Jena\/Leipzig. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) is to fund a Research Unit in the Jena Experiment for a further four years with around five million euros. The scientists, led by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig University and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, will focus in particular on the stabilising effect of biodiversity against extreme climate events such as drought, heat and frost.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Biodiversity affects how ecosystems \nfunction and the services they provide to us. Over the past 20 years, \nthese relationships have been studied in Europe\u2019s largest outdoor \nbiodiversity laboratory, the Jena Experiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ten hectares of \nformer farmland on the banks of the river Saale are now home to some 150\n experimental plots with different combinations of grassland plants: \nplots with only one species, with two, four, eight, sixteen or sixty \nspecies. This unique, long-term experiment is shedding light on the \nrelationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In \n2019, the DFG decided to fund a new Research Unit in the Jena Experiment\n (FOR 5000). After four successful years, this funding is now being \nextended for a further four years, with a total budget of around 5 \nmillion euros. The new focus is on the stabilising effect of \nbiodiversity against extreme climate events such as heat, frost or heavy\n rainfall. A central hypothesis is that species-rich grasslands are more\n stable than those with fewer species. In this context, stable means \nthat the properties and functions of an ecosystem (e.g. plant biomass, \nsoil temperature or nutrient levels) change little over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In \nsome cases, biodiversity has already been shown to have a stabilising \neffect. For example, a large meta-study involving the Jena Experiment \nshowed that the growth of species-rich grasslands is less affected by \nparticularly wet or dry weather than that of species-poor grasslands. \nThe researchers will now investigate this stabilising effect for other \nimportant ecosystem functions and aim to gain a better understanding of \nthe underlying mechanisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new phase of the Research Unit is \nworking on a total of twelve sub-projects involving twelve German \nresearch institutions. In addition to iDiv and the Universities of \nLeipzig and Jena, these include the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental \nResearch (UFZ) and the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena.\n Moreover, there are international partners from Austria, the \nNetherlands, the US, China and France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTwo important processes \nare taking place at the moment: both the climate and biodiversity are \nchanging rapidly. This is why it is very important to investigate \nwhether, and how, biodiversity can help to stabilise ecosystem \nfunctions,\u201d says Professor Nico Eisenhauer, spokesperson for the DFG \nResearch Unit and group head at iDiv and Leipzig University. \u201cThe Jena \nExperiment, with its long-term experiment in the Saale floodplain, \noffers ideal experimental conditions for this research question. We have\n been measuring ecosystem processes and environmental changes here for \nmore than 20 years and can now study what makes ecosystems stable. \nAgriculture and nature conservation will also benefit from our \nfindings.\u201d Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) to fund Research Unit for another four years Joint media release from iDiv, Leipzig University and Friedrich Schiller University Jena Jena\/Leipzig. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) is to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4610,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4609\/revisions\/4610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/field8-1024x540.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Volker Hahn, Kati Kietzmann<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"