Jannis Weil – PhD Candidate

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ResearchGate

Current Project

I am working within the interdisciplinary project “The Lower Havel River and Greater Donaumoos Regions”, which is a subproject of the DFG priority programme SPP 2361 “On the Way to the Fluvial Anthroposphere”, that aims to elucidate when and why humans became a significant controlling factor in floodplain formation and to forward the systematic understanding of anthropogenically converted floodplains. Within my project, I will use historical and recent vegetation surveys of the floodplains and peatlands in the lower Havel River region to investigate functional vegetation dynamics of the recent past in these ecosystems.  In addition, I will combine palynological records with functional trait data to retrospectively analyze spatiotemporal patterns of functional vegetation composition and diversity changes in pre-industrial and medieval times.  

Research Interests

• Impact of land use and climate change on Ecosystem functioning and Ecosystem Services
• Functional trait ecology
• Conservation biology and ecosystem restoration
• Biodiversity patterns in grasslands and urban spaces
• Ecological modelling

Education and Experience

Since 2023 PhD candidate at University of Potsdam

2017 – 2022 Master of Science, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution and Free University Berlin. Thesis: Plant diversity in forest-grassland transition zones in agricultural landscapes

2012 – 2017 Bachelor of Science, Biosciences at University of Potsdam. Thesis: Intraspecific morphological plasticity of selected tenebrionids along a land use gradient in a Namibian savanna rangeland