Daniel Ochterbeck
Research project
During the drought period 2018 to 2022, the vulnerability of Lower Saxony’s forests to the escalating impacts of climate change became evident. However, our current understanding of the natural potential of forests to adapt to climate-change-induced disturbances is limited.
Higher trophic level diversity is key to forest functioning and thus may be critical for ecosystem stability under environmental change. Natural disturbances affect higher trophic level diversity and functioning differently in different forest management types. However, strategies for biodiversity conservation and forest stability require a better understanding of how recent changes in disturbance regimes affect i) the reorganisation of biodiversity and ii) the regulation of pests and pathogens.
My PhD is embedded in subproject 4 of the climate future lab DIVERSA, in which we address these knowledge gaps by quantifying disturbance effects on moth diversity and associated ecosystem functions across eastern Lower Saxony. Moths (Lepidoptera) are a highly diverse insect group that plays key roles as prey, pollinators and pests. Many species are also declining across Europe and are therefore of interest to conservationists. We focus on light trapping to study local dynamics in moth communities and established field protocols to quantify biotic control and pest and pathogen resistance.