Dung beetles are important secondary seed dispersers of mammal-dispersed plants in tropical forests – in our study site and worldwide. Beetles often bury the seeds that are included inside dung piles into the ground – if they are not too large in relation to the beetle. Beetles clean large seeds …
[in German only] Hessen-Schafft-Wissen hat kürzlich zwei Podcasts veröffentlicht – einen, in dem Nico Blüthgen über die Faszination und Relevanz von Regenwäldern spricht und das Projekt in Ecuador vorstellt (hier), und einen weiteren, in dem Nina Farwig den Zusammenhang zwischen Biodiversität und Ökosystemfunktionen erklärt (hier).
This 10-min video shows the hypotheses behind, and implementation of, the perturbation – recovery experiment.
Fundación Jocotoco is currently building a new research station – the Chocó Lab – in the Canandé rainforest reserve in Ecuador, thanks to a generous donation. The Research Unit Reassembly and TU Darmstadt are supporting the lab and scientific equipment. See News from Jocotoco and a short video.
Atikel in der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung am 21. Juli 2021 von Hildegard Kaulen. Können komplexe Ökosysteme sich wieder regenerieren? Forscher schreiben am Drehbuch für den Wiederaufbau der von Menschenhand zerstörten Natur. Nur für FAZ-Abonnenten lesbar: LINK.
A very enjoyable article about our research unit just appeared in TU Darmstadt’s hoch3 journal, written by journalist Hildegard Kaulen. Also in German language here. And our most poisonous frog made it on the title page.
A spectacular new ant species has been discovered by Phil Hoenle – in the rainforest just behind the research station. The paper in ZooKeys describes this new species, Odonotomachus davidsoni – and accompanies the formal description for the first time with 3D images, making Museum specimen accessible to the public. …
Phil Hoenle discovered a new Strumigenys species in the study site. Within the large global ant genus Strumigenys, this species is a morphologically outlier with its long trap-jaw mandibles and smooth surface sculpturing. The species description in ZooKeys caught a lot of attention by the media: it was not only …
How does nature renew itself? – First press release by TU Darmstadt on the day when funding was announced by DFG. https://www.tu-darmstadt.de/universitaet/aktuelles_meldungen/einzelansicht_307968.en.jsp
