REFERENCE PERSONS:

Peter Haase, Stefan Stoll

WORKING TEAM:

Mascha Siemund, Andrea Acker, Simone Wagner

Senckenberg, Research Institutes and Natural History Museums, conduct research in bio- and geoscience. Major research fields are biodiversity and ecosystem research and the research on the entire Earth-Human-Earth system. Senckenberg headquarters are located in Frankfurt am Main, but research on marine, terrestrial and climate systems is also housed at additional nine locations throughout Germany:  In Dresden, Gelnhausen, Görlitz, Hamburg, Messel, Müncheberg, Tübingen, Weimar und Wilhelmshaven. In conjunction with the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt and other sectoral partners, Senckenberg manages the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F) in Frankfurt. Senckenberg employs about 1000 people, c. 300 of which are scientists. Senckenberg scientists are active in projects worldwide, most of which are international collaborations with universities and other research institutions. Senckenberg hosts biological and geological research collections with more than 35 million series. In their laboratories, Senckenberg scientists have access to the most modern methods and high-tech equipment. These include tomography, x-ray analysis, electron miscroscopy, 3D morphometry, DNA laboratories and research ships. Furthermore, Senckenberg is the custodian of the Eocene fossil excavation site Grube Messel that has been declared UNESCO world cultural heritage. Each year, some 600,000 visitors from all over the world visit the Senckenberg Natural History Museums in Frankfurt, Dresden and Görlitz. On 10,000 square metres, the Senckenberg museums apply the latest in educational research in order to communicate bioscience and research findings to a broad audience.

Senckenberg, Research Institutes and Natural History Museums, is owned by the Senckenberg Natural History Research Society, a free and independent establishment. Senckenberg is a Leibniz-Institution, financed by the German states, the state of Hesse, the city of Frankfurt and private contributions.

Senckenberg is a German node in GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facilities) and also a founding member of CETAF (Consortium of European taxonomic facilities).

The scientists involved in EnvEurope belong to the Department of River Ecology and Conservation.  This department has profound experience in co-ordinating and managing national and international research project with a special focus on the EU Water Framework Directive.

The department runs the Rhine-Main-Observatory, where investigations on long-term impacts of changes in land use, climate and other environmental variables on animal and plant communities are carried out. The monitoring programme at the Rhine-Main-Observatory focuses on habitats in streams and their floodplains as well as settlement areas, as these landscapes are underrepresented in existing long-term ecological research facilities.

The Rhine-Main-Observatory is a member of the Long-term ecological research network in Germany (LTER-D), Europe (LTER Europe) and worldwide (Ilter) and is a partner in the EU Life+ Project EnvEurope. Additionally, a range of research projects within the framework of the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre Frankfurt (BiK-F) are carried out at the Rhine-Main-Observatory.

External Assistance

• Forschungszentrum Jülich (Reference person Heye Bogena)
• Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Reference person Felix Müller)
• Universität Rostock (Reference person Hendrik Schubert)
• Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF) e.V. (Reference person Michael Glemnitz)

They respectively manage 4 LTER sites included in EnvEurope project: Eifel (FZ Jülich), Darß-Zingst and reef (Uni Rostock), Bornhöved (Uni Kiel) and Uckermark (ZALF)