This text is only available in German.  › more

This text is only available in German.  › more

yDiv doctoral researcher Katja Steinauer won the award for the best poster at the iDiv Conference 2015. Her poster “Root exudate cocktails: the link between plant diversity and soil microorganisms?”…  › more

The sDiv postdoc Carten Meyer is the winner of a travel grant amounting to 1.000€ at the iDiv annual conference. To push his research forward and intensify his knowledge he can use this money to…  › more

Many of the previous studies on global species diversity are inaccurate. These are the conclusions of an international research group, led by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) in…  › more

Leipzig. Elevated concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide enhance photosynthesis and plant growth. Although these growth effects can be sustained in the long term, the magnitude of effects…  › more

This text is only available in German.  › more

sDiv has just opened its fourth call for working groups, postdoctoral fellowships and sabbaticals! Initiating collaborations between scientists across the world is one of the central tasks of the…  › more

New modelling approach to assess the distribution of different tree sizes in natural forests  › more

"Forest ecosystems" coffee evening held as part of the event series "Ecosystem services forum - opportunities and risks of an economic assessment of nature"  › more

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Wow, what a start! Congrats to sDiv's newest Postdoc Petr Keil on new paper in Nature Communications, co-authored by sDiv Sabbatical Walter Jetz. He shows that the geometry of area loss is crucial to…  › more

The value of biodiversity is particularly high in poor environmental conditions  › more

This text is only available in German.  › more

The first kick-off meeting of the Informatics Knowledge Sharing Group (IKSG) took place on 6. November 2015 at iDiv in Leipzig. The group is initiated by Dr Jitendra Gaikwad from the Biodiversity…  › more

Molecular biologist Dr Ainhoa Martinez-Medina is one of eleven young researchers, which are funded from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena in order to apply for third-party funds. For this…  › more

Three yDiv doctoral researchers, Maria Voigt, Solveig Franziska Bucher and Patrizia König, joined the ‘Her Career’ fair in Munich on the 15-16 October 2015.  › more

Berkeley/Leipzig. Climate change might shift the climatic suitable habitat of coast redwoods in California about 70 to 200 kilometers to the north in the near future. The environmental conditions…  › more

Can biodiversity help protect ecosystems in unusual climatic events? Given the continued extinction of species and climate-change associated with increasingly extreme and sudden changes in the…  › more

The yDiv annual retreat brings together all yDiv doctoral researchers to spend time together and learn about a topic that is important to all. The 2nd yDiv retreat from 8 to 9 October 2015 was all…  › more

The Jena Experiment, one of the longest running grassland biodiversity experiments worldwide has now been evaluated for the sixth time. In September, an evaluation committee visited the Jena…  › more

We welcome four new postdocs to our sDiv family: Petr Keil (University of Prague), Carsten Meyer (University of Göttingen), Juliano Sarmento Cabral (University of Göttingen) and Katherine…  › more

Our ecosystems are affected not only by climate change, but by a plethora of inter-acting global change factors, above all pollution and land use change.  › more

It is the aim of the Citizen Sciense Stragety 2020 to strengthen civil research in Germany. To drafting this strategy and to start an important process of discussion a first framework document can be…  › more

New iDiv colleagues, Carsten Meyer and Walter Jetz, today published a comprehensive survey of global species distribution data in Nature Communications. The study reveals the largest data gaps in…  › more

The first iDiv summer school took place from 23 to 29 August 2015 with the help of the DAAD. With its theme “Biodiversity Synthesis” the summer school provided the opportunity to learn from and…  › more

Worldwide human activities have resulted in large increases in the availability of nutrients in ecosystems. In a recent study scientists from the US, Europe and Australia – including Stan Harpole,…  › more

The spread of species to non-native regions poses one of the greatest environmental challenges of our time. An international research team including Dr Marten Winter from the German Centre for…  › more

According to study published in Nature (and see Nature Editorial), iDiv scientist Marten Winter, who is among the core co-authors, says that almost 4% of the global flora become naturalized somewhere…  › more

The paper in Global Change Biology about future and past alien species relationships with global trade co-authored by sDiv Coordinator Marten Winter is highlighted in Nature Plants. "  › more

Dr. Anett Richter represented iDiv and the Citizen Science project at the Australian Citizen Science Association Conference in August 2015. Read her report here.  › more

Anthropogenic environmental change is widely recognized as the key driver of biodiversity change globally  › more

Former sDiv postdoc Viktoriia Radchuk published the open access paper entitled "Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning decoupled: invariant ecosystem functioning despite non-random reductions in…  › more

A GEO BON working group, lead by Prof. Andrew K. Skidmore of the University of Twente and including Prof. Henrique M. Pereira from iDiv, has just published a Comment in Nature proposing a plan to…  › more

From 21-24 of June the Rhizosphere 4 Conference took place in Maastricht, the Netherlands. In total around 600 highly motivated people attended this international conference. yDiv doctoral researcher…  › more

The sDiv workshop group sOILDIV just published their first paper in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Good work!  › more

Members of sTUNDRA working group got published in Nature Climate Change with the paper entitled "Climate sensitivity of shrub growth across the tundra biome". The paper received some fair…  › more

What happens when a hippo stumbles across a sleepy plant? Leipzig University's Botanical Garden has opened a new information trail on the diverse and unusual relationships between plants and animals.…  › more

Managing soil carbon dynamics in the changing world is one of the main climate change mitigation priorities. The pivotal role of soil microorganisms in regulating soil carbon dynamics is widely…  › more

yDiv doctoral researcher Irene Bender attended the 6th International Symposium – Workshop on Frugivores & Seed Dispersal (FSD) 2015, which was held 21-26 June in Drakensberg, South Africa. A total of…  › more

On Thursday the 25th of June, yDiv and sDiv launched the new mentoring programme of iDiv with scientific speed-dating.  › more

I am a PhD student from the University of Southampton, and my project looks at how soil microbial communities can mediate above-ground plant and insect interactions. My current experiment aims to…  › more

It has been hypothesized that globalization of human-mediated dispersal of species may break down biogeographic boundaries. However, empirical tests had been lacking until recently. An international…  › more

Congratulations! Jürgen Dengler became substitution professor of plant ecology at the University of Bayreuth. Well done, Jürgen!  › more

Finally! Marten Winter co-authored a paper in GEB about Darwin's naturalization hypothesis; a comment in PNAS on this paper here and a paper in GCB about future invasion hotspots.  › more

Global climate change is back on the political agenda: representatives from 35 states recently met in Berlin for the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in preparation for the UN Climate Change Conference in…  › more

Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) were successful in their nomination for Germany’s most highly endowed research award, the…  › more

Satellite observations play an increasingly important role in monitoring changes of terrestrial ecosystems at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The new EU funded project BACI translates satellite…  › more

Please find here the second sDiv newsletter with information about all the exciting things happened at sDiv in the last months. For subscription, please do not hesitate to contact us.   › more

What is the relevance of public participation for science, society and policy? How can we show evidence for these impacts and the huge potential of citizen science for biodiversity and nature…  › more

A new study of the complex interplay between organisms and their environment shows that biodiversity — the variety of organisms living on earth — is even more important to the healthy functioning of…  › more

This text is only available in German.  › more

A new study of the complex interplay between organisms and their environment shows that biodiversity — the variety of organisms living on earth — is even more important to the healthy functioning of…  › more

Volunteers to watch video footage filmed by camera traps and identify wild African animals. In celebration of Earth Day on April 22nd, a special citizen science project called Chimp&See will be…  › more

More carbon is stored in ecosystems with extensive plant diversity due to the increased activity of the soil microbes therein.  › more

Intensive agriculture and expanding land use have come at a cost to local ecosystems worldwide, but some of the damage can be reversed.  › more

The sMGI workshop published with sDiv support. See here for an open access @ Nature Genetics. Congratulations!   › more

With Chimp & See, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the Pan African Programme and iDiv are embarking on a new citizen science project. Anyone wishing to…  › more

A recent study by a yDiv doctoral researcher, Madhav P. Thakur, revealed that the top-down control in an experimental model food web was regulated by plant community composition.  › more

A recent study by iDiv scientists has revealed the important influence of plant community composition to soil resource availability. Lead author of the study is Madhav P. Thakur, a doctoral…  › more

Towards a global system for assessing, monitoring and reporting on biological invasions   › more

As part of a series of courses aimed at preparing young researchers for their career, yDiv organised a course “Research Communication” which took place from February 24th to 26th.  › more

The fourth yDiv admission symposium for associated doctoral researchers took place on February 23rd, 2015.  › more

The life style of ectomycorrhiza fungi is some 100 million years younger than that of their ancestors within white and brown rot fungi. The key genome adaptation enabling fungi to associate to roots…  › more

San José: On 11 and 12 February 2015 the inaugural conference of the Citizen Science Association (CSA) took place.  › more

At the last meeting hosted by sDiv, the International Joint Synthesis Centre Consortium, informally founded 1.5 years ago, took a step forward to work and collaborate even closer together. JSC…  › more

Flooded Jena Experiment in June 2013  › more

Following our third sDiv call, we received many proposals of very high scientific quality. After discussion of the internal reviews, the sDiv Committee decided to fund nine international workshops…  › more

In this special issue of the Journal of Plant Physiology, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and physiologists present their contributions to physiological biodiversity research. Initiated by iDiv…  › more

sDiv Postdoc Jürgen Dengler (sPlot) senior authored a paper, which got the Editor's Award of the journal "Applied Vegetation Science" in 2014. Congrats!!!! Berg, C., Abdank, A.,…  › more