Johanna Noske

My research is part of the Biodiversity Exploratories and focuses on community phylogenetics. I want to understand assembly processes of oribatid mites, a very abundant and diverse arthropod group that facilitates a variety of ecosystem functions. The approach may then be extended to other soil invertebrate groups.
An especially interesting question is whether and how the assembly of species into a community changes under disturbance, such as gap formation in forest ecosystems. The species that colonize a gap site may differ in their evolutionary history, their traits (species characters) and thus their ability to perform certain ecosystem functions. Ecosystem services provided by the gap community may differ from those provided by a community in closed canopy forest sites. Since disturbance events are likely to increase in the future, answering these questions is crucial to predict how ecosystems and their functions may change with time.
By applying molecular and trait-based approaches, I want to investigate these questions and determine which processes underlie oribatid mite community assembly under different disturbance regimes.