Available Theses
1. Density and Personality
Looking for a thesis candidate using data of a longitudinal study on experimental rodent populations in large outdoor enclosures, on the function of animal personality in fluctuating populations of iteroparous animals. The candidate can investigate 1) the connection between space use/overlap with conspecifics (trapping data) with animal personality; 2) the connection of body measures with age, density and personality
Contact persons: Prof. Dr. Jana Eccard (eccarduuni-potsdampde)
2. Ecosystem services of voles – BioGeo
Biological station Gülpe (Havelland)
Are voles of any use? In this project we want to investigate the effect of vole burrows on the precipitation runoff, water retention, nutrient washout, etc. in the context of changing precipitation patters (heavy rain, floods). The project includes the analysis of already collected long-term data from experiments run at the station in Gülpe (Lysimeter experiment) as well as the conduction of own, short precipitation experiments.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Jana Eccard (eccard@uni-potsdam.de)
3. Nesting without worrying: song bird conservation measures in Park Sanssouci
Invasive alien species (IAS) are one of the greatest threats to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, even in urban and residential areas. Preliminary observations suggest that the little occupation of nest boxes in Park Sanssouci (Potsdam) is to be ascribed to high rates of raccoon predation on eggs and nestlings. In this project, we aim to monitor local songbirds breeding in the nest boxes of Park Sanssouci, and to evaluate the efficacy of newly-established protective systems against nest predation by raccoons. The timing of the project is determined by the birds breeding season: preparations would start in February, field work would continue until ca. June 2022.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Jana Eccard (eccard@uni-potsdam.de)
4. Horse movement and space use on the trail paddock
The newest trend in horse keeping is to establish paddock trails instead of or attached to open grazing areas where horses can move around freely. The riding stable PSV Töplitz e.V. Reiterhof Leest has established a trail paddock on their land in 2013. The 500 m and approximately 12 m wide long trail offers the horses a lot of variety with different substrates, like sand, gravel, weed, several areas to rest in the shade and smaller obstacles, like tree stumps, along the way to explore.
With the use of GPS trackers we would like to evaluate the potential benefits of their trail paddock by analysing the movement and space use of horses on the trail.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Jana Eccard (eccard@uni-potsdam.de)
5. Effectiveness of Agri-Environmental-Schemes to increase insect and plant diversity in German Agriculture
Insect population and diversity are suffering under a crucial decline due to intertwined drivers: Loss of habitat, intensification and simplification of agriculture, pesticide use, invasive species and light pollution. To counteract this decline especially in agriculture, Agri-Environmental-Schemes (AES) were established such as flower strips, hedges, set aside which shall function as shelter, offer floral resources and hibernation possibilities for various insect taxa. Recently, the established, short-living flower strips have been criticized to act as an “ecological trap”, hence, attract insects without long term benefits.
In the “Linde-Experiment”, we are investigating the effectiveness of the already established flower strips and compare them to an innovative design “Rolling Wildflower Block (RWB)” to increase insect diversity.
Contact person: Vera Kaunath (vera.kaunathuuni-potsdampde)
Effectiveness of Agri-Environmental-Schemes
6. Mobile linkage between high diversity patches in homogeneous agricultural landscapes – The Linde Experiment
As a concept, many animals function as “mobile linkers” in ecosystems, connecting sites (“genetic linkers” among populations), transport changes among sites and ecosystems (“process linkers“ affecting other species, “nutritional linkers” transporting nutrients and matter) and thus affect biodiversity of these sites (Lundberg and Moberg 2003).
Meanwhile, biodiversity levels at the sites, and diversity differences among sites and matrix may feedback on the mobility of the linker. Further, a high biodiversity at a site may increase the ecosystem functions such as pollination, beauty, pest control… at a side, or to the benefit of the surrounding matrix. These are typical arguments for the establishment of wildflower strips in a species-poor agricultural matrix (e.g. Ganser et al. 2019, Eccard 2022), which on the other hand are increasingly criticized as ecological traps for less mobile species.
In the Linde experiment, we can study these processes. We can monitor the biodiversity of mobile linkers themselves, their mobility within, among sites and into the matrix, and we may be able to study contributions of mobile linkers attracted to biodiverse wildflower areas to ecosystem function.
In cooperation with the BioMove project we have several projects available. Please see the complete project description (attached pdf) for details.
Contact persons: Prof. Dr. Jana Eccard (eccard@uni-potsdam.de), Vera Kaunath (vera.kaunathuuni-potsdampde)
7. Bachelor thesis - Social housing and welfare? Ask the voles
Ensuring adequate captive conditions is crucial to animal welfare as well as the collection of reliable behavioural data. Housing should incorporate as many aspects of a species’ natural features as possible, including social conditions. For many rodents, physiological and behavioural studies indicate that social isolation is detrimental, and that the company of others can be enriching and beneficial. When social systems are extremely flexible, however, informed decisions on social housing become more difficult. In this project we aim to investigate female bank voles’ responses to different types of social enrichment.
Contact persons: Dr. Valeria Mazza (vamazzauuni-potsdampde), Prof. Dr. Jana Eccard (eccarduuni-potsdampde)
8. Master thesis Reproductive behaviour of bank voles
To choose an attractive male can be beneficial for female’s fitness, considering that the genes that male possesses could increase offspring viability and/or mating success. During the onset of breeding in spring, females may make the best
of a bad job and mate with the locally available male sibling, as indicated by the finding of reduced genetic diversity in spring and in low densities. If an unknown, i.e., less related/unrelated, male intrudes, females may seek this opportunity to increase their offspring heterozygosity by terminating a current pregnancy and remating with the new male. This outbreeding might ultimately increase the fitness of the female’s offspring.
Contact person: Lea Vodjerek (vodjerekuuni-potsdampde)
9. Plant and Insect diversity
Insect population and diversity are suffering under a crucial decline. To counteract this decline especially in agriculture, Agri-Environmental-Schemes (AES) were established such as flower strips, which shall function as shelter, offer floral resources and hibernation possibilities for various insect taxa. However, their effectiveness is often only examined from the perspective of either insects OR the diversity of plants – but in this “Linde-Wildflower-Experiment” we want to examine their effectiveness on an interdisciplinary level.
Contact persons: Vera Kaunath (vera.kaunathuuni-potsdampde) & Liana Kindermann (liana.kindermannuuni-potsdampde)
10. Foraging strategies in bank voles
Animals must collect information about foraging patches in order to make informed decisions on where and on what to forage. Experience gained while foraging can aid foragers to make better decisions about where to forage. We aim to study if bank voles (Myodes glareolus) update their foraging behaviour based on prior foraging experience. The work will involve a combination of running lab experiments and analysing data from videos. Interests of the student can also be happily incorporated into the experiment or developed further!
Contact person: Molly Gilmour (gilmouruuni-potsdampde)
11. Social behaviour, information use and personality in bank voles
Social organisation of species can be strongly influenced by external factors, such as environment, and/or internal factors, including social tolerance. Individual variation in social tolerance (i.e. how interested an individual is in spending time with a conspecific) can influence group size and structure, dispersal, and spatial organisation of populations. For less socially tolerant species, such as the bank vole (Myodes glareolus), understanding individual variation in social tolerance can provide insights into behaviour and subsequent population dynamics across various contexts. Experiments will be conducted in the lab in Potsdam and behaviours recorded using videos and/or direct observation. Timeline is flexible depending on the student and project can be altered to include any further interests of the student.
Contact person: Molly Gilmour (gilmouruuni-potsdampde)