Biodiversity Exploratories

Habitat and land‐use intensity shape moth community structure across temperate forest and grassland This study reveals how land-use intensity, plant diversity, weather and artificial light interact to shape moth diversity across forests and grasslands. Using 300 plots across Germany, we highlight h...

🌿🦋 Interested in how #land-use intensity shapes #moth communities? Check out this BE-paper in @animalecology.bsky.social
🌳 #Forests host higher abundance & diversity than grasslands. 🌡️Temperature is a key factor. It's all a complex interplay of habitat , LUI and weather.
🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365... 🌐

📢Check out our latest BE-publication on #invertebrate 🐞abundance in #grasslands 🌱 published in @basicapplecol.bsky.social.

Reducing land use (single late #mowing) increased #insects by +41% after 1 yr and +99% after 3 yrs.
Species diversity, however, remained unchanged.

🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...

Last week our infrastructure teams gathered in the Exploratory Schwäbische Alb for the annual meeting – sharing ideas and shaping future steps of the Exploratories. Great to connect, exchange, and build visions together! 🤝

📷 L. Marian

#bexplo #Teamwork #Research #SwabianAlb

👉 Interested in joining our #Bexplo Synthesis Team?
Apply now – the deadline is October 25!
🔗 www.reassembly.de/the-team/job...

MicGeo team on the DBG conference 2025 in #Tübingen.

Talk given by Nils Volles.

Mechanisms of Methane Sink Recovery in Grasslands

@zalf.bsky.social @dfg.de @bexplo.bsky.social #Methanotrophs

Trade-offs with other goals exist, but joint optimization across multiple goals helps minimize them. 🌍
Regional strategies are essential.
Our study shows: multi-goal, cost-effective management is both ecologically & economically viable.

Using data from the #BExplo, the study optimized management for plants & butterflies 🦋 in 2 regions.
👉 With only 30% of the budget, up to 80% of the maximum achievable in the ecological optimizations can be reached - if cost-effectiveness is prioritized.

📢New BE-paper out on cost-effective #conservation of multiple goals in #grasslands.

🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

Permanent grasslands are key for #biodiversity but face rising threats. Traditional #conservation looked at species counts, but resilience, #ecosystem services & interactions matter too. 🌐

🌱 New paper highlights how #BExplo & #BioDivKultur advance grassland research through collaboration, interdisciplinarity & transdisciplinarity. Conserving #grasslands is a shared societal task - requiring long-term, inclusive efforts across #science, #policy & practice. 🌐

🔗 doi.org/10.1002/glr2...

🍄 How does land use shape the world of #fungi beneath our feet?
📣 New BE-study: #Land-use intensity (LUI) affects soil fungal communities – but #forests 🌳 show more resilient fungal diversity, while #grasslands 🌱 are more sensitive to management.
🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1462...

📢Save the Date!👩‍🔬
Join us in Berlin, June 8–12, 2026 for the #BE20 Conference:
“Emerging Topics in Long-Term and Large-Scale Biodiversity Research” 🦋🌱🌳

📍 Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus, Berlin
🎉 Celebrating 20 years of the #Biodiversity Exploratories!

Please RT and share this news!

#Research #Conference

🌳Making forests accessible for all!
With #Nationalpark Hainich we supported an inclusive field trip for students with and without mobility challenges.
Thanks to rangers, volunteers & off-road wheelchairs (Joelette), everyone could experience the forest and its #biodiversity up close. 🌲♿

📷 S. Pompe

First report of phoretic deutonymphs of Thyreophagus corticalis (Michael, 1885) (Acari: Acaridae) on Ixodes ricinus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Ixodida: Ixodidae) Phoretic deutonymphs of Thyreophagus corticalis (Michael, 1885) were found associated with a male and nymphs of Ixodes ricinus during a sampling condu…

First record of Thyreophagus corticalis deutonymphs phoretic on Ixodes ricinus in Germany (found in our exploratory Schwäbische Alb). Rare, geographically restricted occurrence; likely incidental contact at sites with established mite populations.
🔗Read more: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🌐

🎋 Mikado in the field? Not quite!
In May, ~ 600 bamboo sticks were used as multiple #research projects investigated our experimental plots in the Hainich-Dün Exploratory.
It may look like a game, but it's all about precise planning and coordination!

📷 S. Pompe, M. Rubenbauer
#BExplo #Fieldwork

Context‐dependent relationships between genomic traits and plant performance in temperate grasslands Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Chongyi's paper from the biodiversity exploratories (@bexplo.bsky.social‬) is finally out ! How do genomic traits interact with community ecology?

Antropogenic

havoc. Communities shake.

Genomes grow and break.

doi.org/10.1111/1365...

📉 Results: Pollinators face persistent land-use pressure, affecting morphology & abundance.

Bumblebee body size ↓ with local land-use, ↑ with floral resources.
Syrphid fly body size ↓ with landscape-level land-use & was temp-sensitive.
Abundance: Bumblebees ↓, syrphid flies ↑ with local land-use.

#Pollinators are essential for ecosystem functioning. 🐝🌼
This BE-study explores temporal stability of #land-use and climatic effects on morphological traits & abundance of the #bumblebee Bombus lapidarius and syrphid fly Episyrphus balteatus in agricultural #grasslands. 🌐

🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...

🔬🌿 Field research up close!
Students from @uniulm.bsky.social and @unituebingen.bsky.social explored forest and grassland plots in the Explo Schwäbische Alb as part of their #biodiversity and #plant #ecology courses.
Hands-on #science -insightful, practical, and inspiring!

📷 M. Müller
#Fieldwork

🦇 What drives #bat diversity in #forests? 🌲

Gaps boost species richness & abundance. More #deadwood & understory = higher bat & feeding activity. Generalists thrive in gaps, specialists stay under canopy. Structural variety is key!

Check out our latest BE paper for more:
doi.org/10.1016/j.fo... 🌐

Interested in nocturnal #moths?
☑️ Check our new BE-Paper in @oikosjournal.bsky.social:
#Land-use intensification reduced trait & phylogenetic beta #diversity - mainly in common moths. Rare #forest species responded differently. Body size ↓, wing load & darkness ↑.

🔗 doi.org/10.1002/oik.... 🌐

🌼 Spring flashback! Our team recorded 44 #plant species on 50 plots in the Hainich-Dün Exploratory. Featured: lesser celandine & wood anemone. 🌿
🙌 Shout-out to Christoph Zwahlen and the @unibe.ch #botany team for additionally spotting 47 species in Mülverstedt!
📷 S. Pompe
#Biodiversity #bexplo

📢 New BE study: #Land-use intensity affects the species–area relationship only indirectly via reduced #plant species richness.🌱 #Mowing lowers, grazing raises spatial heterogeneity ➡️divergent effects of land-use components & the need to assess direct vs. indirect drivers.

🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...

No we don't, we just collect them from the treeholes.

Summer vibes in the forest. A look up into the canopy—pure calm. The forest is the perfect place to recharge and cool down in the hot summer month. 🌲

Where do you go to cool down?🌞❄️

📷 C. Penone

#bexplo #SummerInTheForest #Biodiversity #GetOutside

Organic substrate quality influences microbial community assembly and nitrogen transport to plants in the hyphosphere of a temperate grassland soil The availability of different organic substrates influences the assembly and functionality of hyphosphere microbial communities; however, the underlyi…

🔬 New BE study on the #grassland hyphosphere #microbiome: Substrate quality shapes microbial communities & N transfer. More N from arginine than root litter reaches #plant roots. Saprotrophic #fungi play a key role in litter processing & plant nutrition.
🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

In June the project LandUseMultBEF had been working in the forest plots of Schorfheide-Chorin, collecting water-filled treeholes. Larvae were extracted from the samples, and a predation experiment was conducted to identify the macroinvertebrate predator species inhabiting these cavities.

📷 S. López

📢New paper from our FOX experiment on how #forest structure affects #carrion removal by #scavengers: Carrion vanishes fast in both gaps & closed forest, and removal rates are similar. But scavenger communities differ, suggesting functional redundancy.🦊🦅
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📢 New paper on fine #root #biomass (FRB) in #forests! 🌳 FRB peaks in moist, fertile soils & drops in dry, poor ones. Yet roots in dry soils hold more nutrients & sugars—likely for drought response. Rainfall & management matter more for FRB than temperature.
🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Metabarcoding reveals time after tree death as main driver of diversity and composition of invertebrate communities in deadwood Increasing the availability of deadwood habitats to protect saproxylic biodiversity is a key objective of forest nature conservation. However, most kn…

New 📃 out, led by @LeahVogelfänger.
While the ecology of saproxylic beetles is well studied, other invertebrates often come up short.
Studying 15 taxa across 8 years, we found that—unlike for beetles—tree species mattered little for the communities of these diverse groups. 🌳
@bexplo.bsky.social

Postdoc Job offer for Arthropod Ecologists 🪲🕷️

Michael Staab @leuphana.bsky.social offers a 3 year postdoc starting in October latest.
Arthropod diversity, interactions & functions in different research programs, e.g. @bexplo.bsky.social

Apply by June 19th

www.leuphana.de/en/universit...