News

Butterflies are responding to climate change not by adapting to higher temperatures, but by moving uphill. New research from the Bavarian Alps reveals that key thermal traits remain remarkably fixed, leaving many species with little choice but to follow cooler climates.

As part of her Master’s thesis, Anneke Müller is currently studying the local fauna in the Zugspitze region, under the supervision of Prof. Malte Jochum (JMU) and Dr Julian Lunow (University of Lüneburg).

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.

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.

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.

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.

Part of our team participated in the 12th Biennial Meeting of the International Biogeography Society, held in Aarhus, Denmark.

Our team recently spent four days on a retreat in the Austrian Alps to reflect on ongoing work, explore new ideas, and strengthen collaborations.

Our PhD student Christian Zehner, together with Jean-Léonard Stör from the Chair of Zoology 3, attended the 2025 German Environmental Award ceremony of the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) in Chemnitz!

Dr. Mariana Prokopuk studies invasive aquatic plant species and their adaptation to new habitats. She is currently at the University of Würzburg on a Coimbra Group scholarship.

This year’s conference of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland (GfÖ), which took place in Würzburg, was a great success!

In a new paper led by Esme Ashe-Jepson, they describe an unusually large recent donation to the Museum of Zoology at the University of Cambridge in the UK.

Investigation of above- and belowground fauna along an elevational gradient in Berchtesgaden forests within the framework of two Bachelor theses.