iDiv Biodiversity Research

🎧 This month’s #InsideBiodiversity is essential listening. 🌍

Author Dr Taylor Dotson speaks with iDiv’s Volker Hahn about polarisation, the framing of climate change as a knowledge problem, and biodiversity democracy.

🎙️ Listen now: insidebiodiversity.podigee.io

Check out the newest Special Issue in @natureconservation.pensoft.net on #coastal & #floodplain #restoration. 👇

@bfn-de.bsky.social @umweltministerium.de @ufz.de
@idiv-research.bsky.social @ramsar.org @sgn.one
@spongeboost.eu @bioagora.eu @respin-project.bsky.social

Flyer with basic information about the iDiv Summer School

View of a male researcher making records on a tablet outdoors with small yellow flowers in the background

🌱 Apply now for the iDiv Summer School: “Passion for Collecting – Collection-Based Research in Plant Ecology”

Participants will learn how to work with living collections, seed banks, and herbaria to unlock ecological insights.

📅 24–28 Aug 2026 🗓️ Apply by 31 Mar 2026

🔗 www.idiv.de/events/summe...

@miguelmahecha.bsky.social @agwirthweigelt.bsky.social thweigelt.bsky.social @anabastos.bsky.social @jquaas.bsky.social @dmlmont.bsky.social

7/7

Read our press release: www.idiv.de/global-green...

And check out this interactive guide to the publication: greenwave.earth

6/x

⬆️ The northward shift appears to be driven by longer growing seasons and warmer winters in the Northern Hemisphere.

➡️ An additional eastward shift may be linked to pronounced greening hotspots in India, China, and Russia.

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🌏 Using satellite and model data, the team tracked the seasonal greening of vegetation. While the green wave oscillates annually, the researchers discovered a long-term shift towards the north-east ↗️

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Lead author Miguel Mahecha: “Imagine holding a perfectly round globe in your hands and attaching small weights to it, each representing the green leaves at every point on the Earth’s surface. If you then carefully place this globe into calm water, the centre of mass will always point downward.”

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A research team led by iDiv, @unileipzig.bsky.social , and @ufz.de has developed a novel way to track global vegetation dynamics – by calculating the Earth’s green centre of mass 🟢

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The greenness of the Earth’s terrestrial vegetation changes throughout the seasons. Researchers can calculate the global “green centre” and track its movement over several decades. They have observed a gradual shift towards the north-east. By Ida Flik. https://greenwave.earth/

🌍 The earth’s green is increasing and its centre is moving north-east. Vegetational shift to the north is even stronger in the southern summer – surprising new facet of #globalgreening 🌱 Published in PNAS

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Wooden path through the peat bog in Poland Bieszczady National Park. Photo by Adobe Stock. Use of this picture is permitted for reports related to this news item only, and under the condition that credit is given to the picture originator.

#Monitoring is needed to track changes in #biodiversity and support nature conservation efforts. 🪲 Researchers propose a roadmap for improving Europe’s biodiversity monitoring system 🇪🇺

News text: www.idiv.de/roadmap-for-...
🦉🦋🌿🍄

@unihalle.bsky.social @uni-jena.de @ufz.de @alettabonn.bsky.social

At #InsideBiodiversity, podcast host Volker Hahn talks with Katrin Böhning-Gaese, @ufz.de.

🌐 How scientifically robust are biospheric planetary boundaries?

🌐 Are fears of widespread ecosystem collapse justified?

🌐 Can we tell more hopeful stories?

🎧 Subscribe: insidebiodiversity.podigee.io

🚀 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

⏰ Last chance to join Science:TBD on 3 & 4 March!

On-site tickets are sold out, but you can still take part online and watch all keynote talks via livestream. 💻

🗓Registration deadline: 21 February
📝Sign up now: www.idiv.de/science-tbd

#Biodiversity #ScienceTBD #iDiv

Degradation of fish food webs in the Anthropocene The decrease in body size driven by the selective species turnover is widely altering fish food web topology and function.

To the paper: www.science.org/doi/full/10....

School of fish / by Toby Matthews, Ocean Image Bank

What happens when fish communities shift towards smaller species?🐟
Global study led by alumnus @juancarvq.bsky.social shows widespread changes in food webs across marine & freshwater systems. Even where species numbers stayed stable, interactions & body size changed.
🔗 www.idiv.de/smaller-fish...

New research in @natecoevo.nature.com highlights how land use and soil conditions shape the success of non-native plants: Grazing pressure + fertile soils favour fast-growing species. They were less successful in ecosystems with diverse native plant communities.

More:
www.idiv.de/intensive-gr...

📢 Missed the registration deadline for Science:TBD? You can now join the symposium either
💻 online via keynote livestream
📍 in person at iDiv in Leipzig.
⚠️ Only 2 on-site tickets remain!

📝 Register now: www.idiv.de/science-tbd
#Biodiversity #ScienceTBD

𝗦𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘!!!!

🌍 CBC Conference 2026 – Connecting Biodiversity, Climate & Human Behaviour
📅 September 21–24, 2026
📍 Leipzig, Germany

The CBC2026 conference will bring together researchers from biodiversity, climate and behavioural sciences to explore how these fields connect.

Social media may provide data that can revolutionise our understanding of species distribution - and strengthen global biodiversity datasets, for example.
New paper by iDiv alumnus @shawan-chowdhury.bsky.social in Conservation Biology:
www.idiv.de/social-media...

⚠️ Are fears of widespread ecosystem collapse justified? 😱

The latest episode of #InsideBiodiversity discusses alarmism, environmental threats, and solutions.

Listen to Prof. Katrin Böhning-Gaese (@ufz.de) in conversation with podcast host Dr. Volker Hahn.

Subscribe: insidebiodiversity.podigee.io

The model integrates species records (GBIF), sPlot vegetation plots & environmental predictors from remote sensing.
The resulting map provides a baseline for monitoring global change & guiding groundwater management.
🔗 doi.org/10.1016/J.EC...

These ecosystems form distinct “green and cool islands” - areas of higher vegetation vitality & lower surface temperature.
Yet only ~25% of mapped GDV is protected.

~482,000 km² of likely GDV were mapped - 28% of all semi-natural vegetation in the biome.
Major hotspots include the Iberian Peninsula, southern France, California, central Chile & SW Australia.🌍

Groundwater shapes entire landscapes in dry regions 🌍💧

A new study in Ecological Indicators presents the first high-resolution (30 m) map of groundwater-dependent vegetation (GDV) across the Mediterranean biome.
🧵
www.idiv.de/new-high-res...

📢 iDiv and @unileipzig.bsky.social are hiring Technical Staff (m/f/d) for the BioDive4Soil soil biodiversity project! 🌍🔬 Work includes lab soil analyses, field sampling, data prep & supporting student assistants.🧪
65 % part-time | until 31 Dec 2029 | apply by 24 Feb 2026
www.idiv.de/career/job-o...

📢 iDiv & partners are hiring! 4 PhD + 2 Postdoc roles in the @betafor.bsky.social forest biodiversity experiment.

📍Start: 1 May 2026 | 🗓️ Deadline: 25 Feb 2026

Join an international, interdisciplinary research consortium & investigate forest management & biodiversity!
www.idiv.de/career/job-o...

Join interactive workshops on:
✨Open & responsible science
✨Reproducible workflows
✨Meta-analysis & bias
✨Generative AI for science
✨Research culture & norms
…and more!

⏰ Science:TBD - Registration deadline approaching!
📍 Leipzig | 🗓️ 3–4 Mar 2026

Hands-on workshops, limited capacity - some workshops are already full!

Register by 15 Feb 👉 www.idiv.de/science-tbd

#ScienceTBD #iDiv

🔻 Can frightening rhetoric help society make progress? Can it motivate people to take action? What impact does it have on people’s health? 🔺

Listen to the conversation between Prof. Katrin Böhning-Gaese (@ufz.de) & host Dr. V. Hahn.

🌼 Subscribe to #InsideBiodiversity: insidebiodiversity.podigee.io