Benjamin Schwarz

Department of Biometry and Environmental System Analysis

Tennenbacher Straße 4, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
Room 03.065

email: benjamin.schwarz(a)biom.uni-freiburg.de
phone: +49 761 203-3752
fax: +49 761 203-3751

 

 

 

 

 

Research Interests

My research interests focus on ecological interaction networks, on the mechanisms determining their structure, and on the links between network structure and functioning/stability. In the frame of my Master thesis, I investigated how climate warming and its interactions with other global change drivers affect structure, stability and functioning of forest soil food webs. In my PhD thesis, I will explore the temporal dynamics of ecological interaction networks, whereas I am particularly interested in the effect of timing on indirect species interactions, e.g., apparent competition and pollination facilitation. To advance our understanding of both causes and consequences of temporal network dynamics, I will employ theoretical consumer-resource models, observations of plant-pollinator interaction networks as well as manipulative field experiments with some selected plant species and their pollinators. In my empirical work, I will mainly focus on the daily temporal dynamics of plant-pollinator interaction networks that so far have been underrepresented compared to seasonal dynamics of these networks.

Curriculum Vitae

Publications

Schwarz, B., Barnes, A., Thakur, M., Brose, U., Ciobanu, M., Reich, P., Rich, R., Rosenbaum, B., Stefanski, A., Eisenhauer, N. (2017). Warming alters the energetic structure and function but not resilience of soil food webs. Nature Climate Change, 7, 895-900. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-017-0002-z.

Schwarz, B., Dietrich, C., Cesarz S., Scherer-Lorenzen, M., Auge, H., Schulz, E., Eisenhauer, N. (2015). Non-significant tree diversity but significant identity effects on earthworm communities in three tree diversity experiments. European Journal of Soil Biology, 67, 17-26.

Eisenhauer, N., Wirsch, D., Cesarz, S., Craven, D., Dietrich, P., Friese, J., Helm, J., Hines, J., Schellenberg, M., Scherreiks, P., Schwarz, B., Uhe, C., Wagner, K., Steinauer, K. (2014). Organic textile dye improves the visual assessment of the bait-lamina test. Applied Soil Ecology, 82, 78–81.