Sophia Meyer - PhD Candidate

Current Project

I am currently doing my PhD within the DFG funded project SeBAS – Sensing Biodiversity Across Scales, which is part of the Biodiversity Exploratories research platform. The project aims to understand the impact of land use on the biodiversity – ecosystem functioning (BEF) and the biodiversity – ecosystem service (BES) relationship at different spatial scales. The study area encompasses managed grasslands located in the three German exploratory regions, Schorfheide-Chorin, Hainich-Dün and Schwäbische Alb. 
My work focuses particularly on land-use intensity effects on plant species- and functional diversity and the ecosystem function/service of biomass production at the management-relevant spatial scales of fields and farms.

Working title of my PhD thesis: The role of management-relevant spatial scales for investigating plant functional diversity and the buffering effect of plant species diversity on the spatial and temporal variability of biomass production in semi-natural grasslands

 

 

Research Interests

• Scale-dependency of BEF relationships in social-ecological systems 
• Impact of land use change on plant species & functional diversity in grassland ecosystems
• Interplay of plant diversity, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services
• Intraspecific trait variation in response to land use change 
• Biodiversity patterns in urban ecosystems (e.g. effects of habitat fragmentation)
• Conservation of wild plant species native to Germany

 

 

Education and Experience

 

Since 2022 PhD candidate at University of Potsdam under Prof. Linstädter

2020 – 2022 Student assistant at Botanischer Garten Botanisches Museum Berlin (project WIPs-De II)

2018 – 2022 MSc degree in Urban Ecosystem Sciences at Technische Universität Berlin

2015 – 2018 BSc degree in Biology at Freie Universität Berlin

 

 

Publications

Meyer, S. N., Nößler, F., Buzhdygan, O., May, F., Schwarz, L.-M., Niedersen, J. C., Muro, J., Dubovyk, O., Tietjen, B., & Linstädter, A. (2026). Spatial scale dependence of plant functional diversity and its response to land-use intensity in grassland farming systems. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 410, 110475. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2026.110475

Meyer, S. N., Muro, J., Wöllauer, S., Schwarz, L.-M., Männer, F. A., Dubovyk, O., Linstädter, A. (2025). Land-use intensity effects on the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship in semi-natural grasslands at management-relevant spatial scales. Landscape Ecology 40:170. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-025-02186-x