SPP 1374:  Biodiversity Exploratories

The DFG Priority Program ”Exploratories for large-scale and long-term functional biodiversity research” is a well-established research platform providing a substantial infrastructure for biodiversity and ecosystem researchers throughout Germany. The Biodiversity Exploratory Office (BEO) is the central coordination unit for project administration, scientific coordination, and communication. The BEO supports the speaker, the steering committee, the local management teams, the central database and all research groups in all their activities. The work of BEO is organised in 5 Work Packages on Contact and Administration, Coordination of Management and Research, Public Relations and Outreach, Support of Young Scientists, and Promotion of Gender Equality and Diversity (Gleichstellungsmaßnahmen). Altogether, BEO provides an indispensable service for all core and contributing projects of the Biodiversity Exploratories program.

DFG Programme Infrastructure Priority Programmes

International Connection Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA

• A molecular census of land-use intensity effects on the soil biota in grasslands (Applicants Bonkowski, Michael ;  Urich, Tim )
• Analysis of root traits to test for environmental filtering and niche complementarity in grassland communities (Applicants Bruelheide, Helge ;  Jandt, Ute ;  Scheel, Dierk )
• anthoDiv - Linking organismal and genetic diversity of floral microbiomes to ecosystem properties and functional plant traits (Applicants Junker, Robert R. ;  Keller, Alexander )
• Artificial Intelligence for an automated Insect Biodiversity Monitoring (AIforIBM) (Applicants Meyer, Sebastian Tobias ;  Mäder, Patrick )
• Assessment of structure and function of soil bacterial communties along land use and mangement gradients in the Biodiversity Exploratories (Applicant Daniel, Rolf )
• BE-Spring: Discovering Collembola biodiversity on grasslands with emerging genomic and metagenomic tools (Applicants Bálint, Miklós ;  Schneider, Ph.D., Clément )
• BEF-Up2: Upscaling exploratories data to understand the drivers of landscape multifunctionality (Applicant Manning, Peter )
• BELongDead - Multitrophic functional diversity in deadwood (BLD-MultiFuncDiv) (Applicant Moll, Julia )
• Belowground functional traits of plants as drivers of biodiversity and ecosystem functions (Applicants van Kleunen, Mark ;  Rillig, Ph.D., Matthias C. )
• BESoilS – Sulfur cycling in soils along a land-use intensity gradient in German Biodiversity Exploratories (Applicant Bauke, Sara Louise )
• BEsound: the relationships between land use intensity, organismic diversity and acoustic complexity - adopting soundscape ecology in the Biodiversity Exploratories (Applicant Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael )
• Biodiversity and land-use effects on root biomass and arbuscular mycorrhizal communities in roots (Applicant Hempel, Stefan )
• Biodiversity Exploratories as Biocultural Landscapes: Past, Present and Future (Applicants Plieninger, Tobias ;  Topp, Ph.D., Emmeline )
• Biodiversity of Nitrate-Reducing Microbes in Grassland Soils by Massive Cultivation and Genomics (acronym: BE-Cult) (Applicants Behrendt, Undine ;  Horn, Marcus A. ;  Kolb, Steffen ;  Ulrich, Andreas )
• Biogeographische, genetische und funktionelle Diversität von pflanzenwachstumsfördernden, oberirdisch auf Pflanzen vorkommenden Methylotrophen (Applicant Kämpfer, Peter )
• Changes in Small Mammal Trophic Interactions (SMaTI) in response to land-use intensity and biodiversity (Applicant Tiede, Julia )
• Changes in soil food web structure of the decomposer system with land use intensity in forest systems (Applicant Scheu, Stefan )
• Changes in soil food web structure of the decomposer system with land-use intensity in forest systems (Applicant Scheu, Stefan )
• Changes in the biodiversity of algae in soils along land use gradients within the German Biodiversity Exploratories: community structures and functional roles (Applicant Friedl, Thomas )
• Changes in the genetic biodiversity of algae and cyanobacteria in terrestrial surface environments of forests and grasslands under the influences of land use and vegetation (SoilAlgae) (Applicant Friedl, Thomas )
• Chemical signatures of floral resource competition between honeybees and wild bees along a landuse gradient (Applicant Eltz, Thomas )
• Comparative transcriptome analysis and phenotypic monitoring of Trifolium pratense (Fabaceae) under land use scenarios (TRATSCH II - Trifolium pratense RNA analysis to screen character heterogeneity) (Applicants Becker, Annette ;  Gemeinholzer, Birgit ;  Wissemann, Volker )
• Connecting process-based vegetation model to data from the Biodiversity Exploratories to unravel the mechanisms that connect biodiversity, land-use and ecosystem function (Applicant Dormann, Carsten )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Fischer, Markus )
• Core Project 2 - The Local Management Teams (Applicants Ammer, Christian ;  Blüthgen, Nico ;  Fischer, Markus ;  Weisser, Wolfgang W. )
• Core Project 3 - Exploratories for large-scale and long-term functional biodiversity research: instrumentation and remote sensing (Applicants Kleinn, Christoph ;  Magdon, Paul ;  Nauss, Thomas )
• Core Project 4 - Exploratories for large-scale and long-term functional biodiversity research - Central Data Management (Applicant König-Ries, Birgitta )
• Core project 5: Plants (Applicants Fischer, Markus ;  Prati, Daniel )
• Core Project 6 - Forest structure (Applicant Ammer, Christian )
• Core project 7: Arthropods and arthropod-related processes (Applicants Blüthgen, Nico ;  Weisser, Wolfgang W. )
• Core Project 8: Soil microbial diversity and community composition of grassland and forest ecosystems along land use gradients in three German Biodiversity Exploratories (Applicants Goldmann, Kezia ;  Overmann, Jörg ;  Schloter, Michael )
• Core Project 9 "Soil" Linking biodiversity and land use to soil functions (Applicants Schrumpf, Marion ;  Trumbore, Susan )
• Core project 10 - Biodiversity synthesis (Applicant Fischer, Markus )
• Core Project 10 - Exploratories for large-scale and long-term functional biodiversity research - Vertebrate diversity and ecosystem functioning (Applicant Tschapka, Marco )
• Core Projekt 9 - Monitoring of aboveground arthropod diversity with main emphasis on xylobionts (Applicant Linsenmair, Karl Eduard )
• Data, maps and mapping materials for the "Exploratories for large-scale and long-term functional biodiversity research (Applicant Fischer, Markus )
• De-intensification Effects on Methane-Cycling Microorganisms and the Methane Sink Function of Grasslands (MetGrass) (Applicants Kolb, Steffen ;  Marhan, Sven ;  Urich, Tim )
• Deadwood in the final decay class: Shifts in functions, processes and active microbial communities (Woodstock II) (Applicant Borken, Werner )
• Dependence of endophytic fungus - grass symbioses on land-use intensity (Applicant Krauss, Jochen )
• Die Effekte von Landnutzung und struktureller Heterogenität auf Biodiversität: eine neue Bewertungsmethode mittels kosteneffektiver Fernerkundung und feinskaliger Musteranalysen (Applicant Wiegand, Kerstin )
• Direct and indirect effects of land use intensification on ant communities in temperate grasslands (Applicant Feldhaar, Heike )
• Disentangling the land-use effects on different dimensions of multitrophic ecosystem structure and functioning (Applicant Buzhdygan, Oksana )
• Disentangling the way land use intensity affects beta-diversity of soil bacterial and fungal communities. (Applicant Veresoglou, Ph.D., Stavros )
• Diversity and management effects on forest evolution - TREEvolution (Applicants Heer, Katrin ;  Lampei, Christian ;  Opgenoorth, Lars ;  Schreiber, Mona )
• Drivers of recruitment and diversity in symbioses: Assessing changes in fungal, algal, and bacterial communities of the lichen holobiont along land use gradients (Applicants Dal Grande, Ph.D., Francesco ;  Schmitt, Imke )
• Dynamics of soil aggregation as affected by land use in grasslands and forests (Applicant Barto, Kathryn E. )
• Dynamics of soil aggregation as affected by land use in grasslands and forests (Applicant Rillig, Ph.D., Matthias C. )
• Ecological mechanisms underpinning species diversity changes along land-use intensity in temperate forests - from trees to landscapes (Applicants Krzystek, Peter ;  Müller, Jörg )
• Effects of disturbance, seed addition and land-use intensity on plant community assembly and ecosystem functions in grasslands (ESCAPE II) (Applicants Hamer, Ute ;  Hölzel, Norbert ;  Kleinebecker, Till )
• Effects of environmental heterogeneity on birds and bats in anthropogenic landscapes (Applicant Jung, Kirsten )
• Effects of historical land-use change on species richness and community composition in fragmented and newly created habitats (HiLUCC) (Applicant Thiele, Jan )
• Effects of land use, dispersal and dead wood on the trophic ecology, community structure and reproductive mode of oribatid mites (Oribatida, Acari) (Applicant Maraun, Mark )
• Effects of land use intensity on pollinator health and pollination services (Applicants Ayasse, Manfred ;  Wilfert, Lena )
• Element cycles in forests and grasslands of the Biodiversity Exploratories: Response to management intensity and associated biodiversity (Applicants Kaupenjohann, Martin ;  Michalzik, Beate ;  Siemens, Jan )
• Enhancing the understanding of canopy biodiversity: Estimating forest canopy surface temperature by airborne laser scanning, thermal infrared scanning, and 3D radiation modeling (Applicant Kleinn, Christoph )
• Epigenetic diversity of grassland plants in the Biodiversity Exploratories (Applicants Bossdorf, Oliver ;  Durka, Walter )
• EvoPlast - Evolution of plant phenotypic plasticity in response to grassland management (Applicant Scheepens, Johannes Fredericus )
• EXClAvE II – Morphological and physiological land use responses of plant (and bacterial) communities in a common garden, a field experiment, and in the greenhouse (Applicant Junker, Robert R. )
• Exploratories for large-scale and long-term functional biodiversity research: the core project (Applicants Buscot, Francois ;  Fischer, Markus ;  Kalko, Elisabeth ;  Linsenmair, Karl Eduard ;  Schulze, Ernst-Detlef ;  Weisser, Wolfgang W. )
• ExploreNiche: Belowground and temporal niche partitioning along land-use gradients in grasslands (Applicant Májeková, Maria )
• Exploring a cradle of multi-resistant bacteria -- antibiotic resistance in soil and its link to different land use types and intensities (Applicant Nacke, Heiko )
• Factors driving the distribution and diversity of protistan plant pathogens in grasslands and forests of the Biodiversity Exploratories (PATHOGEN) (Applicant Bonkowski, Michael )
• Feedback loops between land use intensity, microbial diversity and easily available nutrients on the amount and degradation of phenolic C sources (FeeLoo) (Applicants Bauke, Sara Louise ;  Bi, Qing-Fang ;  Schloter, Michael ;  Schrumpf, Marion ;  Schulz, Stefanie )
• ForGenDiv: The influence of forest management on genetic diversity of plant and animal species: a cross-species study (Applicants Bossdorf, Oliver ;  Thomassen, Henri A. )
• Functional diversity of mycorrhiza in relation to land-use changes and ecosystem functions / Code ECTOMYC (Applicant Polle, Andrea )
• Functional role of phyllosphere fungi in litter decomposition in response to land use (Applicants Begerow, Dominik ;  Persoh, Derek )
• Functional traits and ecological preferences of soil dwelling vampyrellid amoebae (Vampyrellida, Rhizaria) in a management intensity gradient (Applicant Hess, Sebastian )
• Fungal peroxidases in soils: functional and taxonomic diversity and enzymatic activities under varying land use regimes in the German biodiversity exploratories (Applicants Hofrichter, Martin ;  Krüger, Dirk )
• Funktionelle Ökologie: Die Auswirkung unterschiedlicher Landnutzungsintensität auf die Diversität chemischer Pflanzenduftstoffe, strukturelle Komplexität der Vegetation und Wirt-Parasitoid Interaktionen (Applicants Meiners, Torsten ;  Obermaier, Elisabeth )
• Gap Response In Forest Insects – From Communities To Cellular Processes (GapResIn) (Applicants Müller, Jörg ;  Vogel, Heiko )
• Genetic and adaptive variation in beech (Fagus sylvatica): Which factors influence their spatial distribution patterns? (acronym: BEECHADAPT) (Applicant Finkeldey, Reiner )
• Genetic diversity in key regulator genes and their association with environmental, forest management and biodiversity gradients (Applicant Gailing, Oliver )
• Global change effects on forest understorey: how do interactions between drought and land-use intensity affect water, carbon and nitrogen cycling? (Applicants Bruelheide, Helge ;  Gessler, Arthur ;  Weiler, Markus )
• HearTheSpecies: Using computer audition to understand the drivers of soundscape composition, and to predict parasitation rates based on vocalisations of bird species (Applicants Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael ;  Schuller, Björn )
• HEDGE 2- From land management through habitat heterogeneity to biodiversity in grassland ecosystems: A combined theoretical, experimental, and observational study (Applicants Kadmon, Ronen ;  Tielbörger, Katja )
• HerbAdapt – Adaptation of understorey herbs to forest management (Applicant Scheepens, Johannes Fredericus )
• How does land-use affect intraspecific variation in flower traits and subsequently plant-pollinator interactions and pollination? (IntraFlor) (Applicants Keller, Alexander ;  Leonhardt, Sara Diana )
• How does land use affect the architecture of plant-insect interactions in managed grasslands? (Applicant Brändle, Martin )
• Impact of contemporary and historical landscape structure on neutral and adaptive genetic markers in ground beetle populations (Applicant Assmann, Thorsten )
• Impact of deadwood on functional diversity and biogeochemical traits in underlying forest soils (Applicants Begerow, Dominik ;  Borken, Werner )
• Impact of land-use and functional diversity on diversity and stability of grassland communities in fragmented landscapes (Applicant Wiegand, Kerstin )
• Impact of Land-use on Biogeographical Diversity of Soil Prokaryotes and their Functional Links to Atmospheric Chemistry (Applicant Drake, Harold L. )
• Impact of soil negative feedbacks on plant-species diversity (Applicants Joshi, Jasmin ;  Rillig, Ph.D., Matthias C. )
• Impacts of canopy openness and forest management intensity on decomposition processes and decomposer communities (Applicant Seibold, Sebastian )
• Impacts of forest management on the spatiotemporal variability of forest microclimate (Applicant Ehbrecht, Martin )
• INCORPORATING TROPHIC INTERACTIONS INTO THE OPTIMIZATION OF COST-EFFECTIVE AGRI-ENVIRONMENTAL SCHEMES FOR BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION IN GRASSLANDS (TrophCost) (Applicants Birkhofer, Klaus ;  Wätzold, Frank )
• Influence of land use intensity on the decomposition rate of dead mammals in conjunction with the biodiversity of the carcass associated insect fauna (Applicants Ayasse, Manfred ;  Steiger, Sandra )
• Intra-specific genetic diversity and ecophysiological performance of the aeroterrestrial green alga Klebsormidium (Klebsormidiophyceae, Streptophyta) in biological soil crusts along a gradient of land-use intensity (Applicant Karsten, Ulf )
• "Killing the winner" only? The virome of grassland soils under different land use intensity as the driver for microbial community structure and function (KiWion) (Applicants Chatzinotas, Antonis ;  Griebler, Christian ;  Schloter, Michael )
• Knowledge Transfer 2.0 - Making Biodiversity Research Effective for Biodiversity Conservation (Applicant Ammer, Christian )
• Land use and biodiversity determine the contribution of microbial necromass to soil carbon storage (BioNeCS) (Applicants Bi, Qing-Fang ;  Glaser, Bruno ;  Goldmann, Kezia ;  Kaiser, Klaus ;  Prada-Salcedo, Ph.D., Luis Daniel ;  Schrumpf, Marion )
• Land use, Biodiversity and Rodent-borne diseases (Applicants Imholt, Christian ;  Mayer-Scholl, Anne ;  Obiegala, Anna )
• Land-use effects on longevity and stem anatomical traits of perennial dicotyledonous species in grasslands (Applicant Roscher, Christiane )
• Land-use effects on patterns and processes in decomposer metacommunities in tree holes (Applicants Petermann, Jana ;  Weisser, Wolfgang W. )
• Land-use effects on plant-herbivore stoichiometry: micro- and macronutrients (Applicants Blüthgen, Nico ;  Kleinebecker, Till ;  Mody, Karsten )
• Land-use effects on plant regeneration strategies in grasslands and their relation to community assembly (Applicant Roscher, Christiane )
• Land use effects on response diversity in animal - plant interactions (Acronym: RESPONSE) (Applicant Blüthgen, Nico )
• Land-use effects on trophic niche variation across taxonomic groups and trophic levels (TrophNiche) (Applicant Parreno, Maria Alejandra )
• Land use intensity as a driver for abundance, diversity and activity of nitrifying microbes in soils from forest ecosystems (Applicants Schloter, Michael ;  Schulz, Stefanie )
• Land-use intensity effects on soil methane cycling microbes in grassland and forest soils (Applicants Kolb, Steffen ;  Marhan, Sven ;  Urich, Tim )
• Land-use responses of dung beetle communities and their ecosystem services (Applicants Assmann, Thorsten ;  Blüthgen, Nico ;  Schmitt, Thomas )
• Landscape heterogeneity and functional biodiversity (LANDSCAPES) (Applicant Westphal, Catrin )
• Learning from the Exploratories to make prediction beyond them: AI-based mapping and explanation of grassland biodiversity and ecosystem functions for entire landscape units (BEyond) (Applicants Hölzel, Norbert ;  Meyer, Hanna )
• Linking biodiversity to biogeochemical cycling (C-N cycling) in grasslands by soil structure (BIOSTRUC) (Applicants Franko, Uwe ;  Illerhaus, Bernhard ;  Joschko, Monika )
• Linking land use intensity, biodiversity, soil microbial processes and organo-mineral interactions for a mechanistic understanding of Nitrogen turnover in grassland ecosystems (BE_BioMON) (Applicants Dannenmann, Michael ;  Kiese, Ralf ;  Schloter, Michael ;  Schulz, Stefanie ;  Schweizer, Steffen )
• Links and fluxes in forest soil micro-food webs under different land use intensity (Applicant Rueß, Liliane )
• Microbial Data Synthesis and Meta-analysis for the Biodiversity Exploratories (Applicants Bonkowski, Michael ;  Buscot, Francois ;  Daniel, Rolf ;  Kandeler, Ellen ;  Overmann, Jörg )
• Microplastic occurrence and effects on soil fungi and processes along land use gradients (Applicant Rillig, Ph.D., Matthias C. )
• Mineral surfaces as hotspots for microbes and element cycling in the Biodiversity Exploratories (Applicants Kaiser, Klaus ;  Kandeler, Ellen ;  Mikutta, Christian ;  Schrumpf, Marion )
• Modeling land-use effects on forest soil food webs (Applicant Brose, Ulrich )
• Monitoring diversity patterns of active flagellate taxa in different grassland ecosystems as a tool in terrestrial ecology (Applicant Chatzinotas, Antonis )
• Multi-BEF: Impacts of the surrounding multitrophic biodiversity on ecosystem multifunctionality (Applicant Le Provost, Ph.D., Gaetane )
• Multi-trophic interactions of Butterflies Along a gradienT of MANagement intensity in grasslands and forest (BATMAN) (Applicant Klein, Alexandra-Maria )
• Mycorrhizal mycelia production in relation to forest management intensity and ecosystem functions (Applicant Pena, Ph.D., Rodica )
• Nanofauna (flagellates, amoebae) diversity in relation to land use and ecosystem functioning NANOFAUNA DIVERSITY (NANOFAUN) (Applicants Arndt, Hartmut ;  Bonkowski, Michael )
• Partitioning of Prokaryotic Functional Diversity under Different Land Use (Applicants Friedrich, Michael ;  Overmann, Jörg )
• pETchy: Patterns of evapotranspiration changing throughout the year (Applicants Lischeid, Gunnar ;  Sommer, Michael )
• Phosphorus cycling in grasslands and forests of differing diversity and land use (Applicant Oelmann, Yvonne )
• Plant-enzyme interactions along gradients of resource stoichiometry (PEGasuS) (Applicants Hamer, Ute ;  Kleinebecker, Till ;  Tischer, Alexander )
• Project vehicles for the "Exploratories for large-scale and long-term functional biodiversity research" (Applicant Fischer, Markus )
• Prokaryotic Diversity Changes and their Functional Interrelation to Land Use (ProFIL) (Applicants Friedrich, Michael ;  Overmann, Jörg )
• Quantifying the impact of forest management intensity and neighborhood diversity on individual tree shape and canopy space filling (Applicant Ammer, Christian )
• Rapid Biodiversity Assessment using DNA Barcodes in Exploratories: A case study on Diptera (Applicants Weisser, Wolfgang W. ;  Wägele, Johann Wolfgang )
• Reciprocal relationships between plant diversity and ecosystem productivity (BEF-Loops) (Applicant Weigelt, Alexandra )
• Recovery mechanisms of above and belowground diversity and function of grassland, following reduction in intensity of land use: RecovFun (Applicants Hamer, Ute ;  Hölzel, Norbert ;  Neuenkamp, Lena )
• Relationship between chemical profiles of plants, their herbivore biodiversity and land-use (Applicant Müller, Caroline )
• Resilience of grassland plant communities as influenced by root herbivores under different land use intensities (Applicants Jeltsch, Florian ;  Wurst, Susanne )
• Resilience of invertebrate communities in grassland soils (Applicant Wolters, Volkmar )
• Resource fluctuations and niche separation in plant communities: Can land-use effects on soil moisture explain observed patterns in plant diversity? (Applicant Dormann, Carsten )
• Response of birds to forest management and host-parasite-vector interactions (Applicants Renner, Swen Christoph ;  Schaefer, H. Martin )
• Satellite supported generation of area wide climate and vegetation datasets for an integrative analysis of ecosystem biodiversity relationships on grassland areas (Applicant Nauss, Thomas )
• Seasonal dynamic of yeast fungi in soils along land use gradients of beech forests (Applicant Yurkov, Andrey )
• Sebacinales community structure in roots and soils along land use gradients of the German Biodiversity Exploratories (Applicant Hempel, Stefan )
• Seed and seedling traits as related to plant diversity and community assembly in grasslands at different land-use intensity (Applicant Roscher, Christiane )
• Seed Predation and diversity of arthropod communities in Response to land-use INTensity (SPRINT). (Applicant Ott, David )
• Sensing Biodiversity Across Scales (SEBAS) (Applicants Dubovyk, Olena ;  Linstädter, Anja )
• Socio-cultural Dynamics of German Cultural Landscapes (SoCuLa) – A Future-oriented Perspective to 2030/2045 (Applicant Mehring, Marion )
• SpaceMic- Spatial assembly in soil microbial communities across scales, land cover, and land use (Applicant Jurburg, Stephanie )
• SPIDERFUN: Land-use effects on the functional role of spiders in food webs in permanent grasslands (Applicants Birkhofer, Klaus ;  Harms, Ph.D., Danilo ;  Krehenwinkel, Henrik )
• The Barcoding project: development of mass sequencing workflows. (Applicants Weisser, Wolfgang W. ;  Wägele, Johann Wolfgang )
• The economic trade-off between root hairs and mycorrhizal extraradical hyphae along a land use gradient (HAIRphae) (Applicant Bergmann, Joana )
• The effect of forest management and neighborhood diversity on seasonal tree growth responses (Applicant Ammer, Christian )
• The effect of forest management intensity, tree species and fungal-bacterial diversity on resource use, decomposition and gas emissions in dead Wood FunWood IV (Applicants Jehmlich, Nico ;  Noll, Matthias )
• The effect of land use intensity on biodiversity and functional role of biological soil crust communities with an emphasis on the biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus - CRUSTFUNCTION III (Applicants Glaser, Karin ;  Karsten, Ulf ;  Schulz, Stefanie )
• The effect of land-use related diversity on plant-soil feedbacks and plant-community coexistence (Applicant Joshi, Jasmin )
• The function of the hyphosphere in carbon and nutrient partitioning between plants and microorganisms in grassland soils under different land-use intensities (Applicants Kandeler, Ellen ;  Marhan, Sven )
• The functional role of soil biodiversity in grassland habitats: effects of land use and climate on niche properties, decomposition and greenhouse gas fluxes (Applicant Wolters, Volkmar )
• The interaction between signal diversity and pollinator behaviour along a land use gradient (Applicant Schaefer, H. Martin )
• The link between genetic diversity and species diversity: patterns and processes in grassland plants (Applicant Durka, Walter )
• The relationship between neutral and adaptive genetic diversity in the context of historic and present land use and landscape structure - GENLAND (Applicant Durka, Walter )
• The role of biodiversity in controlling biogeochemical processes under experimental climate change in grassland and forest systems (Applicant Dormann, Carsten )
• The role of nutrients for the variability of drought effects on community composition and productivity across land use gradients in grasslands: a trait-based approach (BETol 2) (Applicant Engelbrecht, Bettina M.J. )
• Tracking long-term phenology and genetic diversity changes in the Biodiversity Exploratories: a comparison of contemporary plants and historical specimen (Applicants Bossdorf, Oliver ;  Burbano, Ph.D., Hernán )
• Tree species effects on the release of dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen from decomposing logs (Applicant Matzner, Egbert )
• TREELANDS – Trees as Islands – on the phylogenetic isolation of trees in mixed forests (Applicant Müller, Jörg )
• Understanding the contribution of functional traits of individual fungal taxa to ecosystem functions under different land use scenarios (FunTrait) (Applicant Hempel, Stefan )
• Understanding variation of silicon and calcium in managed grasslands - (BEsic) (Applicants Bergmann, Joana ;  Schaller, Jörg )
• Unravelling the relation between Values of Nature and Telecoupling (VaNaTe) (Applicants Felipe-Lucia, María ;  Loos, Jacqueline ;  Martín López, Berta )
• Using biogeographical niche models to predict plant species responses to climate change in interaction with land use (Applicant Bruelheide, Helge )

Spokesperson Professor Dr. Markus Fischer