Patrizia König

I grew up in Albstadt on the “Schwäbische Alb” in Baden – Württemberg. After higher education entrance qualification I completed my diploma in Biology at the Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz, Rheinland-Pfalz. In the context of my diploma thesis I had the chance to cooperate with scientists from the BIK-F in Frankfurt and investigated the diversity of functional traits of frugivorous birds occurring along an elevational gradient in the Manú National Park in Peru. During this time I decided to further focus on ecological and environmental topics in combination with functional traits. After finishing the diploma thesis I started a PhD-position focussing on correlations between phenological shifts and functional traits of plants in the working group of Prof. Dr. Christine Römermann at the University of Regensburg, Bavaria. In autumn 2013 our group moved to the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Thüringen. My interests in ecological topics in combination with the possibility to exchange knowledge with other young scientists lead my decision to join iDIV.  

Research interests

• Ecological patterns in biodiversity
• Biodiversity and conservation
• Ecological consequences of climate change
• Functional traits

My current topic is called Are functional traits related to phenological shifts on different spatial scales? and contains the above mentioned research interests. Many plants have shifted their phenology due to climate change in the last three decades. But the reason for the species specific difference in the strength of phenological shifts is so far unknown. We hypothesize that functional traits are correlated with the species-specific strength of phenological shifts, and that the ability of plants to shift their phenology leads to a change in their competitive power. 

By investigating the relationship between functional traits, the strength of phenological shifts, and changes in plant species abundances on a global and local scale we aim to identify general patterns of how different plants deal with recent and future climate change and how this affects biodiversity.

More specifically we collect data on phenological shifts from relevant literature and compare it with functional traits from databases on a global scale. For a validation of the results on the local scale we already repeated twenty years old phenological observations on calcareous grasslands on the “Schwäbische Alb” and measured functional traits of the observed species. Afterwards we are going to compare the results on the local scale with the results on the global scale. We further investigate, as an additional step, if there is a correlation between changes in abundance and the strength of phenological shifts.

since 2012
student in the working group of Prof. Dr. Christine Römermann, first in Regensburg, since autumn 2013 in Jena

2011
Diploma thesis in the project group of Prof. Dr. Katrin Böhning-Gaese
B3.12: “Ökomorphologie frugivorer Vögel entlang eines Höhengradienten in den Peruanischen Anden”

2005
Start of the study of Biology at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz (major subjects: Botany, Zoology and Ecology)

Dehling, D. M., Fritz, S. A., Töpfer, T., Päckert, M., Estler, P., Böhning‐Gaese, K., & Schleuning, M. (2014). Functional and phylogenetic diversity and assemblage structure of frugivorous birds along an elevational gradient in the tropical Andes. Ecography, 37(11), 1047-1055.