@terrecolgroup.bsky.social
We are the Terrestrial Ecology Research Group at TU Munich in Freising - headed by Wolfgang Weisser. We investigate patterns and drivers of biodiversity change in agricultural, natural and urban ecosystems.
Robert KΓΌnast is using AI Camera traps to monitor insect diversity in grasslands for his PhD. This morning, he shared his results in which he used trap visitation data (thousands of pics) to study how insect activity behaves under different mowing conditions. (Mowing = Not Great for most insects)
04.11.2025 17:01 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
An interesting example of one of the system she has worked on involving Solenopsis ants and the invasive coffee borer in the Colombian coffee plantations; filmed here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKff...
03.11.2025 16:02 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
We are happy that Prof. Inge Ambrecht from Universidad del Valle in Colombia is visiting us this week. In her seminar, she shared insights from 30 years of working on ant and insect ecology, and discusses their close relevance to agroecological systems, and what we can do to improve these systems.
03.11.2025 16:00 β π 3 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0
Plant-Insect-interactions & the chemistry behind it - Iβm happy that the 3rd chapter of the PhD thesis of #HumayNevrzella became online as pre-print. Again a great cooperation with @robinheinennl.bsky.social and @terrecolgroup.bsky.social
#Plantscience
This morning Lisa Merkens summarized the highlights of her PhD in a short and dense talk, showing how we can use bird ecology, observations and city plans to study and model habitat connectivity and importantly, how to use this to improve cities for biodiversity.
28.10.2025 11:46 β π 3 π 1 π¬ 0 π 1
A very good end of the day today with the defense of @afairbairn.bsky.social, who was awarded his doctoral title summa cum laude. With excellent contributions to the field of urban biodiversity monitoring, crowned by a great public talk and defense. Congratulations, Dr. Fairbairn!
22.10.2025 19:00 β π 11 π 1 π¬ 0 π 1
More information on the work that Lisa does with the Bayrische KulturlandStiftung can be found on the webpage: www.bayerischekulturlandstiftung.de/projekte/pil...
Many other interesting projects to be found there as well, so worth a visit!
Today, Lisa Ott presented her MSc thesis work on ground-nesting birds in agricultural landscapes near NΓΌrnberg. Lisa combined her work for an NGO with ecological questions on how different aspects of agricultural landscapes affect breeding success in ao lapwings, skylarks and grey partridge.
21.10.2025 08:34 β π 5 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0New paper from our JenaTron facility:
BrΓΆcher et al. show that reciprocal effects between plants and invertebrate herbivores vary with plant species richness, plant history and soil history.
Herbivores want nutritious plants with soil history, while they reduce plant height in monocultures
ππ±
A lovely talk this morning by PhD Zoe Hentschel. She has been observing ant communities all over Munich this summer, to understand how city greenness characteristics and environment relate to species occurrence throughout the city. Did you realize that more than 20 species occur in Munich?
14.10.2025 07:58 β π 5 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
Brandon Mak entertaining the audience. Photo by Viky Culshaw
Laura Windorfer ready to start her talk. Photo by Viky Culshaw.
Viky Culshaw introducing her work from her time in our group as part of the Ecolopes project. Photo by Sebastian Meyer.
More group activity surfaced! Brandon Mak with an ode to pigeons; Laura Windorfer connecting ecology and architecture, and former group member Victoria Culshaw presenting her work on modeling ecosystem processes with plant and animal functional groups.
More may follow - documentation incomplete.
Meret Pundsack in action at her presentation. Photo by Sebastian Meyer.
Robert KΓΌnast delivering his presentation. Photo by Zoe Hentschel.
Wolfgang Weisser presenting. Photograph by Sebastian Meyer.
More of our team. Meret Pundsack, Robert KΓΌnast, and Wolfgang Weisser.
05.09.2025 19:46 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
Fabio Sweet delivering a presentation. Picture by Xia Yao
Lisa Merkens delivering her talk. Photo by Meret Pundsack.
Zoe Hentschel delivering her talk. Photo by Elikplim Setordjie.
Elikplim Setordjie presenting her poster. Photo by Robin Heinen.
A few of our members in action: Fabio Sweet, Lisa Merkens, Zoe Hentschel and Elikplim Setordjie presenting their works.
05.09.2025 19:39 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
We unfortunately failed to get a complete group picture. Pictured are most of our attending group members, with a few members sadly missing due to other commitments.
Our Chair returned from an engaging week of ecology, discussion, and fun at #GfΓ2025. We were well-represented this year, with many PhD, postdoc and senior colleagues presenting their work on urban ecology, artificial light, grasslands, forests, biodiversity, chemodiversity, modeling, and lots more.
05.09.2025 19:29 β π 9 π 1 π¬ 1 π 1
New Paper alert:
Meret Pundsack and Lisa Merkens co-led this new review paper that also presents a pipeline to use and combine EU Copernicus datasets to make data-driven ecological spatial modelling more accessible, useful in urban planning and ecology.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#PlantScience
Are you interested in plant chemodiversity & its ecological implications? A great SI in @plantbiology.bsky.social organized by Caroline MΓΌller @chemodiversity.bsky.social
We are happy to contribute with @sunsicker.bsky.social @robinheinennl.bsky.social @terrecolgroup.bsky.social
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
I'm happy to contribute to this nice piece of work by Annika Neuhaus from @terrecolgroup.bsky.social and @robinheinennl.bsky.social
Day one of part 3/3 in the @chemodiversity.bsky.social common chemodiversity experiment. This time, we work on the Populus model system. Smooth process, early finish today @jpschnitzlerlab.bsky.social @ybseymen.bsky.social @mhanusch.bsky.social @sunsicker.bsky.social @terrecolgroup.bsky.social
07.07.2025 15:33 β π 7 π 4 π¬ 1 π 0
Implementation of this design on the building would not have been possible without Fabio Sweet and Kathrin DΓΆrfler, who made sure that everything came together successfully.
TZ also wrote a piece on it; which can be found here:
www.tz.de/muenchen/sta...
@theweirdfox.bsky.social
Recently, we made important progress in one of our collaborative projects in which urban design meets ecology. We installed Germany's first 3D-printed and ecologically inspired biodiversity facade, designed by Iuliia Larikova.
A video report can be found here:
www.muenchen.tv/mediathek/vi...
New Paper: Fabio Sweet dove into relationships between demographic composition and people's attitudes towards animals in cities, and finds that people's demographic niche is an important predictor of their opinions on nature and where it should be.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...
@theweirdfox.bsky.social
This morning, Lisa Merkens presented a nice study on how to use AI to identify areas suitable for nature conservation, based on the preferences of a very specific model species, the common blackbird. Given the shortage of funds in conservation, this may be a possibility to efficiently use resources?
17.06.2025 13:42 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
We often talk urban ecology in our group. But Laura's work stands out (+!). She uses various models to understand how different aspects of building envelopes determine how plant communities may develop on buildings, combining modeling, theoretical ecology and natural history. Great discussion too!
12.06.2025 12:19 β π 2 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
Julia presented the results of her MSc thesis this morning. She investigated the role of city structure and human use on bird behavior and connectivity in the urban environment. Lots of interesting findings and inspiration for future study! Nice work, Julia!
03.06.2025 17:15 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Congratulations to Annika on publishing her third PhD chapter on the ever wonderful Tansy model system and its specialized aphids and the role of terpenoids in regulating their colony growth.
With @jpschnitzlerlab.bsky.social and @robinheinennl.bsky.social
I realized while watching this presentation that we often overlook seemingly very obvious things. We always seem to focus on the urban green, but apparently the fifty shades of grey in urban environments also matter for biodiversity. I had never given it much thought. Makes sense though, doesn't it?
22.05.2025 07:02 β π 3 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
We often wonder about the impact of urban green on biodiversity in our group. This week, we heard from Antonia about the impacts of the built environment! She showed in her MSc thesis that buildings, and their distinct associations with humans, also drive bird diversity. Nice work Antonia!
22.05.2025 06:59 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 0 π 1What a great week for Max, he also defended his PhD with great success - congratulations!
Stay tuned for more of his research on plant-consumer interactions π±πͺ²
With proud supervisors @ebelingae.bsky.social, Sebastian Meyer @terrecolgroup.bsky.social & Holger Schielzeth
