laif foundation for independent photojournalism

Goals:promote communication + collaboration on topics of interest to the membershipshare photos which are useful for talks, courses, etc.learn more about photography skills and how to use this for communicationimprove awareness for the beauty of nature and for conservationimprove creativity beyond the work in the life of a scientist, “lighter” level than purely academicnetwork + meet other people by doing creative things togetherfind a moment to relax

The Society for Tropical Ecology (formerly Gesellschaft für Tropenökologie e.V., gtö) promotes and communicates new and emerging knowledge among tropical ecologists to advance the understanding of tropical ecosystems and their protection. It is currently Europe’s largest scientific association in this field of research with about 500 members.http://gtoe.de/

Our working groups deal with the biodiversity, evolution and ecology of plants. In traditional taxonomy and systematics, the diversity of living organisms is investigated in order to understand the relationships between the organisms and the underlying processes. Molecular systematics uses genetic information for this purpose. Our investigations in vegetation ecology and biodiversity deal with the patterns and dynamics of plant diversity within communities. We specifically address the impact of global change and land-use on biodiversity with a focus on arid and savanna biomes in Africa.

Researcher in Tropical Ecology and Evolution

The goals and mission of the CC, are: foster understanding of current key conservation issues and conflicts, and propose feasible ways of addressing them; support local, regional, national and global initiatives to address current and potential threats to biodiversity, ecosystems and linked human livelihoods; ensure that ATBC as an organization continues to contribute to debates and decisions that influence tropical ecosystems, sustainability, natural resource use, and linked human livelihoods; initiate, facilitate, and support outreach and capacity-building activities to develop and strengthen expertise in conservation-related scientific activities, in particular where our annual meetings take place.

The goals and mission of the Conservation Committee are to: foster understanding of current key conservation issues and conflicts, and propose feasible ways of addressing them; support local, regional, national and global initiatives to address current and potential threats to biodiversity, ecosystems and linked human livelihoods; ensure that ATBC as an organization continues to contribute to debates and decisions that influence tropical ecosystems, sustainability, natural resource use, and linked human livelihoods; initiate, facilitate, and support outreach and capacity-building activities to develop and strengthen expertise in conservation-related scientific activities, in particular where our annual meetings take place.

The addition of plants to greenhouse crop systems, e.g. so-called banker plants, can have positive effects on the productivity of crop plants and enhance the effectiveness of biological pest management. Additional plants may provide shelter or food for biocontrol agents which influence the interactions between phytophagous arthropods, biocontrol arthropods and culture plants. However, despite the clear function of their presence, there is a lack of scientific knowledge: we hardly understand which plant morphologies and structures enhance the desired proliferation of biocontrol arthropods. Consequently, only few species of banker plants are in use, many of which are not natural in the region of employment. We postulate that the potential of banker plants is underestimated, and that they bear a high potential for pest control in industrial use. Discovery of effective banker plants could greatly reduce costs associated with repetitive releases of natural enemies. The final scope of the project is to gain more insight into tritrophic relations in biological systems, and to enhance practical solutions by increasing our understanding of how agricultural systems can be optimized with the aid of banker plants, and how the efficacy of biological pest management as an alternative to chemical control may be increased with the aid of additional plants in the system.

The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation is international in scope, membership, and objectives, functioning as an international body to promote research, education, conservation, and communication for tropical biology. Councillors work for this purpose.

Research on floodplain forest ecology

Amazonian floodplain forests: tree responses to periodical flooding (ecophysiology, phenology, growth and productivity, seedling establishment and regeneration)

"Ecophysiology of Amazonian floodplain trees"Research project and field research at Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa da Amazônia (INPA / Max-Planck) in Manaus (Brazil) for PhD project in the INPA / Max-Planck cooperationhttp://www.inpa.gov.br/

Field research in biological projects in South America (Prof. W.G. Kinzey, City College of New York)