Most of our research is concerned with drivers and functional consequences of biodiversity change, with the ecology and evolution of rare and invasive plants, with Alpine ecology, with Botanical Gardens (Botanical Garden of the University of Bern), and with conservation biology.

• A hierarchical inventory of the world's mountains for global comparative mountain science
  Snethlage, Mark A.; Geschke, Jonas; Ranipeta, Ajay; Jetz, Walter; Yoccoz, Nigel G.; et al.
  Scientific Data 10.1038/s41597-022-01256-y APR 1 2022
• Stakeholder perspectives on nature, people and sustainability at Mount Kilimanjaro
  Masao, Catherine A.; Prescott, Graham W.; Snethlage, Mark A.; Urbach, Davnah; Rando, Amor Torre-Marin; et al.
  People And Nature 10.1002/pan3.10310 MAR 2022
• The Evolution of Ecological Diversity in Acidobacteria
  Sikorski, Johannes; Baumgartner, Vanessa; Birkhofer, Klaus; Boeddinghaus, Runa S.; Bunk, Boyke; et al.
  Frontiers In Microbiology 10.3389/fmicb.2022.715637  FEB 2 2022
• Potential of Airborne LiDAR Derived Vegetation Structure for the Prediction of Animal Species Richness at Mount Kilimanjaro
  Ziegler, Alice; Meyer, Hanna; Otte, Insa; Peters, Marcell K.; Appelhans, Tim; et al.
  Remote Sensing 10.3390/rs14030786  FEB 2022
• Present and historical landscape structure shapes current species richness in Central European grasslands
  Scherreiks, Pascal; Gossner, Martin M.; Ayasse, Manfred; Bluethgen, Nico; Fischer, Markus; et al.
  Landscape Ecology 10.1007/s10980-021-01392-7 MAR 2022
• Aboveground Deadwood Biomass and Composition Along Elevation and Land-Use Gradients at Mount Kilimanjaro
  Komposch, Armin; Ensslin, Andreas; Fischer, Markus; Hemp, Andreas
  Frontiers In Ecology And Evolution 10.3389/fevo.2021.732092
  PublishedJAN 5 2022
• Assessing the impact of grassland management on landscape multifunctionality
  Neyret, M.; Fischer, M.; Allan, E.; Hoelzel, N.; Klaus, V. H.; et al. 
  Ecosystem Services 10.1016/j.ecoser.2021.101366 DEC 2021
• Area modulates the effect of elevation but not of land use or canopy on tropical plant species richness
  Hemp, Andreas; Del Fabbro, Corina; Fischer, Markus
  Biodiversity And Conservation 10.1007/s10531-021-02304-6 DEC 2021
• Species richness is more important for ecosystem functioning than species turnover along an elevational gradient
  Albrecht, Joerg; Peters, Marcell K.; Becker, Joscha N.; Behler, Christina; Classen, Alice; et al.
  Nature Ecology & Evolution 10.1038/s41559-021-01550-9  DEC 2021
• Among stand heterogeneity is key for biodiversity in managed beech forests but does not question the value of unmanaged forests: Response to Bruun and Heilmann-Clausen (2021)
  Schall, Peter; Heinrichs, Steffi; Ammer, Christian; Ayasse, Manfred; Boch, Steffen; et al.
  Journal Of Applied Ecology 10.1111/1365-2664.13959  SEP 2021
• Contrasting responses of above- and belowground diversity to multiple components of land-use intensity
  Le Provost, Gaetane; Thiele, Jan; Westphal, Catrin; Penone, Caterina; Allan, Eric; et al.
  Nature Communications 10.1038/s41467-021-23931-1  JUN 24 2021
• Land-use intensity and biodiversity effects on infiltration capacity and hydraulic conductivity of grassland soils in southern Germany
  Leimer, Sophia; Berner, Doreen; Birkhofer, Klaus; Boeddinghaus, Runa S.; Fischer, Markus; et al.
  Ecohydrology 10.1002/eco.2301 SEP 2021
• Plant diversity effects on plant longevity and their relationships to population stability in experimental grasslands
  Roeder, Anna; Schweingruber, Fritz H.; Ebeling, Anne; Eisenhauer, Nico; Fischer, Markus; et al.
  Journal Of Ecology10.1111/1365-2745.13661 JUL 2021
• Recent hybrid speciation at the origin of the narrow endemic Pulmonaria helvetica
  Gruenig, Sandra; Fischer, Markus; Parisod, Christian
  Annals Of Botany 10.1093/aob/mcaa145 JAN 2021
• Dispersal ability, trophic position and body size mediate species turnover processes: Insights from a multi-taxa and multi-scale approach
  Bae, Soyeon; Heidrich, Lea; Levick, Shaun R.; Gossner, Martin M.; Seibold, Sebastian; et al.
  Diversity And Distributions,10.1111/ddi.13204, MAR 2021
• Direct and Indirect Effects of Management Intensity and Environmental Factors on the Functional Diversity of Lichens in Central European Forests
  Boch, Steffen; Saiz, Hugo; Allan, Eric; Schall, Peter; Prati, Daniel; et al.
  Microorganisms,  10.3390/microorganisms9020463 FEB 2021
• Effects of fertilization and irrigation on vascular plant species richness, functional composition and yield in mountain grasslands
  Boch, Steffen; Kurtogullari, Yasemin; Allan, Eric; Lessard-Therrien, Malie; Rieder, Nora Simone; et al.
  Journal Of Environmental Management, 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111629  FEB 1 2021
• Insights from regional and short-term biodiversity monitoring datasets are valuable: a reply to Daskalova et al. 2021
  Seibold, Sebastian; Hothorn, Torsten; Gossner, Martin M.; Simons, Nadja K.; Bluthgen, Nico; et al.
  Insect Conservation And Diversity, 10.1111/icad.12467  JAN 2021
• Globally, plant-soil feedbacks are weak predictors of plant abundance
  Reinhart, Kurt O.; Bauer, Jonathan T.; McCarthy-Neumann, Sarah; MacDougall, Andrew S.; Hierro, Jose L.; et al.
  Ecology And Evolution, 10.1002/ece3.7167  FEB 2021
• National Forest Inventories capture the multifunctionality of managed forests in Germany
  Simons, Nadja K.; Felipe-Lucia, Maria R.; Schall, Peter; Ammer, Christian; Bauhus, Juergen; et al.
  Forest Ecosystems, 10.1186/s40663-021-00280-5  JAN 27 2021
• …

• The importance of genetic diversity for the translocation of eight threatened plant species into the wild
  Schafer, Deborah; Vincent, Hugo; Fischer, Markus; Kempel, Anne
  Global Ecology And Conservation, 10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01240   DEC 2020
• Connecting plant evolutionary history and human well-being at Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
  Molina-Venegas, Rafael; Fischer, Markus; Mollel, Neduvoto Piniel; Hemp, Andreas
  Botanical Journal Of The Linnean Society,  10.1093/botlinnean/boaa049, DEC 2020
• Nature and People in the Andes, East African Mountains, European Alps, and Hindu Kush Himalaya: Current Research and Future Directions
  Payne, Davnah; Snethlage, Mark; Geschke, Jonas; Spehn, Eva M.; Fischer, Markus
  Mountain Research And Development  10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-19-00075.1  NOV 2020
• Land-use intensity alters networks between biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and services
  Felipe-Lucia, Maria R.; Soliveres, Santiago; Penone, Caterina; Fischer, Markus; Ammer, Christian; et al.
  Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America,   10.1073/pnas.2016210117, NOV 10 2020
• Plant traits alone are poor predictors of ecosystem properties and long-term ecosystem functioning
  van der Plas, Fons; Schroeder-Georgi, Thomas; Weigelt, Alexandra; Barry, Kathryn; Meyer, Sebastian; et al.
  Nature Ecology & Evolution  DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-01316-9  DEC 2020
• The results of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments are realistic
  Jochum, Malte; Fischer, Markus; Isbell, Forest; Roscher, Christiane; van der Plas, Fons; Boch, Steffen; Boenisch, Gerhard; Buchmann, Nina; Catford, Jane A; Cavender-Bares, Jeannine; Ebeling, Anne; Eisenhauer, Nico; Gleixner, Gerd; Hoelzel, Norbert; Kattge, Jens; Klaus, Valentin H.; Kleinebecker, Till; Lange, Markus; Le Provost, Gaetane; Meyer, Sebastian T.; Molina-Venegas, Rafael; Mommer, Liesje; Oelmann, Yvonne; Penone, Caterina; Prati, Daniel; Reich, Peter B.; Rindisbacher, Abiel; Schaefer, Deborah; Scheu, Stefan; Schmid, Bernhard; Tilman, David; Tscharntke, Teja; Vogel, Anja; Wagg, Cameron; Weigelt, Alexandra; Weisser, Wolfgang W.; Wilcke, Wolfgang; Manning, Peter
  Nature Ecology & Evolution Nov 2020, DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-1280-9
• Nationwide revisitation reveals thousands of local extinctions across the ranges of 713 threatened and rare plant species
  Kempel, Anne; Bornand, Christophe N.; Gygax, Andreas; Juillerat, Philippe; Jutzi, Michael; et al.
  Conservation Letters 10.1111/conl.12749  SEP 2020
• Overview of past, current, and future ecosystem and biodiversity trends of inland saline lakes of Europe and Central Asia
  Zadereev, Egor; Lipka, Oksana; Karimov, Bakhtiyor; Krylenko, Marina; Elias, Victoria; et al.
  Inland Waters  DOI: 10.1080/20442041.2020.1772034  SEP 2020
• Heterogeneity-diversity relationships differ between and within trophic levels in temperate forests
  Heidrich, Lea; Bae, Soyeon; Levick, Shaun; Seibold, Sebastian; Weisser, Wolfgang; et al.
  Nature Ecology & Evolution  DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-1245-z  SEP 2020
• Comparing experimental and field-measured traits and their variability in Central European grassland species
  Dostal, Petr; Fischer, Markus; Prati, Daniel
  Journal Of Vegetation Science 10.1111/jvs.12875  JUL 2020
• Rare species perform worse than widespread species under changed climate
  Vincent, Hugo; Bornand, Christophe N.; Kempel, Anne; Fischer, Markus
  Biological Conservation  DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108586  Published: JUN 2020
• Can multi-taxa diversity in European beech forest landscapes be increased by combining different management systems?
  Schall, Peter; Heinrichs, Steffi; Ammer, Christian; Ayasse, Manfred; Boch, Steffen; et al.
  Journal Of Applied Ecology 10.1111/1365-2664.13635  JUL 2020
• Context dependency of biotic interactions and its relation to plant rarity
  Kempel, Anne; Vincent, Hugo; Prati, Daniel; Fischer, Markus
  Diversity And Distributions  DOI: 10.1111/ddi.13050 Published: JUN 2020
• …

• Evolutionary Ecology
• Functional Biodiversity Research
• Conservation Biology
• Invasion Biology
• Alpine Ecology

Often in the framework of several larger research units in Switzerland, Germany, China and Africa we collaborate with

• Molecular biologists
• Population geneticists and biologists
• Biodiversity and ecosystem researchers of all kinds
• Modelers, mostly on plant interactions with other organisms.