Department of Global Change Ecology -

Ecosystems in Transition

Humans are changing our planet in a multitude of different ways, with profound impacts on biological diversity and ecological systems.

Research

In our research, we aim to understand how biodiversity varies in space and time from local to global scales, and how interacting anthropogenic drivers, namely climate and land-use change, influence species and their interactions, ecological communities and biodiversity patterns. A key goal of our work is the interaction between science and society, therefore we actively engage in science communication and try to foster the exchange with the general public and with stakeholders from different societal sectors.

Teaching

We offer a broad teaching portfolio ranging from zoological excursions and ecological field courses via methodological tools such as statistics, modelling, experimental and conservation ecology to cutting-edge project-based modules in soil ecology, macroecology or global- change biology. Training a new generation of open-minded and well-equipped biodiversity scientists and ecological professionals is also at the heart of our mission.

News

Successful first three years for Above-Belowground Interaction Ecology Group

Junior professor Malte Jochum and his Above-belowground interaction ecology group have just completed their third year at JMU Würzburg. After a positive mid-term evaluation of the junior professorship in late 2025, we look back on three successful years and take a glimpse into what is to come.

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AI-supported insect monitoring in renaturalised quarries

In our rapidly changing world, we need large-scale, long-term and globally distributed data on wildlife. Data on insects often lags behind that of more charismatic animal groups, even though they play an important role in many ecosystems. As a result, we lack understanding of how insects respond to change, which prevents effective conservation action.

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Biodiversity Exploratories General Assembly in Wernigerode

The week before last (23–26 February), most of our Above-Belowground Interaction Ecology team attended the 23rd Biodiversity Exploratories (BE) Assembly in Wernigerode as part of the MultiCrossBEF project.

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Feeling the heat: Many landscapes will amplify temperatures during heatwaves

With climate change increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, there is an urgent need to understand how species experience and respond to these changes.

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Latest Publications

2026[ to top ]

Greater trophic diversity of soil animal communities under agricultural land use and tropical climate. Zhou, Zheng; Eisenhauer, Nico; Barnes, Andrew D.; Pollierer, Melanie M.; Jochum, Malte; Grass, Ingo; Zhang, Yan; Brose, Ulrich; Hyodo, Fujio; Scheunemann, Nicole; Schmidt, Olaf; Huang, Yuanyuan; Klarner, Bernhard; Goncharov, Anton A.; Krause, Alena; Korobushkin, Daniil; Gorbunova, Anastasia; Lyubechanskii, Ilya I.; Tsurikov, Sergey M.; Seeber, Julia; Steinwandter, Michael; Zryanin, Vladimir A.; Rozanova, Oksana L.; Susanti, Winda Ika; Crotty, Felicity V.; Prameswari, Di Ajeng; Li, Zhipeng; Melody, Carol; Xie, Zhijing; Pan, Xue; Wu, Donghui; Maraun, Mark; Sam, Katerina; Tiunov, Alexei V.; Scheu, Stefan; Potapov, Anton. In Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2026.

2025[ to top ]

When species are lost but functions persist: a trait-based perspective on Wadden Sea bird diversity dynamics. Kuczynski, Lucie; Bastidas-Urrutia, Ana Maria; Kalusche, Jan Bernhard; Hof, Christian; Scheiffarth, Gregor; Ryabov, Alexey; Hillebrand, Helmut. In Oikos, p. e11509. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2025.
Detection of energetic equivalence depends on food web architecture and estimators of energy use. Romera, Poppy Joaquina; Gauzens, Benoit; Antunes, Ana Carolina; Brose, Ulrich; Eisenhauer, Nico; Ferlian, Olga; Hirt, Myriam R.; Jochum, Malte; Mitchell, Grace; Ott, David; Potapov, Anton; Rai, Bibishan; Scheu, Stefan; Wallace, Kiri Joy; Barnes, Andrew D. In Nature Communications. 2025.
Nitrogen deposition reveals global patterns in plant and animal stoichiometry. González, Angélica L.; Merder, Julian; Andraczek, Karl; Brose, Ulrich; Filipiak, Michal; Harpole, W. Stanley; Hillebrand, Helmut; Jackson, Michelle C.; Jochum, Malte; Leroux, Shawn J.; Nessel, Mark P.; Onstein, Renske E.; Paseka, Rachel; Perry, George L. W.; Peace, Angie; Rugenski, Amanda; Sitters, Judith; Sperfeld, Erik; Striebel, Maren; Zandona, Eugenia; Mozsár, Attila; Bluhm, Sarah; Doi, Hideyuki; Eisenhauer, Nico; Farjalla, Vinicius F.; Hood, James; Kratina, Pavel; Lovelock, Catherine; Moody, Eric K.; Pollierer, Melanie E.; Potapov, Anton; Romero, Gustavo Q.; Roussel, Jean-Marc; Scheu, Stefan; Scheunemann, Nicole; Seeber, Julia; Steinwandter, Michael; Susanti, Winda Ika; Tiunov, Alexei; Dézerald, Olivier. In Nature Communications, 16(1), p. 10977. 2025.

Research Groups

Global Change Ecology and Macroecology

Prof. Dr. Christian Hof and his team studies patterns of taxonomic and functional biodiversity as well as the underlying processes across different temporal and spatial scales, species’ responses to changing environments, and potential futures of biological diversity under different scenarios of climate and land-use change.

Above-belowground Interaction Ecology

The team led by Prof. Dr. Malte Jochum studies global-change impacts on multitrophic, above-belowground communities, altered interaction networks, and ecosystem multifunctionality – typically in temperate grasslands and forests, but also involving boreal and tropical regions as well as aquatic ecosystems.

Hubland Nord, Geb. 32

Department of Global Change Ecology

Successful first three years for Above-Belowground Interaction Ecology Group

AI-supported insect monitoring in renaturalised quarries

Biodiversity Exploratories General Assembly in Wernigerode

Feeling the heat: Many landscapes will amplify temperatures during heatwaves

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