Excursions

On this 12-day excursion we visit various ecosystems in East Africa, including coastal forests, mangroves, coral reefs, the Eastern Arc mountains and the African savannah. The excursion provides insights into the biodiversity and ecology of tropical ecosystems and their vulnerability due to human land use and climate change.

The east Europe excursion take places either at Bulgaria or Romania. It takes about 7 days. This field excursion is designed to familiarize students with the characteristic species of a terrestrial ecosystem in the temperate zone within their ecological context. Various methods of ecological data collection are applied during faunistic surveys. Students will deepen their knowledge of species identification and their understanding of synecological relationships, while also gaining practical skills in the systematic collection of ecological field data.

This excursion is organized by the Central Department of Microscopy in collaboration with the Chair of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology. Field excursions and laboratory exercises provided an insight into the diversity of organisms in a marine ecosystem as well as into the living environment of the littoral on the North Sea island of Helgoland. In addition to taxonomic work, bird watching and learning about different habitats, ecological and developmental biology experiments are conducted with important marine model organisms. The excursion lasts 10-12 days.

This excursion is organized by the Chair of Behavioral Physiology & Sociobiology, in collaboration with Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology. Field excursions into 5 different tropical ecosystems (mangroves, lowland rainforest, mountain rainforest, dry forest and paramo) allow for a one of a kind overview into tropical biology. While half of the excursion will be spend visiting these different ecosystems, the other half will be at the Tropical Research Station La Gamba in a lowland rainforest where we will conduct small 5-day experiments on various different organisms (birds, fish, stingless bees, dragonflies, wasps and ants) to give you an insight into what it is like to conduct field experiments in the tropics. There is also a possibility to extend your stay at the end of the excursion to conduct your Bachelor Thesis at the research station. The excursion lasts 19 days.

This excursion is organized by Department of Global Change Ecology and Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology. We offer a 10 days excursion in the German Alps and field trips to the different ecosystems along elevational gradients, encompassing colline to subnival elevations. We will focus on the patterns and drivers of species diversity, species traits, animal-plant-interactions and/or animal-related ecosystem functions along climate- and land-use gradients.

This excursion is organized by Chair of Conservation Biology and Forest Ecology. In the F1 practical course Forest Ecology, a winter excursion leads to the Jugendwaldheim Wessely Haus in the Bavarian Forest National Park, where large ungulates and top predators such as wolves and lynx illustrate the ecological role of vertebrates in forest ecosystems. The summer excursion takes place at the Field Station Fabrikschleichach and focuses on the role of invertebrates—especially forest insects—in conservation and pest management. The programme includes visits to the coppice-with-standards forests in Bad Windsheim and the Beta-For experimental sites in the University Forest.