Lisa-Maricia Schwarz and Sophia Meyer presented some of the results of their PhD studies during the 53rd Annual Conference of the German Ecological Society (GfÖ). Lisa-Maricia Schwarz gave a talk titled "Plant functional composition buffers productivity loss in semi-arid rangelands under drought and high grazing intensity". This study is part of the NamTip project . Sophia Meyer is PhD candidate of the SeBAS project and presented a poster on "Land use intensity effects on the biodiversity – ecosystem functioning relationship at the management unit scale in semi-natural grasslands". The conference hosted inspiring talks, lively discussions and well-designed posters. We hope to join again the next year.