Functional Agrobiodiversity & Agroecology

First door of our lab Advent calendar opened! 🎄
A cozy start into December — small surprises, big smiles, and the great team to share it with. 🎁 ✨🕯️

#AdventCalendar #LabLife #DecemberJoy“

📢 Join our #EcologySeminar this week!
Prof. Dr. Teja Tscharntke
will share new insights on biodiversity-friendly farming without yield loss.

📅 Wed 3. Dec. at 10:15 AM
📩 DM for webinar link

@agrarunigoe.bsky.social
@teja-tscharntke.bsky.social

Nordic Oikos 2026 | Nordic Society Oikos Join us for one of Europe’s leading ecological conferences, where scientists, students, and professionals from across the Nordic countries, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland come together to explore t...

The joint meeting of NSO and GFÖ, September 2026, Odense, Denmark (for which I'm leading the science programming group) is now open for workshop and thematic session proposals! Please share. Details here: nordicsocietyoikos.glueup.com/event/nordic...

📢 Join our #EcologySeminar!
Dr. Rene Heim
will deep dive into interdisciplinary remote sensing and new ways to understand plant stress - from Leaf to Landscape 🌿🔭

📅 Wed 26. Nov at 10:15 AM
📩 DM for webinar link
@agrarunigoe.bsky.social
@uni-goettingen.de

Award ceremony for outstanding courses at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences
Ricarda Koch and Marco Ferrante offered diverse courses on the ecology of agricultural landscapes - their dedication was highly appreciated by the students.
Congratulations to both of them! 👏

@agrarunigoe.bsky.social

Don’t miss the related article:
a Europe-wide meta-analysis led by Qian on how to optimize flower-area design to support ground-active predators.

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

@jappliedecology.bsky.social

📢 Join us #EcologySeminar!
Qian Zhang
will will share new #ProjectKOOPERATIV insights, on how flower areas enrich ground-dwelling arthropod diversity and ecosystem services.

📅 Wed 19.11. at 10:15 AM
📩 DM for webinar link

@agrarunigoe.bsky.social
www.uni-goettingen.de/en/628701.html

Want to dive deeper into social–ecological interactions?
Check out Jule Huber’s work on farmer motivations and participation in collaborative agri-environmental and climate measures. 🌼🚜🐝
www.uni-goettingen.de/en/publicati...
@plieningerlab.bsky.social
@uni-goettingen.de
@bfn-de.bsky.social

📢 Join us #EcologySeminar!
Jule Huber
will share novel results from #ProjectKOOPERATIV
How collaboration at the landscape scale can drive conservation through shared motivations, relational values and transformative change.

📅 Wed 12.11. at 10:15 AM
📩 DM for webinar link
@agrarunigoe.bsky.social

📢Upcoming #EcologySeminar

Reut Vardi

will focus on digital #BiodiversityConservation and the question
What online platforms reveal about people and nature?

📅 Join us Wed (05.11.) at 10:15 AM
📩 DM for webinar link!

@stedmundhall.bsky.social
@agrarunigoe.bsky.social
@unigoettingen.bsky.social

Only few days left to apply for the full professorship in Functional Ecology at @unituebingen.bsky.social. We are looking for a female colleague to join our institute. Come and join us! Lots of opportunities for collaboration in a beautiful work place!

📢Upcoming #EcologySeminar

Marlene Wätzold will start this winter semester with a talk on

How Sustainable are Sustainability Certifications?
Evidence from Rwanda's Coffee and Ghana's Cocoa Sectors

📅 Wed 27.10.25 10:15 AM
📩 DM for webinar link!

@agrarunigoe.bsky.social
@uni-goettingen.de

Programm of Ecology Seminar

📢 The new programme for our Ecology Seminar is out!

It features a diverse lineup of early career researchers sharing insights on #Agroecology every week 🐝🚜🐦

🗓️ Wednesdays at 10:15 CET
📧 DM for webinar link!

www.uni-goettingen.de/en/ecology+s...

@agrarunigoe.bsky.social
@uni-goettingen.de

🎉 Great team success! New publication just came out — the result of inspiring group discussions led by @teja-tscharntke.bsky.social It's fantastic to have such a collaborative spirit in the lab!

Biodiversity conservation needs mix of measures and collaboration

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We need much more semi-natural habitat (6-37%, depending on species group) in agricultural landscapes to effectively conserve pollinators. Large collaborative synthesis study looking at 59 studies in 1250 landscapes from 19 countries now published in Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Topics include:
🔊 Passive acoustic monitoring
🌍 #Soundscape & birdsong analysis #BirdNet
🤖 AI applications in #conservation, #agriculture & urban ecology

📌 Designed for PhD students and researchers, the program brings together experts at the intersection of computer science and ecology for talks, hands-on workshops, and a field trip.

🎤 Speakers from TU Chemnitz, Naturalis, Tilburg University, INRAE & more!

Picture: Marco Ferrante sound recorder

Picture: Isabelle Arimond soundrecorder and video recordings on yellow plate for insect monitoring

International Spring School: #Bioacoustics & Species Recognition using AI 🐝🐦🦗

Join us March 23–27, 2026!
Infos & registration: www.biointakt.de/en/springsch...

@feda.bio
@uni-goettingen.de
@agrarunigoe.bsky.social
@thuenen.de

📣New publication !

In agricultural landscapes, spontaneous grass margins can serve as refuges for spider species that cannot tolerate crop field conditions and that possess unique morphological or behavioral traits.

@funecology.bsky.social
@agrarunigoe.bsky.social

👉🏼 doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Check out the new publication by Marco Ferrante and Gábor L. Lövei on biodiversity functions that can lead to ecosystem services and disservices.

@methodsinecoevol.bsky.social
@uni-goettingen.de
@agrarunigoe.bsky.social

Operational steps to implement the sentinel approach to measure ecosystem function intensities (herbivory and predation) across three habitat types. In the preparation phase, sentinels are produced in a standardised way to ensure consistency across sites and treatments. In the field exposure phase, sentinels are deployed in the selected habitats for a duration appropriate to the targeted ecosystem function (e.g. 2 weeks for herbivory and 24 h for predation). During the retrieval phase, sentinels are collected and assessed to quantify ecosystem function intensities. Finally, the resulting data are interpreted comparatively, allowing for the evaluation of differences in ecosystem function intensities among habitats or treatments. The sentinel approach is designed for relative comparisons rather than for generating absolute measurements.

📖Published📖

In this review paper, Ferrante and Lövei propose a standardised set of methods to monitor ecosystem functions that underpin ecosystem services and disservices 🌱 🌍 🧪 Read the article here 👇

buff.ly/2rAeHgq

The sentinel approach to quantify ecosystem function intensities Biodiversity, through species interactions, underpins numerous ecosystem functions that can lead to ecosystem services and disservices. Quantifying these functions is crucial for evaluating the ef...

Check out the new publication by Marco Ferrante and Gábor L. Lövei on biodiversity’s role in ecosystem services and its importance for conservation and land use.

@methodsinecoevol.bsky.social
@agrarunigoe.bsky.social
@uni-goettingen.de

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

📣 New Publication!

Biodiversity supports functions that drive ecosystem services and disservices. Measuring these functions is key to evaluating conservation strategies and land use change.

We present methods to quantify ecosystem functions using the sentinel approach:
doi.org/10.1111/2041...

Along several routes you can explore:
🌼blooming areas of the KOOPERATIV project
🚜local farms and agricultural practices
🦌fascinating insights into crafts, nature & conservation
☕delicious offers from local gastronomy

This day is made possible thanks to the strong engagement of our regional partners in agriculture, crafts & nature protection – working hand in hand for a vibrant and sustainable countryside. 💚

#AgriEnvironmental #CoDesign #CoCreation #Participation
@funcagroeco.bsky.social

🌼Tour de Flur in Northeim!
On September 14, 2025 (10 AM – 4 PM), we invite you to join our community #HikingDay, together with many dedicated local partners.

Here you find the routes:
www.uni-goettingen.de/de/628701.html

#ProjectKOOPERATIV
@agrarunigoe.bsky.social
@uni-goettingen.de

Routen

📣 Die 2. Tour de Flur des Projekts KOOPERATIV startet am Sonntag, den 14.09.25 🥾

Die Wanderrouten führen entlang unserer Blühflächen und geben Einblicke in landwirtschaftliche Betriebe. Zudem gibt es spannende Mitmachaktionen und viele Infos 🚜🌻🐝

www.uni-goettingen.de/de/628701.html

Back to the office after a great time at the GFÖ conference! We shared talks & posters on bee health, ground-nesting, grassland #Restoration, bird #Conservation, combinations of landscape-scale conservation measures, and the establishment of perennial flower fields as #AECM.

@gfoesoc.bsky.social

📣 New Publication!

Drought stress impairs crop performance and pollinator attraction. Intercropping shows promise for mitigating impacts and sustaining yields under climate change.

👉🏼https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-025-10170-0

@uni-goettingen.de
@agrarunigoe.bsky.social

Expansive flower field filled with bright red poppies under a vivid blue sky with scattered white clouds, surrounded by rolling green hills and dotted with several trees along the horizon and roadside. Copyright: Qian Zhang

📣 New Publication!

Our meta-analysis highlights the value of flower areas🌼 in supporting ground-active predators 🪲🕷️and offers practical guidance on how to design them for greater effectiveness 📊

👉🏼 doi.org/10.1111/1365...

@uni-goettingen.de
@agrarunigoe.bsky.social
@jappliedecology.bsky.social