Events - MultiTroph

Upcoming events

MultiTroph Review Meeting

The Review Meeting for the second phase of MultiTroph will take place from 20 – 25 September 2026 in Jingdezhen, China.

Past events

MultiTroph and TreeDì joint meeting

A joint meeting with MultiTroph and TreeDì members was held from 13-17 October 2025 in Leipzig.

Programme

Programme_TreeDi-MultiTroph

Writing retreat for PhD students

A writing retreat for MultiTroph PhD students at the nature reserve Riedingtal (Austria) took place from June 30 to July 4, 2025.

Schedule

Preliminary-Schedule-Writing-Retreat

MultiTroph Symposium in Beijing 2024

Schedule

MultiTroph-Symposium-2024-Schedule

Statistics Café & Writing Retreat

Our statistics café and writing retreat took place in Göttingen from 8 to 12 January 2024.

Teilnehmerliste + Zeitplan Statistics Cafe

wrap-up field season 2023

At this meeting each SP provided a concise update on their achievements and challenges from the last field season as well as their future plans. The online meeting took place on 15-16 November 2023.

The fieldwork report 2023 is available under Downloads.

Schedule

09.00 – 10.30	Plenary
	Welcome by Alexandra-M. Klein and Chao-Dong Zhu
	Z1: MultiTroph update since kick-off Alexandra-M. Klein, Finn Rehling
	Xiaoyu Shi – Cavity nesting hymenopteran community across scales
	SP2 – Soil-plant interactions and stoichiometry Yvonne Oelmann, Thomas Scholten, Steffen Seitz, Yu Liang, Naili Zhang, Haikou Zhang
10.30 – 11.00	Coffe break
11.00 – 12.00	Subproject updates:
	SP4 – Cavity-nesting Hymenoptera and multi-trophic interactions Alexandra-M. Klein, Felix Fornoff, Manuela Sann, Arong Luo, Michael Orr, Massimo Martini
	SP5 – Trophic interactions across three regeneration stages Alexandra Erfmeier, Tim Diekötter, Zhi-Shu Xiao, Noga Abecassis
12.00 – 13.30	Lunch
13.30 – 14.30	Subproject updates:
	Ming-Qiang Wang: Research progress on plant-herbivore interactions
	SP3 – Plant-arthropod food webs, stoichiometry and functions Jana Petermann, Andreas Schuldt, Douglas Chesters, Ming-Qiang Wang, Mareike Mittag
14.30 – 14.45	Coffee break
14.45 – 15.45	Open discussion

09.00 – 10:30	Z2 – Synergies and processing of data and meta-analysis Andreas Schuldt, Helge Bruelheide, Huijie Qiao, Xiaojuan Liu, Yi Li, Georg Albert
	SP1 – Wood decomposition and decomposer interactions Heike Feldhaar, Simon Thorn, Arong Luo & Matteo Dadda
	SP6 – Ant trophic interactions and function Michael Staab, Heike Feldhaar, Xiaojuan Liu, Joshua Spitz
10.30 – 11.00	Coffee break
11.00 – 12.00	Continuation of open discussion (if necessary)
12.00 – 13.30	Lunch
13.30 – 14.30	Jing-Ting Chen – Webs of diversity: spiders and their prey
	Z1 (FR) – Carrion decomposition Z1 (FR) – Preparation “Conference in Beijing 2024”
	– Official end –
14.30 – 14.45	Coffee break
14.45 – 15.15	Add-on: Preparation “European Conference of Tropical Ecology 2024”, Lisbon, Session: Multi-trophic interactions in tropical forests and agro- forestry systems Finn Rehling, Heike Feldhaar For everyone interested.
	Add-on: Preparation “Statistical Cafe”, Göttingen Finn Rehling, Georg Albert For Phds interested.

MultiTroph kick-off meeting, 27-31 March 2023

Schedule

14.00 – 17.00	Welcoming programme supported by Leibfried-Prozessbegleitung
14.00 – 14.10	Welcome and introduction
14.10 – 14.25	Getting to know each other
14.25 – 15.30	“Back to the Future”
15.30 – 15.45	Coffee break
15.45 – 16.15	Updating time table
16.15 – 16.45	Internal and external communication
16.45 – 17.00	Closing round and feedback
18.15	Dinner at St. Ottilien (forest restaurant, 1.15 h walk one-way)

09.00 – 09.10	Welcome by Alexandra-M. Klein (German coordinator) and Chao-Dong Zhu (Chinese coordinator)
09.10 – 10.00	BEF-China: A long-standing collaboration (Bernhard Schmid, with personal notes by Keping Ma)
10.00 – 10.30	Principles of data management and publication in BEF-China (Helge Bruelheide)
10.30 – 11.00	Coffee break
11.00 – 12.00	Current research progress at BEF-China (Xiaojuan Liu, with personal notes by Keping Ma)
12.00 – 13.30	Lunch
13.30 – 13.50	The purpose of MultiTroph (Alexandra-M. Klein)
13.50 – 15.30	Subproject descriptions – Confirming activities, timelines and impact, 15 mins (talk) + 5 mins (discussion) for each subproject
13.50 – 14.10	SP1: Wood decomposition and decomposer Interactions Heike Feldhaar, Simon Thorn, Arong Luo, Matteo Dadda
14.10 – 14.30	SP2: Trophic-interaction, tree-diversity and soil-erosion effects on soil-plant stoichiometry Yvonne Oelmann, Thoman Scholten, Steffen Seitz, Yu Lian, Naili Zhang, Haikuo Zhang
14.30 – 14.50	SP3: Plant-herbivore-predator food webs, stoichiometry and functions Jana Petermann, Andreas Schuldt, Douglas Chesters, Ming-Qiang Wang, Mareike Mittag
14.50 – 15.10	SP4: Linking cavity-nesting bee and wasp food webs to other trophic interactions Alexandra-M. Klein, Felix Fornoff, Manuela Sann, Arong Luo, Michael Orr, Massimo Martini
15.10 – 15.30	SP5: Trophic interactions across tree regeneration stages Alexandra Erfmeier, Tim Diekötter, Zhi-Shu Xiao, Noga Abecassis
15.30 – 16.00	Coffee break
16.00 – 17.20	Subproject descriptions – Confirming activities, timelines and impact, 15 mins (talk) + 5 mins (discussion) for each subproject
16.00 – 16.20	SP6: Trophic interactions and ecological functions of ants under changing tree diversity Michael Staab, Heike Feldhaar, Xiaojuan Liu, Joshua Spitz
16.20 – 16.40	Z1: Coordination Alexandra-M. Klein, Finn Rehling, Chao-Dong Zhu
16.40 – 17.00	Z2: Synergies and processing of data and meta-analysis Andreas Schuldt, Helge Bruelheide, Huijie Qiao, Xiaojuan Liu, Georg Albert
17.00 – 17.20	Extra SP: Plant-pollinator interactions Judith Trunschke
18.00	Dinner at Zum Kaiser (Freiburg-Wiehre, 30 mins walk)

08.15 – 09.00	(Potential) Subproject add-ons 10 mins (talk) + 5 mins (discussion) for each subproject add-on
08.15 – 08.30	Extra SP: Filling research gaps in MultiTroph Finn Rehling, Alexandra-M. Klein
08.30 – 08.45	Extra SP: Pollinator diversity Tingting Xie, Douglas Chesters, Chao-Dong Zhu
08.45 – 09.00	(Potential) Extra SP: True bug diversity Claas Damken
09.00 – 10.00	TreeDivNet – The value of integrating BEF-experiments into a global network (Michael Scherer-Lorenzen)
10.00 – 10.30	Coffee break
10.30 – 12.00	Collaboration meetings Jana & Yvonne: Nutrient flow in ecological networks Andreas & Michael: Synthesis of multitrophic networks
12.00 – 13.30	Lunch
13.30 – 15.15	Meta- & DNA-barcoding in BEF-China
13.30 – 13.45	Metabarcoding: an introduction (Manuela Sann)
13.45 – 14.30	How do bees choose which pollen to collect? (Christina Grozinger)
14.30 – 14.50	Metabarcoding in BEF-China (Douglas Chesters)
14.45 – 15.15	Discussion on use and implementation of barcoding in BEF-China (led by Manuela)
15.15 – 15.45	Coffee break (including group photo)
15.45 – 16.55	Continuation collaboration meetings
16.55 – 17.00	Acknowledgments & farewell by Alexandra-M. Klein
Evening	Dinner at Harmonie (Flammenkuchenhaus, city center, 15 mins walk)
21.00	Shuttle service to Mathisle Mühle for extended workshop

Field preparation and team building – mandatory for PhDs

Outdoor-first-aid course (in English)

Shuttle service from Mathisle Mühle back to Freiburg at ~12.00; arrival at Freiburg central train station ~13.30

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