Three new members joined our group

Dr. Dina Hamidi will be working on her own projects, WeiTiMo and SAGE, focusing on sustainable land use, vegetation dynamics, and ecosystem services in changing rural landscapes. She aims to explore how virtual fencing can support adaptive grazing management and improve livestock management in complex grassland systems. Her work examines how virtual fencing may influence vegetation patterns, pasture utilization, and biodiversity outcomes in managed landscapes. She also investigates the effects of photovoltaic modules on microclimate, biodiversity, and related ecosystem processes in order to better understand how solar energy production and ecological functions interact in grassland systems. In addition, she is interested in the integration of virtual fencing with solar grazing systems to optimize land use under photovoltaic installations.  

Overall, her research seeks to link digital grazing technologies with ecologically sustainable and multifunctional grassland management.

 

Ms. Dina Schärfe is currently working on her PhD as part of the WeiTiMo project, which began in May 2026. Her research focuses on the development and evaluation of a flexible pasture management system using virtual fencing and GPS-based livestock monitoring. In addition, she is analysing vegetation dynamics under the specific conditions of photovoltaic installations on peatland to assess the availability and quality of forage. The aim of her research is to establish practical foundations for the integrated and sustainable management of solar parks. 

The project examines how rewetted peatland sites can be used in an ecologically sensible and economically viable way in light of the growing importance of climate- and resource-friendly land use.

Mr. Sitali Mbeha will conduct his PhD research within the framework of the CRC Future Rural Africa consortium. He completed his Master's degree in Wildlife Management and Ecotourism at the University of Namibia. His thesis assessed drivers of conflict between wild carnivores and livestock living along protected areas. In his PhD project, he is investigating ecosystem services offered by southern African savanna rangelands - with a special focus on carbon storage - under different conditions and disturbance regimes. His main areas of interest are carbon dynamics in rangeland systems, ecosystem services and trade-offs, integrated crop-livestock systems, human-environment interactions, wildlife-livestock interactions, and GIS and land-use patterns.