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.

Image: Günter Köhler

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.

Martí, E., Milani, D., Bardella, V.B., Albuquerque, L., Song, H., Palacios-Gimenez, O.M. & Cabral-de-Mello, D.C. (2021). Cytogenomic analysis unveils mixed molecular evolution and recurrent chromosome rearrangements shaping the multigene families on Schistocerca grasshopper genomes. Evolution doi: 10.1111/evo.14287

Stoffel, M.A., Nakagawa, S. & Schielzeth, H. (2021). partR2: Partitioning R2 in generalized linear mixed models. PeerJ 9: e11414. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11414 [R package]

Winter, G., Varma, M. & Schielzeth, H. (2021). Simple inheritance of color and pattern polymorphism in the steppe grasshopper Chorthippus dorsatus. Heredity doi: 10.1038/s41437-021-00433-w [Data availability]

van Moorsel, S.J., Hahl, T., Petchey, O.L., Ebeling, A., Eisenhauer, N., Schmid, B. & Wagg, C. (2021). Co-occurrence history increases ecosystem stability and resilience in experimental plant communities. Ecology 102: e03205. doi:10.1002/ecy.3205 [Data availability]

Roeder, A., Schweingruber, F.H., Ebeling, A., Eisenhauer, N., Fischer, M. & Roscher, C. (2021). Plant diversity effects on plant longevity and their relationships to population stability in experimental grasslands. Journal of Ecology doi:10.1111/1365-2745.13661

Strecker, T., Jesch, A., Bachmann, D., Jüds, M., Karbstein, K., Ravenek, J., Roscher, C., Weigelt , A., Eisenhauer, N. & Scheu, S. (2021). Incorporation of mineral nitrogen into the soil food web as affected by plant community composition. Ecology and Evolution doi:10.1002/ece3.7325

Mutwill, A.M., Schielzeth, H., Zimmermann, T.D., Richter, H., Kaiser, S. & Sachser, N. (2021). Individuality meets plasticity: endocrine phenotypes across male dominance rank acquisition in a complex social environment. Hormones and Behavior doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2021.104967

Van Sundert, K., Arfin Khan, M.A.S., Bharath, S., Buckley, Y.M., Caldeira, M.C., Donohue, I., Dubbert, M., Ebeling, A., Eisenhauer, N., Eskelinen, A., Finn, A., Gebauer, T., Haider, S., Hansart, A., Jentsch, A., Kübert, A., Nijs, I., Nock, C.A., Nogueira, C., Porath‐Krause, A.J., Radujković, D., Raynaud, X., Risch, A.C., Roscher, C., Scherer‐Lorenzen, M., Schuchardt, M.A., Schütz, M., Siebert, J., Sitters, J., Spohn, M., Virtanen, R., Werner, C., Wilfahrt, P. & Vicca, S. (2021). Fertilized graminoids intensify negative drought effects on grassland productivity. Global Change Biology doi: 10.1111/gcb.15583

Mahadevaraju, S., Fear, J.M., Akeju, M., Galletta, B.J., Pinheiro, M.M.L.S., Avelino, C.C., Cabral-de-Mello, D.C., Conlon, K., Dell’Orso, S., Demere, Z., Mansuria, K., Mendonça, C.A., Palacios-Gimenez, O.M., Ross, E., Savery, M., Yu, K., Smith, H.E., Sartorelli, V., Yang, H., Rusan, N.M., Vibranovski4, M.D., Matunis, E. & Oliver, B. (2021). Dynamic sex chromosome expression in Drosophila male germ cells. Nature Communications 12: 892. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-20897-y

Santander, M.D., Cabral-de-Mello, D.C., Taffarel, A., Martí, D.A., Palacios-Gimenez, O.M. & Castollo, E.R.D. (2021). New insights into the six decades of Mesa’s hypothesis of chromosomal evolution in Ommexechinae grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acridoidea). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 20: 1-15. doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa188/6138200

Skarbek, C.J., Ebeling, A., Meyer, S.T., Schulze, C., Sepperl, A. & Pufal, G. (2021). Testing a highly replicable and standardized method to rapidly assess seed removal probabilities. Basic and Applied Ecology 52: 15-23. doi: 10.1016/j.baae.2021.02.008

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.