Stefanie Höckendorff

Research Project A5: Drivers of long-term population dynamics of plant species along the shore of Lake Constance

Many projects focus on life in the water of Lake Constance directly. The water body is not an enclosed system; it is under influence of the lake-shore habitats’ conditions and characteristics. In turn, the lake-shore with its flora and fauna is among others being impacted by the flooding, water level and nutrient content of the lake.

This project focuses on terrestrial plant species of lake-shore habitats (Streuwiesen) around Lower Lake Constance and investigates the influence of biotic and abiotic changes on their population dynamics over up to a century. We will focus on the identification of possible drivers responsible for the decline or resilience of a set of species. The knowledge thereof is important for management purposes and to be able to predict plant species’ responses.

Aim:

  • extrinsic environmental factors and intrinsic species characteristics, which are the drivers of long-term population dynamics of plant species along Lake Constance
  • Using (species interaction, plant inventories and monitoring data, unique datasets allow for exploration of last 100 years; species trait analysis
  • information collected from field worktwo unique datasets, common garden experiments with species collected in the field

For the Wollmatinger Ried data set, we will use long-term data on water levels (flooding events), climatic data and data on management to assess the extrinsic variables that might have driven the population dynamics.

Education

Since 04/2017 Ph.D. Project: “A5: Drivers of long-term population dynamics of plant species along the shore of Lake Constance
10/2012 – 09/2015

Master studies, “Biological Sciences”, University Constance

M.Sc. Thesis: “Fish species’ reaction to river restoration – the role of ecological species traits” (conducted at the department for Freshwater Ecology of the Senckenberg Institute, Gelnhausen)

10/2009 - 09/2012

Bachelor studies, “Biological Sciences”, University Constance

B.Sc. Thesis: “Urbanization and behavioural differences in free living European Blackbirds (Turdus merula)”

Publications

Höckendorff, S., Tonkin, J. D., Haase, P., Bunzel-Drüke, M., Zimball, O., Scharf, M. and Stoll, S. (2017), “Characterizing fish responses to a river restoration over 21 years based on species’ traits”, Conservation Biology, 31: 1098–1108. doi:10.1111/cobi.12908

Höckendorff S., Früh, D., Hormel, N., Haase, P. and Stoll, S. (2015) "Biotic interactions under climate warming: temperature-dependent and species-specific effects of the oligochaete Chaetogaster limnaei on snails," Freshwater Science 34, no. 4 (December 2015): 1304-1311. DOI: 10.1086/683606