Where forest meets steppe: Europe’s hotspots of vascular plant diversity
What happens when dry steppe meets humid forest? In East-Central Europe, this unusual ecological overlap gives rise to some of the most species-rich ecosystems known on Earth.…
Greta Bindernagel
Read MoreWhere forest meets steppe: Europe’s hotspots of vascular plant diversity
Thirty years later: what makes grassland restoration work?
In a quiet floodplain in Lower Saxony, an ecological experiment has been unfolding for more than three decades. In the early 1990s, 300 hectares of intensively used…
Unveiling the hidden diversity of tropical forest canopies
Tropical forests are among the most biodiverse and ecologically vital ecosystems on Earth, hosting more than two-thirds of all tree species known. Their canopies are the biosphere’s…
Mountain meadows under climate change: a glimpse into the future through a unique experiment
Mountain meadows face particular challenges under climate change due to a dual threat: rising temperatures (faster than in lower altitudes) and the encroachment of warm-adapted species that…
Digging deep: what roots can tell us about grassland restoration
In the face of increasing biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, ecological restoration is more important than ever. To be more precise: effective and resilient restoration. From an…
Launching of the living lab in Rutsiro: Social-ecological systems approach to ecosystem restoration in Rwanda
Info: The Research Project Ecosystem restoration has become a global priority due to accelerating land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change. However, the ecological, social, and interconnected…
“Netzwerk Renaturierung”: working together for a sustainable future
The restoration of ecosystems is one of the major challenges of our time. Restoring degraded landscapes, preserving biodiversity, and promoting natural processes require an intensive exchange between…
Rooted in diversity: how tree and fungal diversity shape the forest’s strategies
In forests, diversity shapes not only the structure of the ecosystem (and its aesthetics) but also determines how trees interact with each other. Contrary to the static…
Of meadows and pastures: grassland for climate and biodiversity protection
Grassland, which covers around 40 % of the global land area, provides numerous ecosystem services, including biodiversity, water storage, erosion control and: long-term carbon storage in the…
Breaking down barriers: a call for cohesion in priority effect studies
Priority effects are phenomena in which the effects of species on one another depend on the arrival order of species into a local site. Two types can…