@jena-experiment
One of the longest-running grassland biodiversity experiments worldwide (since 2002). Uncovering the mechanisms that drive biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships over time. https://the-jena-experiment.de Funding: @dfgpublic.bsky.social
🚀 iDiv and @uni-jena.de are hiring! Join the Ecological Networks Lab as an IT Specialist (full-time, permanent). Work on lab automation, software dev, and cutting-edge research! 🌿💻
🗓️ Apply by 27 Mar 2026
📍 Leipzig (Germany)
👉 www.idiv.de/career/job-o...
#JobAlert #ITJobs #Biodiversity #iDiv
We are currently looking for a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in community ecology to work in the Arthropods Core Project of the Biodiversity Exploratories @bexplo.bsky.social
Reposting is much appreciated for widest reach! Thanks.
More information here:
www.lss.ls.tum.de/fileadmin/w0...
@sunsicker.bsky.social
New study by Medina-van Berkum et al. in @pnas.org
Plant diversity influences plant volatile emission with varying effects at the species and community levels 🌱🌼🌿
-> "At the community level, plant species richness directly enhanced VOC emission and increased VOC richness"
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
Soil biodiversity is a key driver of ecosystem function, including nutrient cycling, organic-matter decomposition, plant productivity, climate regulation and pathogen control (with subsequent effects on animal, human and plant health). A foundational review in 2014 described the functional role of soil biodiversity in ecosystems, but our understanding of the relationship between soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has deepened over the past decade. In this Review, we highlight progress in the field, discuss the approaches and methodological advances that have enabled this progress, and identify emerging research questions. Although the spatiotemporal patterns and community dynamics of soil communities are becoming well understood, topics with important knowledge gaps include the climate feedback effects of soils, the ecology of urban soils and the development of soil health indicators. Global collaborative networks, linking existing databases, and monitoring soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are important ways to address these knowledge gaps. By considering the relationships between soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning we can connect small-scale interactions among plants, microorganisms and animals to ecosystem services and planetary sustainability.
New paper with many smart people, led by Nico Eisenhauer & Marie Sünemann @eisenhauerlab.bsky.social, surveying the state of literature on the effects of soil biodiversity on ecosystem functioning
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
In the current issue of NEE, you can find our research on the community assembly mechanisms behind arthropod 🪲🕷️ biomass declines ⚖️📉 both as
the original paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
and (new🌟) as research briefing by @ebelingae.bsky.social and myself: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🏅Long-term biodiversity experiments have shown highly variable responses of individual species to increasing plant diversity. This new article shows that fast-growing, high-nutrient demanding species are winners, especially in young high-diversity mixtures
🔍 Read: buff.ly/KyaWCSy
We are very happy that 2025 has seen many great PhD defenses in our project. Congratulations once again!!
Following the (random) order of pictures:
Leonardo Bassi
Laura Argens
Francesca de Giorgi
Pamela van Berkum
Justus Hennecke
Ana Bonato Asato
Maximilian Bröcher
☘️🐞
@eisenhauerlab.bsky.social
New study by Roscher et al. in @journalofecology.bsky.social
Making use of our established mixtures, they found that plant species that gained biomass (winners) in high-diversity plots have fast traits - but this is mostly detectable when mixtures are young. 🌱
doi.org/10.1111/1365...
@uni-jena.de
@ebelingae.bsky.social
@terrecolgroup.bsky.social
New study by @bmwildermuth.bsky.social et al. in @natecoevo.nature.com
They asked whether arthropod biomass declines due to species loss per se, or which species are lost, or because of shrinking abundances of persisting species. 🪲🕷️🐝🦗
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
New paper by Solbach et al. @newphyt.bsky.social
They find that repeated summer droughts weaken plant defense against protistan plant parasites 🌱🦠
doi.org/10.1111/nph....
@ag-bonkowski.bsky.social
@dumack.bsky.social
@eisenhauerlab.bsky.social
One more piece of evidence, on a growing pile, that insects are in decline.
"...the general species turnover and biomass trends emphasize ongoing arthropod community simplification, and that even common species may be increasingly under threat."
🪲🪳🧪🌍
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Nette Zusamfassung (auch Audio) unserer aktuellen Forschung zum Insektensterben 🪲 vom MDR:
www.mdr.de/wissen/umwel...
What are the mechanisms behind terrestrial arthropod declines? @bmwildermuth.bsky.social and colleagues have some answers
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@bexplo.bsky.social
@idiv-research.bsky.social
@jena-experiment.bsky.social
Registration for the #BE20Conference is now open.
We’re celebrating 20 years of the Biodiversity Exploratories with our first international conference. ✨
We appreciate when the news circulates in the community.
www.biodiversity-exploratories.de/de/be20/
See you there. 🙂
@dfg.de @sgn.one
New study on arthropod declines @natecoevo.nature.com 🪲
In two time series @jena-experiment.bsky.social & @bexplo.bsky.social we show how community (dis)assembly underpins local biomass declines.
It mostly boils down to species loss, with identity losing relevance.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📢 Over 90% of local insect biomass decline in German grasslands is explained by species loss.
“By the end of the study period, species loss, regardless of rarity or size, had become the main driver of decline”, says @bmwildermuth.bsky.social of #iDiv and @uni-jena.de
www.idiv.de/majority-of-...
Huge congratulations to Pamela Medina van Berkum on successfully defending her PhD! Supervised by @sunsicker.bsky.social and Jonathan Gershenzon, her work on how plant biodiversity shapes chemical defenses bridges ecology, chemistry, and evolution. Pam is now part of Sybille’s group at @uni-kiel.de.
@eisenhauerlab.bsky.social
@agwirthweigelt.bsky.social
@ebelingae.bsky.social
This week, we had a great retreat with our PhDs, Postdocs & PIs in Leipzig @idiv-research.bsky.social
Apart from sharing our progress, we hosted a session on extreme events with guest speakers @sebastian-sippel.bsky.social & @miguelmahecha.bsky.social
Thanks for the insightful talks & discussion!
#Chemodiversity is an important driver for plant–arthropod interactions 🌿 🪲 🐝. For more info check out this very impressive work by RU members Lina Ojeda-Prieto, @robinheinennl.bsky.social binheinennl.bsky.social and Wolfgang W. Weisser together with Eliecer L. Moreno doi.org/10.1111/1365...
@ebelingae.bsky.social
@eisenhauerlab.bsky.social
@agwirthweigelt.bsky.social
@sunsicker.bsky.social @terrecolgroup.bsky.social
New paper from our JenaTron facility:
Bröcher et al. show that reciprocal effects between plants and invertebrate herbivores vary with plant species richness, plant history and soil history.
Herbivores want nutritious plants with soil history, while they reduce plant height in monocultures
🐛🌱
A new paper co-led by @henneckejustus.bsky.social
in @newphyt.bsky.social shows that
Grassland & forest community-level root traits along the fast-slow & the collaboraton gradient relate to many ecosystem functions.
➡️ future changes in plant composition may strongly alter ecosystem functioning
🌱🌲
#iDivConference2025 today I present our study co-lead w C Guimaraes-Steinicke. Great work by our student K Wende.
& great collaborators
@agwirthweigelt.bsky.social A Weigelt, S Saxena & A Anwar.
Floral vs veg structure fingerprints from #TLS intensity
#JenaExperiment #Phenology #biodiversity
Ecological synthesis including forest ecosystems, grassland, land use, climate change, time series, stability, ecosystem functioning, biodiversity, species interaction networks
Three exciting #PostDoc 🧑🔬👩🔬🧕 positions on #Ecological #Synthesis at TU Darmstadt @tuda.bsky.social for Reassembly #rainforest 🇪🇨 🌱🌴🦜 & #Biodiversity Exploratories 🌲🐄🚜🪲🐝🥀@bexplo.bsky.social
Please spread widely ✉️♥️▶️ & apply quickly 🙃
www.reassembly.de/the-team/job...
1. @neobiota.pensoft.net
2. @ecol-evol.bsky.social