use and biodiversity along an elevation gradient on Mt. Kilimanjaro
  Guido L.B. Wiesenberg, Bruno Glaser, Yakov Kuzyakov [Details]
  
  
• Effects of disturbances on biodiversity at the landscape level
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• EVENT - Effects of extreme weather events (drought, heavy rain, freeze-thaw cycles) and biodiversity on ecosystem function
  [Details]