Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration
Projects
Biodiversity Exploratories – Botany Core Team
As primary producers, plants are fundamental to understand the effects of land use on ecosystem processes because many land-use effects will be mediated via changes in plant diversity with cascading effects through the entire food web. Since the beginning of the DFG funded Biodiversity Exploratory priority program, the core project Botany has therefore been examining the diversity of vascular plants, lichens and mosses in both grassland and forests, and as a major ecosystem process the productivity of grasslands.
Curious for more? Look through some of the project publications:
Freitag, M., Hölzel, N., Neuenkamp, L., … Klaus, V. H. (2023). Increasing plant species richness by seeding has marginal effects on ecosystem functioning in agricultural grasslands. Journal of Ecology, 111, 1968–1984. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14154
Bolliger, R., Neuenkamp, L., Prati, D., & Fischer, M. (2025). The effect of land-use intensity on the species-area relationship of plants within temperate grasslands. Basic and Applied Ecology, 87, 92-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2025.06.002
CORREDORAS
One of society’s key challenges is addressing global change, where human actions cause cascading, possibly irreversible impacts on Earth systems, their functioning, service provision and stability to disturbances. Ecological network research has become essential for understanding these ecosystem aspects. While theoretical progress on spatial and temporal variation in interactions exists, empirical evidence over time remains limited. Yet, effective ecosystem management requires tracing baseline ecosystem complexity before current global changes. CORREDORAS addresses this by reconstructing past climates, communities, and their stability to disturbance regimes through ecological networks, using palaeoecological records from the central Pyrenees, spanning centuries to millennia.
Forest recovery mechanisms
Forest management and wood extraction affect forest ecosystem, their biodiversity and functioning. In 1975 the forestry board has put aside a fraction of the state forest untouched to monitor recovery mechanisms and the timeline in which they occur. While tree- and understory vegetation-centered monitoring has been showing the re-establishment of the dominant tree species in all stages of tree growth, recovery mechanisms of other ecosystem compartments and services are still unknown, e.g. soils. In collaboration with Münster University and the forestry board (Wald & Holz) we will assess soil-related benefits and mechanism of reduction/stop of forest management intensity extending the already existing monitoring system of untouched forests monitoring system by comparing them to managed forests. We will first focus on soil diversity and related ecosystem services relevant under current climate-change, i.e. carbon-related services including carbon stocks, but also the more mobile stages of the carbon cycle mediated by soil biotic communities and they trophic interactions. This monitoring system is planned long-term and thus invites collaboration of everyone who is interested.
Curious? Look through some of the project publications:
Klein-Raufhake, T., Hölzel, N., Schaper, J.J., Elmer, M., Fornfeist, M., Linnemann, B., Meyer, M., Neuenkamp, L., Rentemeister, K., Santora, L., Wöllecke, J. and Hamer, U. (2025), Disentangling the Impact of Forest Management Intensity Components on Soil Biological Processes. Glob Change Biol, 31: e70018. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70018
https://www1.wdr.de/lokalzeit/landwirtschaft/luentener-wald-moor-klima-schuetzter-100.html
https://www.lwl.org/pressemitteilungen/nr_mitteilung.php?urlID=61337
Stay tuned for more!
MYFUN
Occupying 45 % of the Earth’s land surface, drylands are regions with low rainfall, high temperatures and even higher evapotranspiration. Drylands also support more than a third of the world’s population but are vulnerable to environmental changes. Mycorrhizal fungi, which have existed since the first plants appeared on dry land millions of years ago, contribute to the diversity and functioning of drylands. The question is how do they do this. The EU-funded MYFUN project will seek to answer this question. It will also investigate how the contribution of mycorrhizal fungi to dryland multifunctionality might change under the forecasted global environmental change and the resource economy of the plant community. The main project funding is over, but now we finalize publications and dive deeper into mechanistic insights from experiments.
Potential of nature-friendly urban greenspace
Human modification and urban sprawl of and within the landscape increase the importance of urban greenspace as alternative habitat for plant and animals as well as for exposure of citizens to nature and associated benefits to human-wellbeing. Yet, how nature-friendly management of urban greenspace that´s also accepted by the city population should look like, and how nature-friendly management affect biodiversity and functioning of urban ecosystems especially under climate-change is yet unclear. Thus, in together with Münster and Bochum University we aim to disentangle these questions by setting up a long-term sampling network across urban parks in Nordrhein-Westfalen. While this platform explicitly invites collaboration from anyone who is interested we start our investigation by looking at effects of urban diversity and functioning of plants and soil to experimental species addition and reduction of land-use intensity.
Curious? Look through some of the project publications:
Fischer, L. K., Neuenkamp, L., Lampinen, J., Tuomi, M., Alday, J. G., Bucharova, A., ... & Klaus, V. H. (2020). Public attitudes toward biodiversity‐friendly greenspace management in Europe. Conservation Letters, 13(4), e12718. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12718
Neuenkamp, L., Fischer, L. K., Schröder, R., & Klaus, V. (2021). Urban ecosystems: potentials, challenges, and solutions. Basic and Applied Ecology, 56, 281-288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2021.08.010 and the related special issue in Basic and Applied Ecology
Pinho, P., Casanelles-Abella, J., Luz, A. C., Kubicka, A. M., Branquinho, C., Laanisto, L., ... & Moretti, M. (2021). Research agenda on biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services in European cities. Basic and Applied Ecology, 53, 124-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2021.02.014
Lampinen, J., Tuomi, M., Fischer, L. K., Neuenkamp, L., Alday, J. G., Bucharova, A., ... & Klaus, V. H. (2021). Acceptance of near-natural greenspace management relates to ecological and socio-cultural assigned values among European urbanites. Basic and Applied Ecology, 50, 119-131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2020.10.006
Stay tuned for more!
Recovery Mechanisms of agricultural grasslands: RecovFun
Extensification - reducing the intensity of agricultural land use - is a widely promoted strategy to restore biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in grasslands. However, its effectiveness under varying site-specific conditions remains insufficiently understood. In RecovFUN we use the large-scale land-use reduction experiment across 45 grassland sites in three German regions conducted within the DFG funded priority program Biodiversity Exploratories to assess extensification responses in a broad set of above- and belowground indicators. Indicators include abiotic conditions, taxonomic and functional community composition of plants and soil microbes, as well as ecosystem functioning and services.
Curious? Look through some of the project publications:
Falk-Rudhard Schreiner, Norbert Hölzel, Ute Hamer, Lena Neuenkamp. Towards a comprehensive evaluation of ecosystem restoration measures. Authorea August 12, 2025. https://doi.org/10.22541/au.174301724.48
Falk-Rudhard Schreiner, Norbert Hölzel, Ute Hamer,…, Lena Neuenkamp. Slow and context-dependent: Responses to grassland extensification across a comprehensive set of ecosystem attributes. Authorea. August 12, 2025. https://doi.org/10.22541/au.174301727.75757946/v3
BioVeins
Urban green areas have been shown to support native biodiversity, enhance eco- system functions and provide important ecosystem services. Nevertheless, urban green and blue infrastructure (GBIs) are fragmented and isolated. GBI enhances the permeability for biodiversity through dense and hostile urban matrices. However, the effectiveness of these GBI depends on several factors, in particular their structural complexity, management regime, and spatial configuration. BIOVEINS unravels GBI effectiveness by using functional diversity (FD) to highlight the mechanisms underpinning the link between GBI, taxonomic diversity (TD) and ecosystem services (ESs) provisioning. Together with local stakeholders, the ecological and interdisciplinary knowledge will be provided to identify the critical features of GBI from seven European cities, to guide the establishment, management and restoration of GBI, and to mitigate the effects of major urban global challenges. The main project funding is over, but now we work on synthesis across multitrophic groups and also with the focus on soils.
Curious? Look through some of the project publications:
Pinho, P., Casanelles-Abella, J., Luz, A. C., Kubicka, A. M., Branquinho, C., Laanisto, L., ... & Moretti, M. (2021). Research agenda on biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services in European cities. Basic and Applied Ecology, 53, 124-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2021.02.014
Villarroya-Villalba, L., Casanelles-Abella, J., Moretti, M., Pinho, P., Samson, R., van Mensel, A., et al. (2021). Response of bats and nocturnal insects to urbanisation in Central Europe. Basic and Applied Ecology, 51, 59–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2021.01.006
LifeToAlvars
Alvar grasslands are Boreal biogeographical region semi-natural grasslands with thin lime-rich soil on limestone bedrock. One third of all the alvar grasslands in Europe are found in Estonia. However, currently less than 30% of these are being managed annually (i.e. by animal grazing), which is necessary for the long-term survival of this habitat type. Unmanaged sites have become heavily overgrown with shrubs (mostly juniper, Juniperus communis) and trees (mostly Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris). In order to maintain the ecological connectivity and biodiversity of the country´s alvar grasslands, a minimum of 7 500 hectares needs to be subject to annual grazing. The LIFE to alvars projects achieved to restore the most valuable, but currently overgrown, alvar grassland areas on 2 500 ha of land and to create the right conditions for local farmers to manage these areas after the restoration. The university of Tartu studies the process and effectivity of chosen restoration measures.
Curious? Look through some of the project publications:
Prangel, E., Kasari-Toussaint, L., Neuenkamp, L., Noreika, N., Karise, R., Marja, R., Ingerpuu, N., Kupper, T., Keerberg, L., Oja, E., Meriste, M., Tiitsaar, A., Ivask, M., & Helm, A. (2023). Afforestation and abandonment of semi-natural grasslands lead to biodiversity loss and a decline in ecosystem services and functions. Journal of Applied Ecology, 60, 825–836. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14375
Prangel, E., Reitalu, T., Neuenkamp, L., Kasari-Toussaint, L., Karise, R., Tiitsaar, A., ... & Helm, A. (2024). Restoration of semi-natural grasslands boosts biodiversity and re-creates hotspots for ecosystem services. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 374, 109139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2024.109139
