uni'wissen 02(4)-2011_ENG

sequences a loss of biodiversity can have – in this case presumably more ticks and thus also more infections, among other things. It seems only logical that approaching the topic of biodi- versity from the perspective of a variety of disci- plines and compiling the results can be a profit- able endeavor. Indeed, an international research group recently collected and compared the re- sults of a large number of experiments on biodi- versity, including those conducted in Freiburg by Scherer-Lorenzen and his team. And they all in- dicate that more biodiversity will be necessary if our ecosystems are to survive in a world that is changing ever more swiftly. In the Jena Experiment ­scientists studied meadows with different amounts of biodiversity and found out how changes to biological diversity and functions of the ecosystem are linked. Photo: Weigelt Prof. Dr. Markus Weiler studied hydrology in Freiburg and earned his doctorate at the Institute of Hydrology and Water Management at the Swiss Federal Institute of Tech- nology in Zurich. He has served as professor of ­hydrology at the University of Freiburg since 2008. ­Prior to accepting this ­position he worked abroad  – first as a postdoc at the Oregon State Univer- sity in the USA, later at the University of British Colum- bia in Canada. He returned to Germany within the con- text of the program “Return of German Scholars from Abroad,” coordinated by the German Scholars ­Organization on behalf of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach ­Foundation. In 2003 he ­received the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Achieve- ments from the Oregon State University and the New Opportunity Fund from the Canada Founda- tion for Innovation. Prof. Dr. Michael Scherer- Lorenzen has served as professor for geobotany and experimen- tal plant ecology at the ­University of Freiburg since 2009. He is coordinator of the research project Fun- DivEurope. His career began at the University of Bayreuth, where he earned his doctorate in plant ecol- ogy in 1999. At the end of the 1990s he worked ­simultaneously at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeo- chemistry in Jena and as a scientific advisor to the federal government on global change. In 2000 ­accepted a position as ­director at the Institute of Biodiversity in Friedrich- shafen. In 2001 he re- turned to research at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, and in 2003 he moved to the Insti- tute of Plant Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. In 2000 he was awarded the Horst Wiehe Prize for the Promotion of Ecological Research by the Ecological Society of Germany, Aus- tria, and Switzerland. Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bauhus is professor for silviculture and dean of the Faculty of Forest and Environmental Sciences of the University of Freiburg. He studied in Freiburg, Vienna, and Göttingen. He earned his initial degree in forest sci- ence in 1989, his doctorate five years later. As a post- doc Bauhus spent two years at the Department of Biology, Chemistry, and Geography of the Univer- sity of Quebec in Canada. Between 1996 and 2003 he worked at the Australian National University as a senior lecturer in the areas of silviculture and tree physiology. In 2003 he ­accepted the Chair for ­Silviculture in Freiburg and developed a research pro- gram on the relationships between the structure, composition, and function of forest ecosystems and their control. In addition, he is a scientific advisor to the German Federal Min- istry of Food, Agriculture, and Consumer Protection on agricultural policy. Further Reading Bauhus, J./van der Meer, P./Kanninen, M. (2010): Ecosystem goods and services from plantation forests. London. Bachmair, S./Weiler, M./Nützmann, G. (2009): Controls of land use and soil structure on ­water movement: Lessons for pollutant transfer through the unsaturated zone. In: Journal of Hydrology 369/3 – 4, p. 241 – 252. Scherer-Lorenzen, M./Körner, C./Schulze, E.-D. (Ed.) (2005): Forest diversity and function: Temperate and boreal systems. Berlin, Heidel- berg, New York (= Ecological Studies 176). 35uni'wissen 04