This online lecture is part of the series "Giveearth a chance - paths to sustainableliving" and is organised by the YUFE Alliance. The series is dedicated to the topic of sustainability and looks at the subject from five different angles:

• Sustainable building – from theory to practice
• Sustainable tourism for sustainable society
• The impact of environmental degradation on human migrations
• Sustainable development and poverty reduction – interconnected causes, multidisciplinary research and integrated policies
• How climate change drives biodiversity loss – and how to counteract it

The lectures will be held in English and participation is free of charge. They are open to all interested parties: Bremen citizens, students and university staff members. We welcome interested people from all backgrounds.

How climate change drives biodiversity loss – and how to counteract it

The earth currently experiences a loss of species richness – biodiversity – at an unprecedented speed. This biodiversity crisis also applies to Germany and other parts of Europe. The drivers of this change are manifold: the loss of natural habitats, more intensive land use, the application of pesticides and too many fertilizers, but increasingly also climate change. There is growing evidence that plants and animals are already responding to altered regimes of temperature and rainfall, and will increasingly do so in the near future.
The presentation will highlight the main changes in biodiversity and their underlying causes, using data from both long-term observations and experiments, looking at plants, but also birds, insects and other animal groups. Although the net effects of climate change on plants and animals are negative, some species may profit from the changes – and a conclusion of the talk will be that it is not too late to take counteracting measures to halt biodiversity loss.

Speaker:

Prof. Dr. Martin Diekmann (University of Bremen)
Prof. Dr. Martin Diekmann is a plant ecologist at the University of Bremen, leading the research group Vegetation Ecology and Conservation Biology. He works predominantly in forests and grasslands, studying aspects of relevance to both basic and applied ecology. One basic question Martin Diekmann tries to answer is: Which abiotic and biotic factors can explain the occurrence of single plant species and whole communities at a site? He has especially studied the temporal change of the vegetation and plant species richness over the last decades to understand the impact of various environmental drivers on the vegetation, including climate change, intensified land use and the accumulation of nutrients in the soil (eutrophication) through fertilizers and the atmospheric deposition of nitrogen.

Registration: 
https://www.uni-bremen.de/kooperationen/hochschulkooperationen/yufe/give-earth-a-chance-paths-to-sustainable-living

Contact

Academy of Continuing Education
University of Bremen
Dr. Petra Boxler
E-mail: boxlerprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de  
Phone: +49 421 218-61600

University of Bremen
UniTransfer
Charlotte Simmat
E-mail: charlotte.simmatprotect me ?!vw.uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
Phone: +49 421 218-60347