We proudly present our Reassembly Newsletter, summarizing our experience, new insights and challenges during the first year of our Research Unit. Each PhD and postdoctoral researcher presented her or his personal views here – worth reading if you want to get a glimpse into the heart of our scientific endeavor. …
Do you know what “autohaemorrhaging” means? It is a deliberate release or ejection of blood (also termed reflex bleeding), reported from some lizards and snakes as well as some insects. It is often interpreted as defensive behavior against predator attacks. But whether reflex bleeding as a defense really works, and …
In our study area – the lowland Chocó rainforest – three monkey species act as important dispersers for tree seeds. Brown-headed spider monkeys climb skillfully through the tree canopies and live almost entirely on fruits. Mantled howlers shape the soundscape and eat both leaves and fruits. And Ecuadorian white-fronted capuchins …
Our PhD candidate Timo Metz (SP 1) presented one of our first results in the Reassembly Unit as a poster at an international meeting of the German Ecological Society (GFÖ) and two other organizations (SFE2, EEF) in Metz (November 24th, 2022). Timo has modelled the role of obligate vs non-obligate …
How quickly does the understory vegetation and litter layer recover following complete removal? This is the main question addressed in our perturbation-recovery experiment in 10 x 10 m subplots (P-REX). After nine months, the litter layer achieved a similar extent as an undisturbed forest patch, and many new tree seedlings …
We had a very fruitful workshop in the National Park Bayerischer Wald (link) in October 5-7th 2022. After a Kick-Off Meeting last year (Palmengarten Frankfurt) and a workshop on data management and networks in the new Chocó lab in March 2022, this has been our third actual reassembly of the …
You don’t often see velvet worms (Onychophora)! Arianna is currently sorting the arthropods from litter extractions of the Reassembly plots. We got excited to see the first velvet worm in this sample. Only few onychophorans are known from Ecuador so far. Fernando Villagomez immediately looked for some morphological details and …
Das “Reassembly” Projekt im Regenwald Ecuadors wurde nun erstmal ausführlich einer interessierten Öffentlichkeit in einem Vortrag vorgestellt. Im Hessischen Landesmuseum berichtete Nico Blüthgen von den Hintergründen und der Entstehungsgeschichte des Forschungsprojekts — und von den ersten Ergebnissen. Das Thema stiess auf eine große Resonanz und wurde anschließend ausführlich diskutiert. Eingeladen …
Our ambitious perturbation experiment was an enormous, unexpected effort – on a total of 30 plots. Four 10 x 10 m treatments had to be marked per plot, two of them fenced, vegetation and litter was removed from two treatments, and the amount removed was quantified. Seed/litter traps were installed, …
Quite calmly, our research activities in one of the best tropical field labs have just begun earlier this year. What a fantastic new place, equipped with modern lab interior and great working conditions and (still) a lot of space for our large group and more. What an incredible view on …
