Welcome to the Population Ecology Group

Image: Holger Schielzeth

Our group covers three main lines of research, all united by the interest in understanding population-level biodiversity and its consequences for intra- und inter-species population dynamics. (i) trophic interactions and community dynamisc are the focus of Community Population Ecology line of research. (ii) Local adaptation, temporal population dynamics and behavioural ecology are the focus of Evolutionary Population Ecology line of resaerch. (iii) And the genomic architecture of genetic polymorphisms, speciation and hybridization are the focus of Molecular Population Ecology line of resarch. Furthermore, we are interested in (iv) ecological, evolutionary and startistical methods and therefore also cover the field that we call Population Ecology Methods.

Image: Jena-Experiment

Contemporary scientific work is often very collaborative. We are therefore involved in several large collaborative research project. This includes the long-running Jena Experiment that was established in 2002 and has been DFG-funded since then. More recently, we got engaged in a Collaborative Reserach Center (SFB-TRR 212) that is also funded by the DFG and studies the evolutionary ecology of individualized niches. Furthermore, we are participating in the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) in Halle-Jena-Leipzig, the Michael Stifel Center Jena (MSCJ) for Data-Driven & Simulation Science and the Interantional Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) run by Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena. Additionally, we are involved in more grass-roots projects such as the Nutrient Network (NutNet) and the team for the Statistical Quantification of Individual Differences (SQuID). And finally, there are always ongoing individually funded projects that are also important.

Image: Holger Schielzeth

We are a team of currently six postdoctal researchers, three PhD students, five technical assistants, and four gardeners. We will occasionally solicit applications for funded PhD student positions. Furthermore, if you are interested in joining the group with external funding or as part of your studies, you may contact us at popecol@uni-jena.de.

We offer a variety of classes for the BSc level in Biology and the MSc level in Ecology, Evolution and Systematics. The topics range from introduction to faunistic field methods, evolutionary, community and conservation ecology, via population genetics to scientific writing and presentations. We also continously offer a selection of topics for Bachelor or Master projects. The list of ongoing and completed projects gives an impression about the range of topcis that we offer. Please to not hesitate to contact us if you are interested and movitated to work in the field of evolutiony, molecular or community ecology.

Barnes, D., Scherber, C., Brose, U., Borer, E.T., Ebeling, A., Gauzens, B., Giling, D.P., Hines, J., Isbell, F., Ristok, C., Tilman, D., Weisser, W.W. & Eisenhauer, N. (2020). Biodiversity enhances the multitrophic control of arthropod herbivory. Science Advances doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abb6603

van der Plas, F., Schröder-Georgi, T., Weigelt, A., Barry, K., Meyer, S., Alzate, A., Barnard, R.L., Buchmann, N., de Kroon, H., Ebeling, A., Eisenhauer, N., Engels, C., Fischer, M., Gleixner, G., Hildebrandt, A., Koller-France, E., Leimer, S., Milcu, A., Mommer, L., Niklaus, P.A., Oelmann, Y., Roscher, C., Scherber, C., Scherer-Lorenzen, M., Scheu, S., Schmid, B., Schulze, E.-D., Temperton, V., Tscharntke, T., Voigt, W., Weisser, W., Wilcke, W. & Wirth, C. (2020). Plant traits alone are poor predictors of ecosystem properties and long-term ecosystem functioning. Nature Ecology & Evolution doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-01316-9

Moran, N., Sánchez-Tójar, A., Schielzeth, H. & Reinhold, K. (2020). Poor nutritional condition promotes high-risk behaviours: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Biological Reviews doi: 10.1111/brv.12655

Westneat, D.F., Araya-Ajoy, Y.G., Allegue, H., Class, B., Dingemanse, N., Dochtermann, N.A., Garamszegi, L.Z., Martin, J.G.A., Nakagawa, S., Réale, D. & Schielzeth, H. (2020). Collision between biological process and statistical analysis revealed by mean-centering. Journal of Animal Ecology doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.13360.

Jochum, M., Fischer, M., Isbell, F., Roscher, C., van der Plas, F., Boch, S., Boenisch, G., Buchmann, N., Catford, J.A., Cavender-Bares, J., Ebeling, A., Eisenhauer, N., Gleixner, G., Hölzel, N., Kattge, J., Klaus, V.H., Kleinebecker, T., Lange, M., Le Provost, G., Meyer, S.T., Molina-Venegas, R., Mommer, L., Oelmann, Y., Penone, C., Prati, D., Reich, P.B., Rindisbacher, A., Schäfer, D., Scheu, S., Schmid, B., Tilman, D., Tscharntke, T., Vogel, A., Wagg, C., Weigelt, A., Weisser, W.W., Wilcke, W. & Manning, P. (2020). The results of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments are realistic. Nature Ecology & Evolution doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-1280-9

Schmoll, T., Rudolfsen, G., Schielzeth, H. & Kleven, O. (2020). Sperm velocity in a promiscuous bird across experimental media of different viscosities. Proceedings of the Royal Society B doi: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1031

Ochoa-Hueso, R., Borer, E.T., Seabloom, E.W., Hobbie, S.E., Risch, A.C., Collins, S.L., Alberti, J., Bahamonde, H.A., Brown, C.S., Caldeira, M.C., Daleo, P., Dickman, C.R., Ebeling, A., Eisenhauer, N., Esch, E.H., Eskelinen, A., Fernández, V., Güsewell, S., Gutierrez-Larruga, B., Hofmockel, K., Laungani, R., Lind, E., López, A., McCulley, R.L., Moore, J.L., Peri, P.L., Power, S.A., Price, J.N., Prober, S.M., Roscher, C., Sarneel, J.M., Schütz, M., Siebert, J., Standish, R.J., Velasco Ayuso, S., Virtanen, R., Wardle, G.M., Wiehl, G., Yahdjian, L. & Zamin, T. (2020). Microbial processing of plant remains is co-limited by multiple nutrients in global grasslands. Global Change Biology doi: 10.1111/gcb.15146

Lutgen, D., Ritter, R., Olsem, R.-A., Schielzeth, H., Gruselius, J., Ewels, P., García, J.T., Shirihai, H., Schweizer, M., Suh, A. & Burri, R. (2020). Linked-read sequencing enables haplotype-resolved resequencing at population scale. Molecular Ecology Resources Molecular Ecology Resources 20: 1311-1322. doi: 10.1111/1755-0998.13192

Schielzeth, H., Dingemanse, N., Nakagawa, S., Westneat, D.F., Allegue, H., Teplisky, C., Réale, D., Dochtermann, N.A., Garamszegi, L.Z. & Araya-Ajoy, Y.G. (2020). Robustness of linear mixed-effects models to violations of distributional assumptions. Methods in Ecology and Evolution doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.13434

Shah, A., Hoffman, J.I. & Schielzeth, H. (2020). Comparative analysis of genomic repeat content in gomphocerine grasshoppers reveals expansion of satellite DNA and helitrons in species with unusually large genomes. Genome Biology and Evolution doi: 10.1093/gbe/evaa119

Voelkl, B., Altman, N.S., Forsman, A., Forstmeier, W., Gurevitch, J., Jaric, I., Karp, N.A., Kas, M.J., Schielzeth, H., Van de Casteele, T. & Würbel, H. (2020). Reproducibility of animal research in light of biological variation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience doi: 10.1038/s41583-020-0313-3

Schielzeth, H. & Dieker, P. (2020). The green-brown polymorphism of the club-legged grasshopper Gomphocerus sibiricus is heritable and appears genetically simple. BMC Evolutionary Biology 20: 63. doi: 10.1186/s12862-020-01630-7

Ebeling, A., Lind, E.W., Meyer, S.T., Barnes, A.D., Borer, E.T., Eisenhauer, N. & Weisser, W.W. (2020). Contrasting effects of plant diversity on β- and γ-diversity of grassland invertebrates. Ecology e03057. doi: 10.1002/ecy.3057

Buzhdygan, O.Y., Meyer, S.T., Weisser, W.W., Eisenhauer, N., Ebeling, A., Borrett, S.R., Buchmann, N., Cortois, R., De Deyn, G.B., de Kroon, H., Gleixner, G., Hertzog, L.R., Hines, J., Lange, M., Mommer, L., Ravenek, J., Scherber, C., Scherer-Lorenzen, M., Scheu, S., Schmid, B., Steinauer, K., Strecker, T., Tietjen, B., Vogel, A., Weigelt , A. & Petermann, J.S. (2020). Biodiversity increases multitrophic energy use efficiency, flow and storage in grasslands. Nature Ecology & Evolution doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-1123-8

Dietrich, P., Roeder, A., Cesarz, S., Eisenhauer, N., Ebeling, A., Schmid, B., Schulze, E.D., Wagg, C., Weigelt, A. & Roscher, C. (2020). Nematode communities, plant nutrient economy and life-cycle characteristics jointly determine plant monoculture performance over 12 years. Oikos doi: 10.1111/oik.06989

Schielzeth, H. (2020). Varianzdekomposition mit gemischten Modellen zur Analyse von Individualität im Verhalten. Naguib, M. & Krause, E.T. (eds): Methoden der Verhaltensbiologie. pp. 94-99. Springer, Berlin. doi: 10.1007/978-3-662-60415-1_8

Köhler, G. & Schielzeth, H. (2020). Green-brown polymorphism in alpine grasshoppers affects body temperature. Ecology and Evolution 10: 441-450. doi: 10.1002/ece3.5908