Student Opportunities
Our group studies the links between insects, landscapes, and their conservation in agricultural systems, and we encourage students to get involved with our research!
Specific project opportunities are listed in the drop-down menu below, though students may potentially work across multiple projects. Some projects may require fieldwork in agricultural farms around Giessen. Most of the projects require no experience in entomology, just an interest in doing insect ecology research. However, please check specific requirements noted in the project descriptions as some projects may require prior experience with R, GIS, or other tools.
If you are interested in a specific project or have further questions, please contact the project lead. We look forward to hearing from you!
Field and Lab Work
How does the microbiome of plants influence tri-trophic plant-herbivore-enemy interactions? (Master's thesis or teacher training)
Project Description: Greenhouse experiment testing the impact of plant growth promoting bacteria on cereal-aphid-enemy interactions, in collaboration with the microbiology institute (Prof Sylvia Schnell).
Project Lead: Professor Emily Poppenborg Martin, Emily.Poppenborg
Timeframe: Flexible
Project Category: Master's thesis or teacher training
Project Type: Greenhouse and Lab
Requirements: Familiarity with lab work is advantageous
Project Language: DE/EN
KoMBi—Kollektive Modelle zur Förderung der Biodiversität
Project Description: https://kombi-agrar.de/forschung
More Information: https://www.bfn.de/projektsteckbriefe/kombi-kollektive-modelle-zur-foerderung-der-biodiversitaet
Project Lead: Dr. Dennis Baulechner, dennis.baulechner
Timeframe: Flexible
Project Category: Bachelors thesis, Masters thesis, or teacher training (lehramt)
Project Type: Field/lab
Requirements: Field and lab work. Sampling of Malaise and Pitfall traps all over Germany, animal determination (Carabids, Spiders, etc.). Acoustic monitoring of bats and birds, amphibian and reptile monitoring.
Project Language: DE/EN
IMPRESS: Improving agrobiodiversity for resilient pest control services across landscapes
Project Description: Asses how agrobiodiversity contributes to resilience of biological pest control to disturbances. Evaluate how to best manage agricultural fields and landscapes to optimize pest control resilience, and analyze and adapt governance and policy strategies shaping biological pest control across Europe.
Project Leads: Professor Emily Poppenborg Martin & Claudia Paul, Emily.Poppenborg & claudia.paul
Timeframe: Flexible
Project Category: Bachelor's or Master's thesis
Project Type: Lab, data analysis
Requirements: No previous experience required, fieldwork is already done. Possible lab work includes identifying carabids and arthropod groups.
Project Language: DE/EN
Resoilience: Resilience of soil mesofauna after extensification of grasslands (Bachelor's or Master's thesis, or teacher training)
Project Description: Morphological identification and molecular work for metabarcoding of soil communities
More Information: https://www.biodiversity-exploratories.de/en/projects/resilience-of-invertebrate-communities-in-grassland-soils/
Project Lead: Dr. Dennis Baulechner, dennis.baulechner
Timeframe: Flexible
Project Category: Bachelor's or Master's thesis, or teacher training
Project Type: Lab work
Project Language: DE/EN
Sound of Soil: Comparison of different arthropod communities inside soil
Project Description: Set up two boxes of soil with different communities of arthropods and measure the sound with a soil microphone.
Project Leads: Celina Apel & Claudia Paul, celina.apel & claudia.paul
Timeframe: Flexible
Project Category: Bachelor's or Master's thesis
Project Type: Lab, eventually fieldwork for arthropod collection
Requirements: Basic Excel skills required. Interest in working with living arthropods AND touching/handling them.
Project Language: DE/EN
Data Analysis
Assessing the effects of Apis mellifera in plant-pollinator meta-networks
Project Description: Evaluate the centrality of interactions performed by Apis mellifera in a plant-pollinator meta-network of fragmented calcareous grasslands and its effects on the structure of the whole meta-network.
Project Lead: Dr. Felipe Librán Embid, Felipe.Libran-Embid
Timeframe: Flexible
Project Category: NA
Project Type: Data analysis
Requirements: No field or lab work. Data is already collected. R knowledge required. Familiarity with plant-pollinator interactions is an advantage.
Project Language: EN
Does sustainable agriculture consistently benefit biodiversity?
Project Description: Sustainable agricultural practices are often associated with positive effects on biodiversity, yet the outcomes vary significantly depending on factors such as the cropping systems, specific practices employed, and taxa evaluated. This variability—where biodiversity can sometimes improve, remain unchanged, or even decline compared to conventional agriculture—poses challenges for developing generalized guidelines to effectively promote sustainable agriculture.
To address this complexity, we will conduct a global meta-analysis to evaluate how sustainable agricultural practices influence the variability of biodiversity outcomes. By comparing biodiversity differences between sustainable agricultural systems, conventional agriculture, and natural reference systems, this analysis aims to uncover patterns and drivers that can help refine strategies for integrating sustainability into agricultural landscapes. We will leverage existing databases that have already compiled information on sustainable agriculture practices. This project will focus on reanalyzing these datasets to explore biodiversity outcomes through the lens of variability metrics.
Project Lead: Dr. rer. nat. Ricardo Perez-Alvarez, ricardo.perez-alvarez
Timeframe: Flexible
Project Category: Bachelors or Masters thesis
Project Type: Data analysis/literature review
Requirements: No prior experience with the analytical process is needed. As part of this project, you’ll learn step-by-step how to extract valuable information from the literature, process and analyze this data using R, and interpret the outputs of your analysis. Throughout the process, we’ll connect your findings to the broader ecological literature, helping you understand their relevance and significance. This is a great opportunity to build practical skills in data analysis and deepen your understanding of ecological concepts related to sustainable agriculture.
Project Language: EN
Literature Reviews
Quantifying the actual contributions of butterflies to plant pollination
Project Description: Investigate studies analyzing flower visitation, pollen transport, and pollen transfer of butterflies in wild and crop plants to disentangle their actual contribution to plant pollination.
Project Lead: Dr. Felipe Librán Embid, Felipe.Libran-Embid
Timeframe: Flexible
Project Category: NA
Project Type: Literature review
Requirements: Familiarity with literature reviews is an advantage.
Project Language: EN
Lepidopteran pests control mechanisms in cereal push-pull systems
Project Description: Literature review focusing on known mechanisms and knowledge gaps related to the deterrence and attraction of lepidopteran pests in intercropping systems.
Project Lead: Dr. Felipe Librán Embid, Felipe.Libran-Embid
Timeframe: Flexible
Project Category: NA
Project Type: Familiarity with literature reviews is an advantage.
Project Language: EN