Sophia Meyer - PhD Candidate

Current Project

I am currently doing my PhD within the DFG funded project SeBAS – Sensing Biodiversity Across Scales, which is part of the Biodiversity Exploratories research platform. The project aims to understand the impact of land use on the biodiversity – ecosystem functioning (BEF) and the biodiversity – ecosystem service (BES) relationship at different spatial scales. The study area encompasses managed grasslands located in the three German exploratory regions, Schorfheide-Chorin, Hainich-Dün and Schwäbische Alb.

My work focuses particularly on species- and functional diversity of plants as biodiversity component and their BEF and BES relationship in response to land use intensity. In this context, plant functional traits are measured interspecifically, as well as intraspecifically, in order to draw conclusions on underlying ecological processes on a fine scale.

Working title of my PhD thesis: Direct and indirect effects of land use on the biodiversity – ecosystem function and biodiversity – ecosystem service relationship in Central European grasslands at different scales.

Research Interests

•             Impact of land use change on plant species & functional diversity in grassland ecosystems

•             Interplay of plant diversity, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services

•             Intraspecific trait variation in response to land use change

•             Biodiversity patterns in urban ecosystems (e.g. effects of habitat fragmentation)

•             Conservation of wild plant species native to Germany

Education and Experience

Since 2022 PhD candidate at University of Potsdam under Prof. Linstädter

2020 – 2022 Student assistant at Botanischer Garten Botanisches Museum Berlin (project WIPs-De II)

2018 – 2022 MSc degree in Urban Ecosystem Sciences at Technische Universität Berlin

2015 – 2018 BSc degree in Biology at Freie Universität Berlin