WiSe 2025/2026
October 29, 2025 – Dr. Jörn Schultheiß
Hochschule Geisenheim University
Title to be announced
November 5, 2025 – Dr. Rene H. J. Heim
University of Göttingen, Institute of Geography, Cartography, GIS and Remote Sensing
From Leaf to Landscape: Interdisciplinary Remote Sensing in Plant Stress Science and Beyond
Understanding plant stress across spatial scales is crucial for advancing both ecological research and sustainable agriculture. In this talk, I will present an integrative approach to plant stress science, drawing on my previous work that leverages optical remote sensing technologies—from close-range sensors and drone-based platforms to satellite imagery—to detect and monitor biotic stress in plants. Looking ahead, my research will focus on unraveling plant stress responses, particularly structural and biochemical traits, at both local and landscape scales. I aim to develop a landscape epidemiology research line that bridges plant pathology, remote sensing, and spatial analysis. This interdisciplinary perspective, which was always a core focus in my research, will enable a deeper understanding of how plant stress propagates through ecosystems and inform strategies for monitoring, predicting, and mitigating plant health challenges in a changing world. For more information on my research focus and current research, please visit me at: https://reneheim.github.io/
November 12, 2025 – Who’s New? What’s New?
This colloquium special offers newcomers at the faculty a stage to introduce themselves and their research, and gives early-career members (PhDs, postdocs, FwNs) the opportunity to highlight their recent work. Further details to follow.
November 19, 2025 – Dr. Renas Koshnaw
University of Göttingen, Department of Structural Geology and Geothermics
Neogene surface expression of Neotethys slab dynamics along the northern Arabia–Eurasia suture zone
Fundamental questions persist about the fate of the descending oceanic slab after two continents collide and how its dynamics impact orogenic wedge formation and orogenic plateau development. The Zagros fold-thrust belt and foreland basin formed as a result of the Neotethys oceanic plate subduction, the Arabian and Eurasian plates' convergence, and eventual collision, followed by the development of the Turkish-Iranian orogenic plateau (TIP). The NW Zagros belt in the Kurdistan region of Iraq preserves a Neogene synorogenic rock record of deep-Earth processes and their surface responses. Using low-temperature thermochronology, provenance analysis, isopach mapping, geophysical datasets, and basin‑analysis techniques, this research tests two contrasting hypotheses about how the Arabia–Eurasia suture zone responded to either (i) slab detachment and breakoff or (ii) a slab continuing to be attached. Thermochronometric data from suture‑zone intrusions record two rapid cooling pulses (∼35–25 Ma and ∼15–5 Ma) corresponding to the initial Arabia–Eurasia collision and later Neotethys oceanic slab tearing, coinciding with the arrival of the Afar plume beneath the suture. Spatial εNd gradients in the TIP and provenance shifts resolve along-strike uplift diachrony, earlier in the north, later in the south, concomitant with NW–SE propagation of slab tearing that reorganized paleocurrent flow from an orogen-parallel channel system to orogen-perpendicular distributary channels and megafan system. Isopach maps reveal a Miocene shift in basin depocenter, with uplift in the northwest and concurrent subsidence in the southeast. These lines of evidence provide diagnostic criteria for recognizing slab-tearing signatures based on surface geological evolution.
November 26, 2025 – Claire Rollion-Bard
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [LSCE], Paris, France
Title to be announced
December 3, 2025 – Nikolauskolloquium
Detailed programme to follow.December 10, 2025
No talk scheduled yet
December 17, 2025
No talk scheduled yet
January 7, 2026
No talk scheduled yet
January 14, 2026
No talk scheduled yet
January 21, 2026 - Dr. Dana Ransby
PANGAEA / Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
Beyond the supplement: Practices in data publication and reuse
January 28, 2026
No talk scheduled yet
February 4, 2026
No talk scheduled yet
February 11, 2026
No talk scheduled yet