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Introduction
Additional affiliations
January 2012 - present
September 2001 - present
Education
September 1983 - June 1996
University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
Field of study
- Agriculture & Ecology
Publications
Publications (705)
A recent discussion paper Sufficiency as a “Strategy of the Enough”: A Necessary Debate by the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) aims to intensify the debate on sufficiency, a central but neglected element of future-oriented policy. It defines sufficiency as the need to limit the consumption and production of ecologically critical go...
Background
Biodiversity loss is particularly pronounced in agroecosystems. Agricultural fields cover about one-third of the European Union and are crucial habitats for many species. At the same time, agricultural fields receive the highest pesticide input in European landscapes. Non-target species, including plants and arthropods, closely related t...
Aim: The relative importance of traits and phylogeny to predict species extinction risk is unclear and it depends on which traits
are measured and their phylogenetic conservatism. Here, we evaluate the power of functional traits, ecological characteristics,
such as range size and specialization, and phylogeny to predict climatic risks in European b...
Humans are significantly impacting ecosystems worldwide. Scientists of the IPBES Global Assessment are therefore calling for a transformative change that includes all aspects of society in order to address drivers of biodiversity loss. However, these calls are rather abstract, and thus it remains unclear how this goal can be achieved.
With this con...
Aim
Anthropogenic‐driven biodiversity loss can impact ecosystem stability. However, most studies have only evaluated the diversity–stability relationship at the local scale and we do not fully understand which factors stabilize animal populations and communities across scales. Here, we investigate the role of species dispersal ability, climate, spa...
Floral nectar sugar composition is assumed to reflect the nutritional demands and foraging behaviour of pollinators, but the relative contributions of evolutionary and abiotic factors to nectar sugar composition remain largely unknown across the angiosperms. We compiled a comprehensive dataset on nectar sugar composition for 414 insect-pollinated p...
Aus der literatur- und erfahrungsbasierten Analyse der Naturschutzverwaltung in den Bundesländern in Teil 1 des Beitrags werden 20 Thesen abgeleitet. Mit diesen Anregungen soll ein grundlegender Reformprozess eingeleitet werden, um die Naturschutzverwaltung für das 21. Jahrhundert zukunftsfähig zu gestalten. Diese
betreffen (1) organisationale Stru...
Halting and reversing the ongoing insect decline requires in-depth knowledge on key drivers. Due to their sensitivity to habitat quality, butterflies are valuable indicators for grassland management intensity, including mowing. However, most studies examining mowing regime impacts on butterflies are limited to small spatial extents. Here, we tested...
A nationwide survey of opinions, with the participation of scientists and practitioners as well as evaluation of scientific work, shows that nature conservation administration is less and less able to fulfil its mandate. This initially becomes clear when politically set biodiversity targets are missed. Behind this is a bundle of complex challenges,...
Based on an extensive model intercomparison, we assessed trends in biodiversity and ecosystem services from historical reconstructions and future scenarios of land-use and climate change. During the 20th century, biodiversity declined globally by 2 to 11%, as estimated by a range of indicators. Provisioning ecosystem services increased several fold...
Citizen Science projects aim to make data entry as easy as possible and often provide online data recording or data recording with an App. However, many participants cannot or do not want to use these possibilities and record their data the “old-fashioned” way with pen on paper. We ask whether the quality of data recorded in the “old-fashioned” way...
Zusammenfassung
Der Biodiversitätsverlust schreitet in bedrohlichem Ausmaß voran. Mit dem Global Biodiversity Framework und voraussichtlich dem Nature Restoration Law bestehen nun auf internationaler und europäischer Ebene vielversprechende Ansätze, ihm Herr zu werden. Jetzt ist der Bundesgesetzgeber – nicht zuletzt aus verfassungsrechtlichen Erwäg...
Species niches may impact population and community stability by influencing average population sizes and species richness, however, niche-based approaches are rarely applied when studying stability in natural communities. Here we utilise a niche-based approach to link niche characteristics to community stability in 140 European butterfly communitie...
Jahresbericht 2022 des Citizen Science-Projektes "Tagfalter-Monitoring Deutschland"
EU policies, such as the EU biodiversity strategy 2030 and the Birds and Habitats Directives, demand unbiased, integrated and regularly updated biodiversity and ecosystem service data. However, efforts to monitor wildlife and other species groups are spatially and temporally fragmented, taxonomically biased, and lack integration in Europe. To bridg...
Die immensen Herausforderungen der Klima- und der Biodiversitätskrise sind nur zu bewältigen, wenn beide Politikfelder integriert betrachtet werden, da sie umfangreich interagieren. Die Wissenschaft, aber auch die globalen Institutionen haben endlich begonnen, nach gemeinsamen Lösungsansätzen zu suchen.
Einführung in das Schwerpunktthema
Rice is a staple food for half of the human population, but the effects of diversification on yields, economy, biodiversity and ecosystem services have not been synthesized. Here we quantify diversification effects on environmental and socio-economic aspects of global rice production. We performed a second-order meta-analysis based on 25 first-orde...
Die drei großen Umweltkrisen, der Klimawandel, der Biodiversitätsverlust und die Verschmutzung der Umwelt, haben auch erheblichen Einfluss auf die Gesundheit und das Wohlbefinden der Menschen. Das verdeutlichen die jüngsten Erfahrungen mit Überflutungen sowie der Covid‑19-Pandemie. Neben neuen Herausforderungen sind es auch altbekannte Umweltproble...
Ecological engineering using linear flower strips is proposed as an alternative to insecticide-based rice pest management. However, its success depends on farmers’ appreciations of related interventions as part of an ecosystem restoration process. We examined agronomic and pest management responses to flower strips among 305 farmers surveyed at 12...
Grasslands are globally distributed and naturally occurring; however, in Europe,most grasslands are anthropogenically created or altered by livestock grazing or mowing. Low-intensity use and management have led to species-rich communities in European grasslands. The intensification of crop production and livestock farming with stabling throughout t...
n this study, the individual travel cost method and Poisson regression are used to estimate the recreational benefits of Lake Pandin as an ecotourism site. It was assumed that the recreational value of Lake Pandin would be reflected by the travel cost incurred by the tourists during the visit. The local travel origin of international tourists was u...
At large scales, the mechanisms underpinning stability in natural communities may vary in importance due to changes in species composition, mean abundance, and species richness. Here we link species characteristics (niche positions) and community characteristics (richness and abundance) to evaluate the importance of stability mechanisms in 156 butt...
Extensively managed grasslands are globally recognized for their high biodiversity value. Over the past century, a continuous loss and degradation of grassland habitats has been observed across Europe that is mainly attributable to agricultural intensification and land abandonment. Particularly insects have suffered from the loss of grassland habit...
Annual report of the german butterfly monitoring scheme
Effective policies to halt biodiversity loss require knowing which anthropogenic drivers are the most important direct causes. Whereas previous knowledge has been limited in scope and rigor, here we statistically synthesize empirical comparisons of recent driver impacts found through a wide-ranging review. We show that land/sea use change has been...
Citizen science (CS) projects, being popular across many fields of science, have recently also become a popular tool to collect biodiversity data. Although the benefits of such projects for science and policy making are well understood, relatively little is known about the benefits participants get from these projects as well as their personal back...
Soil silicon enhances rice defenses against a range of biotic stresses. However, the magnitude of these effects can depend on the nature of the rice variety. We conducted a series of greenhouse experiments to examine the effects of silicon on planthoppers (Nilaparvata lugens [BPH] and Sogatella furcifera [WBPH]), a leafhopper (Nephotettix virescens...
Aim
It is important to understand the factors affecting community stability because ecosystem function is increasingly at risk from biodiversity loss. Here, we evaluate how a key factor, the position of local environmental conditions within the thermal range of the species, influences the stability of butterfly communities at a continental scale....
Native seeds – opportunity or risk for biodiversity conservation? A thesis paper on the implementation of § 40 BNatSchG
According to § 40 BNatSchG, since March 2020 only plants that “have
their genetic origin in the area concerned” may be spread in the wild.
This article discusses possibilities for implementing this regulation with regard to the...
Biological control services of agroecosystems depend on the functional diversity of species traits. However, the relationship between arthropod traits and landscape heterogeneity is still poorly understood, especially in tropical rice agroecosystems, which harbor a high diversity of often specialized species. We investigated how landscape heterogen...
Food systems are primary drivers of human and environmental health, but the understanding of their diverse and dynamic co-transformation remains limited. We use a data-driven approach to disentangle different development pathways of national food systems (i.e. ‘transformation archetypes’) based on historical, intertwined trends of food system struc...
Increasing evidence—synthesized in this paper—shows that economic growth contributes to biodiversity loss via greater resource consumption and higher emissions. Nonetheless, a review of international biodiversity and sustainability policies shows that the majority advocate economic growth. Since improvements in resource use efficiency have so far n...
The two most urgent and interlinked environmental challenges humanity faces are climate change and biodiversity loss. We are entering a pivotal decade for both the international biodiversity and climate change agendas with the sharpening of ambitious strategies and targets by the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework C...
Data from: Landscape heterogeneity filters functional traits of rice arthropods in tropical agroecosystems
Annual report of the Citizen Science project Butterfly Monitoring Germany
Ecological engineering (EE) involves the design and management of human systems based on ecological principles to maximize ecosystem services and minimize external inputs. Pest management strategies have been developed but farmer adoption is lacking and unsustainable. EE practices need to be socially acceptable and it requires shifts in social norm...
Rice ecosystems vary greatly in climate, edaphic conditions, landscape heterogeneity, agricultural management and biodiversity. However, ongoing land use intensification and conversion to large-scale monoculture are threatening this diversity. We analyzed how rice-growing regions in Southeast Asia differ in diversity and composition of vascular pla...
This study aimed at clarifying species composition and ecological structure of carabids associated with the oilseed rape during its flowering, ripening and after the harvest. The research also encompassed the adjacent pastures. Field work was carried out in 2017. Pitfall traps (5 in each site) were set in 10 sampling sites in different regions in S...
Multiple global change pressures, and their interplay, cause plant-pollinator extinctions and modify species assemblages and interactions. This may alter the risks of pathogen host shifts, intra- or interspecific pathogen spread, and emergence of novel population or community epidemics. Flowers are hubs for pathogen transmission. Consequently, the...
Since 1989, China has established a system of powerful laws and regulations aimed to preserve its rich natural flora and fauna. However, this legislative framework still has shortcomings, in terms of sentencing standards across related crimes and the extent of scientific basis for sentences. Here, we review Chinese biodiversity protection laws and...
Rice production is often associated with high pesticide input. To improve farmers’ practice, sustainable management approaches are urgently needed, such as ecological engineering (EE), which aims at enhancing beneficial arthropods while reducing pesticides. Here, we implemented and tested EE in Cambodian rice fields by comparing: (i) fields not tre...
• Less transformed and managed grassland habitats in Asia serve as a good frame of reference for studies on demographics and ecological situations of grassland species in Europe. In this study, using AFLPs (transposon insertion display), we compared the genetic structures of populations of the endangered and highly specialised scarce large blue (Ph...
Multiple anthropogenic challenges threaten nature’s contributions to human well-being. Agricultural expansion and conventional intensification are degrading biodiversity and ecosystem functions, thereby undermining the natural foundations on which agriculture is itself built. Averting the worst effects of global environmental change and assuring ec...
Despite conservation commitments, most countries still lack large-scale biodiversity monitoring programs to track progress toward agreed targets. Monitoring program design is frequently approached from a top-down, data-centric perspective that ignores the socio-cultural context of data collection. A rich landscape of people and organizations, with...
Trait-based analyses explaining the different responses of species and communities to environmental changes are increasing in frequency. European butterflies are an indicator group that responds rapidly to environmental changes with extensive citizen science contributions to documenting changes of abundance and distribution. Species traits have bee...
In this report, we update the European Grassland Butterfly Indicator, present new butterfly
indicators for widespread species, woodland butterflies, as well as butterflies in urban environments, in Natura 2000 areas and as climate change indicators. The indicators use field data up to and including the 2018 field season. The method for calculating...
Humanity is on a deeply unsustainable trajectory. We are exceeding planetary boundaries and unlikely to meet many international sustainable development goals and global environmental targets. Until recently, there was no broadly accepted framework of interventions that could ignite the transformations needed to achieve these desired targets and goa...
Non-technical summary
Resilience is a cross-disciplinary concept that is relevant for understanding the sustainability of the social and environmental conditions in which we live. Most research normatively focuses on building or strengthening resilience, despite growing recognition of the importance of breaking the resilience of, and thus transform...
Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are nonmaterial benefits that people obtain from ecosystems. The CES sub-categories cover a wide range of domains (e.g. recreation, conservation of cultural heritage, human-nature relations). The CES concept has been proposed to acknowledge the nonmaterial values linking people and nature in social-ecological syste...
Targets for human development are increasingly connected with targets for nature, however, existing scenarios do not explicitly address this relationship. Here, we outline a strategy to generate scenarios centred on our relationship with nature to inform decision-making at multiple scales.
This report presents the proposal for an EU Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (EU-PoMS), based on the findings of an expert group of 21 people from 12 European countries. The EU-PoMS delivers of a cost-effective Core Scheme, which includes the most relevant taxa, is able to detect changes in the status of pollinators, has EU-wide coverage, and uses stan...
The European Union's Natura 2000 (N2000) is among the largest international networks of protected areas. One of its aims is to secure the status of a predetermined set of (targeted) bird and butterfly species. However, nontarget species may also benefit from N2000. We evaluated how the terrestrial component of this network affects the abundance of...
Wer Schmetterlinge schützen will, muss wissen, wo sie vorkommen. Die Fundmeldungen aus bestehenden Monitoringprogrammen lagen bislang jedoch nur regional vor. Erstmals führt der Atlas die Verbreitungsdaten aller 184 heimischen Tagfalter- und der 24 Widderchenarten zu einem schlüssigen Bild ihrer Gesamtverbreitung zusammen und liefert so ein wirkung...
During a research conducted in oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) fields in four European countries (Bulgaria, Germany, Romania and Switzerland), species composition and ecological structure of the ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) fauna associated with the rape were studied. Macropterous species represented 65% of all collected carabids (in all...
Biodiversity can be characterised across several dimensions, which are crucial for the evaluation of ecosystemservices. Functional diversity, a key aspect of biodiversity, provides a more realistic characterisation of thefunctioning of ecological communities than only studying their taxonomic diversity. The relevance of functionalecology studies ha...
Despite the scientific consensus on the extinction crisis and its anthropogenic origin, the quantification of historical trends and of future scenarios of biodiversity and ecosystem services has been limited, due to the lack of inter-model comparisons and harmonized scenarios. Here, we present a multi-model analysis to assess the impacts of land-us...
Increasing evidence—synthesized in this paper—shows that economic growth contributes to biodiversity loss via greater resource consumption and higher emissions. Nonetheless, a review of international biodiversity and sustainability policies shows that the majority advocate economic growth. Since improvements in resource use efficiency have so far n...
Politik und Öffentlichkeit sind derzeit damit beschäftigt, die Corona-Epidemie einzudämmen. Der Ursprung der Pandemie tritt deshalb erstmal in den Hintergrund. Aber dieser Ursprung ist eine überragend wichtige Frage. Denn nur, wenn wir ihn verstehen, können wir künftigen Pandemien vorbeugen.
https://www.spektrum.de/news/warum-umweltschutz-auch-seuc...
Aim
Niche‐based models often ignore spatial variation in the climatic niche of a species across its occupied range and the related variation in the response to changing climate conditions. This assumption may lead to inaccurate predictions of species distribution shifts under climate change. Models have been developed to address this issue, but mos...
Here we build on the manifesto 'World Scientists' Warning to Humanity, issued by the Alliance of World Scientists. As a group of conservation biologists deeply concerned about the decline of insect populations, we here review what we know about the drivers of insect extinctions, their consequences, and how extinctions can negatively impact humanity...
The fate of humans and insects intertwine, especially through the medium of plants. Global environmental change, including land transformation and contamination, is causing concerning insect diversity loss, articulated in the companion review Scientists' warning to humanity on insect extinctions. Yet, despite a sound philosophical foundation, recog...