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Basic and Applied Ecology @basicapplecol.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Reposted by Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM

🦗🌾 New #BAAE article: How long do grassland arthropods need to recover after mowing? AI camera traps across 27 grasslands show recovery often takes 8 weeks, not days, depending on taxa and nearby unmown refuges. 🐝 DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ba... @gfoesoc.bsky.social

Fig. 1. Top left: Close-up of the camera trap setup showing the airtight box holding the electronics underneath the luring surface and the transparent roof above holding the Oak-1 camera. Top right: Camera trap next to the fence of the climate station with a connected solar panel. Bottom: Luring surface of the camera trap as seen by the camera with a detected dipteran.

Fig. 2. Top: Pictures of two grassland plots in the Biodiversity Exploratories, bottom left: Position of the three Biodiversity Exploratories within Germany. Bottom right: picture of the camera trap placed next to the fence of the climate station.

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Lisa Merkens just finished her second (public) Thesis Advisory Committee meeting. Impressive progress on the structuring of her dissertation on animal connectivity in cities, including several works recently published: link.springer.com/article/10.1... Nice work, Lisa. Almost there!

A MS Teams window with Lisa Merkens explaining two figures from her 2026 paper in Landscape Ecology.

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Recently, @basilefinand.bsky.social joined our team to strengthen the @bexplo.bsky.social team. This morning, he gave us a broad overview of his past work on effects of habitat fragmentation on ants and carabids. We are certain Basile's skills will be very useful in the years ahead! Nice work :).

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

This morning, Elena defended her MSc thesis on the relationships between different food resources (fruits and seeds) and vegetation characteristics and alpha diversity in birds in autumn compared to winter, showing that higher local availability of these resources supports more species. Congrats!

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

NEW PAPER: Here, Marlene Graf and colleagues investigated how admixture with coniferous trees in beech forests affected blue tit breeding performance. It turns out, blue tits are remarkably resilient to admixture. doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Redirecting

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Zoé Hentschel updated our group on the status of her ant work this morning. She is applying urban niche models to her ant occurrence data to understand whether species are winners or losers with regards to specific urban environmental variables, such as greenness, imperviousness or temperature.

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Reposted by Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM

Landscape Ecology and Vegetation Science Hohenheim @landscape-ecol.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

NEW PAPER: this review by @chemodiversity.bsky.social, introduces the concept of a chemodiversity landscape, and compiles evidence for emergent properties arising from the mixing of chemical blends from different sources with consequences for ecological functions.

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

A short piece on our recent work in Nature Ecology and Evolution: www.lss.ls.tum.de/toek/news-pr...

Robin Heinen @robinheinennl.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Neues Paper zum Thema

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Reposted by Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM

On another - still chemodiverse - note: we started two new greenhouse experiments today to support Elikplim Setordjie's PhD work! Today we transplanted rooted rhizomatic cuttings from many chemotype lines into their own pots, and these multiplied lines will be used later this spring.

Elikplim soaks two transplanted rhizome cuttings in a bucket filled with water

Our technical assistant Tanja showcases a pot full of rhizomatic cuttings. All shoots in this pot originated from one single cutting, which was taken by Tanja and Felix last summer.

Our long-term student assistant Felix is visibly enjoying the good weather, while he is writing labels for all rhizomes in the pot in front of him. Knowing which lines these cuttings originate from is essential and is the first step before transplanting and transfer to the greenhouse.

A greenhouse filled with Tansy rhizome cuttings. Here, the rooted rhizome cuttings will be acclimatized under shaded conditions, until they are ready for their use in the experiments. The second table in the back holds the cuttings for the second experiment.

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

NEW PAPER: In this work by @dfg.de Research Unit FOR3000 @chemodiversity.bsky.social, we explore the chemodiversity landscape, and review the evidence for emergent properties arising from the mixing of chemical blends from different sources, and what it could mean for ecological functions.

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Today, @robinheinennl.bsky.social presented results from the temporal Tansy chemotype stock garden sampling in 2025. While our work often centers around chemodiversity effects on arthropods, the talk also emphasized that chemodiversity is part of a bigger set of drivers of variation to be considered

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Today, Elikplim Setordjie shared with us a glimpse of her second PhD chapter, in which she delves into the question: Does intraspecific plant terpenoid diversity beget arthropod diversity? The answer: it is complex, but it appears that potential terpenoid concentrations have a role to play as well.

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

NEW PAPER by Robert Künast as part of his PhD, for which he develops AI camera traps for arthropods. In this work, he followed grassland arthropod activity patterns following mowing events. A very comprehensive work showing promise for non-destructive sampling methods doi.org/10.1016/j.ba...

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Redirecting

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This morning Tamara defended her BSc thesis on vole damage to bark in afforestation zones. She studied herbaceous cover in regulating damage. When plants die off in winter, overall bark damage increases, but negative relation between damage and plant richness or dead plant biomass within samplings.

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

We currently are looking for a postdoctoral research associate (3 years with possibility to extend) with experience in community ecology, and ideally a good match with our group profile; biodiversity, land use change and urban ecology. Please share for max reach www.lss.ls.tum.de/fileadmin/w0...

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

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A while ago, we shared Zoé's tremendous efforts to produce many solitary bee's nests - each carefully crafted, and each straw hand-picked and filed to perfection - to study ao bee-havior, abundance and parasitism in relation to urban greenness. They're now up and running! Well done Zoé.

Handpicked straws in different sizes; the nests are covered by wire mesh to avoid birds using them as a fly-by buffet.

Two solitary bee nests on a lamp post next to an impressive (one might say beautiful?) old building.

Solitary bee nests mounted on a light pole next to some urban greenery.

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

This morning, @rafaelachury.bsky.social gave his last talk in our group. After six years with us, Rafa will leave us for a professorship in his alma mater Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia. Rafa reflected on the insecurities of academia and the role of mentors along the way.

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Reposted by Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

A short post on the latest project by Wolfgang Weisser and Thami Croeser. They modeled how tree felling in urban environments would impact biodiversity in cities, and the findings highlight the tremendous value of old trees. www.ls.tum.de/en/ls/public...

ls.tum.de

Simulation: What the felling of large, old trees means for the future of cities

Simulation of TUM and RMIT: What the felling of large, old trees means for the future canopy cover of cities

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Join us this year, for the BE20 conference, in which we celebrate 20 years of the @bexplo.bsky.social Biodiversity Exploratories. Deadline for submissions has been extended to April 10!

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

ls.tum.de

Simulation: What the felling of large, old trees means for the future of cities

Simulation of TUM and RMIT: What the felling of large, old trees means for the future canopy cover of cities

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Today, we are joined by Rolf, who presented his MSc thesis results. He investigated relationships between ant communities, vegetation type and soil variables in a urbanization gradient in Munich. He finds strongest support for vegetation as driver of ant diversity, but variance explained is low.

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

NEW PAPER: We recently published a Comment in npj Sustainable Agriculture, in which we argue that future agricultural scenarios adopting Smart Farming should integrate biodiversity targets in order to gain any biodiversity benefits, as these are not a guarantee. rdcu.be/e6zB7

rdcu.be

Future agricultural policies need to integrate biodiversity targets into smart farming

npj Sustainable Agriculture - Smart farming (SF), the use of advanced technologies such as sensors, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, and automation, holds...

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

This morning Alexandra presented the results of her MSc thesis, which included insect sampling on our green roof experiments in Munich. She nicely showed how substrate depth has taxon-specific effects on arthropods occurring in roof plots, while structural elements had rather minimal impact.

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Over the past few weeks, Zoé Hentschel has been very busy preparing for field season 2026; as a part of this, she prepared solitary bee nests to study bee nesting activity and parasitism in urban settings. Lots of reed, dust, noise and help from colleagues - but the final product looks solid!

Reeds were sawed to length and sorted by diameter

Freshly sawed reeds, with ongoing sawing in the back, and Zoé sanding her reeds on the right

Solitary bee nests completed. A large mesh grid will be placed to protect against bird predation

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

This week Xia Yao presented some of her PhD work on how land ownership types differ in their green spaces in terms of green space and volume. These differences are often overlooked, but private and public lands are often managed and distributed quite differently!

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

A few more days left to apply for our postdoc position on insect community ecology.

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Tuesday, we heard a very nice update on Laura Windorfer's work. She is modeling plant communities on variable building envelopes, in order to provide architects opportunities to select designs that are optimized for human- and biodiversity-oriented key performance indicators. Lovely results, Laura!

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Last week, Marlene Graf shared a story on how she used insect metabarcoding approaches to investigate the effects of mixing Douglas fir with native tree species on native insect communities. This story is part of her PhD in which she investigates broader biodiversity impacts of admixture.

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Reposted by Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

We are currently looking for a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in community ecology to work in the Arthropods Core Project of the Biodiversity Exploratories @bexplo.bsky.social Reposting is much appreciated for widest reach! Thanks. More information here: www.lss.ls.tum.de/fileadmin/w0...

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

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As the year comes to an end, it was time for Christmas celebrations in our research group today. It was a full house, with many of our colleagues, Feuerzangenbowle, quiz games and Wolfgang Weisser in a Santa suit. What else do you need? Happy holidays everyone!

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Reposted by Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

New paper out in @science.org from the LegacyNet. Functional plant diversity and fertilization impacts on yields were compared in a network of sites across the globe. Our colleague Sebastian Meyer hosted the Freising site, allowing us to follow it closely for many years. doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Multispecies grasslands produce more yield from lower nitrogen inputs across a climatic gradient

High-yielding forage grasslands frequently comprise low species diversity and receive high inputs of nitrogen fertilizer. To investigate multispecies mixtures as an alternative strategy, the 26-site i...

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Multispecies grasslands produce more yield from lower nitrogen inputs across a climatic gradient

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

This week, Anna and Sven from our Hainich @bexplo.bsky.social team showed selected results from almost twenty years of Biodiversity Exploratories. Obviously, discussing all that was done in this time is impossible, but it is clear that the project taught us a lot through the years! Thanks to all!

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Reposted by Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM

The Jena Experiment @jena-experiment.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

New study by @bmwildermuth.bsky.social et al. in @natecoevo.nature.com They asked whether arthropod biomass declines due to species loss per se, or which species are lost, or because of shrinking abundances of persisting species. 🪲🕷️🐝🦗 doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Arthropod species loss underpins biomass declines - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Insects are declining in many regions. Here the authors show that arthropod biomass losses in Jena Experiment and Biodiversity Exploratories time series are driven more by species loss than by species...

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

We are looking forward to seeing many participants in the BE20 conference, marking the twentieth anniversary of the @bexplo.bsky.social Biodiversity Exploratories, which have a special place in our hearts and research group. Hope to see you in June '26!

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Lisa and Meret recently had a nice interview with the Copernicus Agency about their recent paper (see quoted post). This is interesting work for anyone interested in spatial modelling and urban biodiversity. A summary of the interview can be found here: land.copernicus.eu/en/use-cases...

land.copernicus.eu

A pipeline for assessing habitat connectivity in urban areas

Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Congratulations to Dr. Sven Rubanschi, who successfully defended his PhD today in a public defense. Sven used distribution modeling approaches to map biotopes in Bavaria to highlight conservation and restoration potential, incl. under different climate scenarios.

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Terrestrial Ecology Research Group - TUM @terrecolgroup.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

For his MSc, Frederik Achterberg investigated how weather (precipitation events, temperature, wind speed) affects the visitation of arthropods on arthropod camera traps placed in the field. Weather clearly has an impact, but not always as expected, with complex temporal and taxon-specific effects.