Ongoing student projects
Title: Diversity of bees and interactions between bees and plants in the Botanical Garden, Bonn.
Description: I am conducting a survey of bee diversity and plant-bee interactions in the Bonn Botanical Garden. A similar survey was conducted in 1994, and I'm curious to see how the results differ from those 30 years ago and whether part of the difference can be attributed to climatic changes.
Contact: Pádraig Donworth
Title: Evaluating the Conservation potential of mining sites for wild bee populations - Morphological and metabarcoding approaches.
Description: My research examines how succession, habitat area and substrate type influence wild bee communities within german mining sites and compares traditional taxonomic identification with metabarcoding data. The aim is to assess the role of these sites as ecological niches to contribute to biodiversity management strategies.
Further, I aim for a qualitative comparison of methodologies in the recording of species diversity.
Contact: Alexander Floß
Title: Ground-nesting wild bees at a nesting mound in the Melbgarten.
Description: To what extent do soil properties influence the species composition of wild bee communities? Directly, because different wild bee species prefer different soil types for nesting? Or indirectly, because soil properties influence the composition of plant communities, which in turn determine the availability of food plants and affect wild bee presence? To address this question, I use a nationwide dataset from Germany and combine it with an investigation of a nesting mound with various soil properties.
Contact: Julius Miller
Title: Wild bee monitoring at the Wiesengut campus: an approach for the long-term assessment and promotion of wild bee diversity.
Description: As part of my thesis, I am working on the initial survey of wild bee diversity at the Wiesengut campus – an ecological teaching and research farm of the University of Bonn. The goal is to develop a long-term monitoring concept and, based on the data obtained regarding species diversity and habitat requirements, derive targeted measures for selected wild bee species. The resulting annotated species list will serve as the basis for further research.
Contact: Dana Pfeiffer
Title: Effects of intercropping maize with phacelia or commercial flower strips on wild pollinators.
Description: Monocultures not only have negative effects on the crops, such as erosion and desiccation, but they also affect pollinator communities negatively, reducing biodiversity. Intercropping the desired crops with flowering plants has been proposed as a pollinator-friendly alternative without negative effects on the crops. In this project the wild bee communities of different plots with different plant composition (maize only, phacelia only, commercial flower mix only, maize with phacelia, maize with flower mix) are studied in order to determine the effects of intercropping.
Contact: Maria Vercher Prats
Completed student projects
2023
- Der Einfluss von Acetamiprid und Azoxystrobin auf die kutikuläre Duftstoffproduktion und die Ovarienentwicklung der Furchenbiene Lasioglossum malachurum (C. Molfenter, MA)
- The Influence of Pesticides on Wild-Bee Diversity and Health in Agricultural Landscapes (F. Fürbaß, MA)
- Parasitisch lebende Bienen und deren Wirte – Beschreibung von Wildbienengemeinschaften im BienABest Projekt und Einflüsse durch die Landnutzung (J. Weyermann, BA)
- Populationsdynamiken von parasitisch lebenden Bienen und deren Wirten (I. Bannert, BA)
2022
- Queen Pheromones in the Primitively Eusocial Sweat Bee Lasioglossum pauxillum (C. Kirchhoff, MA)
- Chemische Mimikry von brutparasitischen Goldwespen aus Nisthilfen am Kilimandscharo (M. Strese, BA)
- In welchem Zusammenhang stehen Landschaftsstrukturen und Klima mit der Nistaktivität von stängelnistenden Wildbienen? - Ein Citizen Science Projekt - (A. Hofmann, ZA)
2021
- Fertilitätssignale bei der eusozialen Furchenbiene Lasioglossum pauxillum (A. Zeferer, BA)
- Königinnensignale der Halictidae - Veränderung makrozyklischer Laktone entlang eines Höhengradienten am Kilimandscharo (S. Böhringer, BA)
- Einfluss von Acetamiprid auf die Duftstoffproduktion und Ovarienentwicklung von Lasioglossum malachurum (Halictidae) Arbeiterinnen (A. Nolzen, BA)
- Wildbienen und Würzburger – Monitoring von Nisthilfen durch ein Citizen Science Projekt (R. Binder, ZA)
- Monitoring of bee diversity at the university campus in Würzburg (L. Nerb, ZA)
- Wildbienenmonitoring im Hymenopterengarten der Uni Würzburg (S. Katzer, ZA)
- Aculeate wasps of Mt. Kilimandscharo, Tanzania (P. Geisendörfer, BA)
- Der Einfluss von Höhe und Jahreszeit auf Wildbienengemeinschaften am Kilimandscharo (S. Fries, BA)
2017
- Ecosystem services provided by ants in different coffee cultivation systems on Mt. Kilimanjaro (S. Hochrein, MA)
2016
- The influence of nectar availability on plant-pollinator networks (R. Pickert, BA)
(BA=Bachelor thesis, MA=Master thesis, ZA(Zulassungsarbeit)= Qualification thesis)