Ecological Novelty
Global change brings about many changes also on a local scale. These changes cause organisms to co-occur that did not occur together before. Also, organisms are confronted with environmental conditions (e.g. altered soils and changed climate) that did not prevail previously. Communities and ecosystems form that do not have any historic analog.
In my PhD thesis, I became interested in the question what it may mean for organisms to be confronted with such novel conditions. Following up on this, Wolf Saul, Jonathan Jeschke and me together developed the concept of eco-evolutionary experience: Biotic interactions in a new range may be driven by a lack of ‘experience’ a species has with its new interaction partners.
During the BIBS project, we built together with colleagues on these ideas and suggested ‘ecological novelty’ as umbrella term for consequences of global change that matter to organisms. Over the time, I got increasingly interested in the social dimensions of novelty. Teaming up with the political theorist Rosine Kelz, I therefore organized an international workshop with the title “Novel Natures? New technologies and conflicts in nature conservation”, July 2022 in Hannover, funded by VolkswagenStiftung.
Projects
Bridging in Biodiversity Science (BIBS)
The overarching goal of the BIBS project (2016-2021) was to bridge disciplines, scales and systems in biodiversity research. In work package 5, we addressed the question in which respects novel ecosystems differ from near-natural systems, focusing on a gradient from rural to urban in the city of Berlin.
Cooperation
Essays and Blog Posts
Krimphove, P. (2022): „Wir müssen uns vom Gegensatz zwischen natürlicher und vom Menschen beeinflusster Natur verabschieden“ Ein Interview mit der Expertin für Biodiversität und Ökologie Dr. Tina Heger. Interview for “Die Debatte”. [link]
Heger, T. (2020): Was meinen wir mit „Natur“? Ökologische Neuartigkeit als Beschreibungshilfe für Natur im Anthropozän. Biodiversitäts-Blog, Projekt Bridging in Biodiversity Science (BIBS). [link]
Other Publications
Schittko, C., Onandia, G., Bernard-Verdier, M., Heger, T., Jeschke, J.M., Kowarik, I., Maaß, S., Joshi, J. (2022): Biodiversity maintains soil multifunctionality and soil organic carbon in novel urban ecosystems. Journal of Ecology 110: 916-934. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.13852
Schittko, C., Bernard-Verdier, M., Heger, T., Buchholz, S., Kowarik, I., von der Lippe, M., Seitz, B., Joshi, J. & Jeschke, J. M. (2020): A multidimensional framework for measuring biotic novelty: How novel is a community? Global Change Biology 26: 4401-4417. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15140 [link to pdf]
Heger, T., Bernard-Verdier, M., Gessler, A., Greenwood, A., Grossart, H.-P., Hilker, M., Keinath, S., Kowarik, I., Marquard, E., Müller, J., Niemeier, S., Onandia, G. Petermann, J., Rillig, M., Rödel, M.-O., Saul, W.-C., Schittko, C., Tockner, K., Joshi, J. & Jeschke, J. M. (2020): Clear language for ecosystem management in the Anthropocene: a reply to Bridgewater & Hemming. BioScience 70: 374–376. DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biaa024
Onandia, G., Schittko, C., Ryo, M., Bernard-Verdier, M., Heger, T., Joshi, J., Kowarik, I. & Gessler, A. (2019): Ecosystem functioning in urban grasslands: the role of biodiversity, plant invasions and urbanization. PLOS One 14: e0225438. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225438 [link to pdf]
Heger, T., Bernard-Verdier, M., Gessler, A., Greenwood, A., Grossart, H.-P., Hilker, M., Keinath, S., Kowarik, I., Kueffer, C., Marquard, E., Müller, J., Niemeier, S., Onandia, G. Petermann, J., Rillig, M., Rödel, M.-O., Saul, W.-C., Schittko, C., Tockner, K., Joshi, J. & Jeschke, J. M. (2019): Towards an integrative, eco-evolutionary understanding of ecological novelty: Studying and communicating interlinked effects of global change. BioScience 69: 888-899. DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biz095 [link to pdf]
Saul, W.-C., Jeschke, J. M. & Heger, T. (2013): The role of eco-evolutionary experience in invasion success. NeoBiota 17: 57-74. DOI: 10.3897/neobiota.17.5208 [link to pdf]