Overview

A main aim of the Jena-Experiment is to study ecosystem processes on experimental plots, and over a large time-scale. Thus, experimental sites were established for long term observations (i.e. including observation of climate data).

A particular strength of the research group is the complementary of the approaches. All projects will contribute to the five major goals:

to investigate the relation between plant diversity and total species diversity,
to test the relation between carbon storage and diversity,
to test the extent to which plant diversity contributes to closed element cycles,
to identify which components of diversity control C-storage and element cycles,
to identify which factors contribute to the stability of plant communities.

The experiment is a collaborative research effort of the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena, the Max-Planck-Institutes for Biogeochemistry and Chemical Ecology, also in Jena, the Humboldt-University Berlin, the FU Berlin, the Darmstadt University of Technology, the University of Göttingen, the University of Mainz, the University of Potsdam, the ETH Zürich, the University of Bern, the University of Mainz, the University of Freiburg, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ and the University of Zurich. The project is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft with support of the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena and the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.

Each participant (of the subprojects) has a specific role in the research group, investigating aboveground and belowground processes, explicitly focus on soil processes, responses of major components of biodiversity in grasslands (invertebrates, vertebrates, microorganisms) but also carry out manipulation experiments which are nested in the overall plant diversity design in order to quantify specific effects of these components on ecosystem processes.