Frank Schurr, Prof. Dr.

My research aims to contribute to a better understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of biodiversity at various hierarchical levels (genotypes, populations, species and communities). To this end, I study how large-scale biodiversity dynamics arise from fundamental demographic processes (birth, death and dispersal of individual organisms), and how these demographic processes are in turn coupled with evolutionary processes and biotic interactions.

Much of my work is motivated by the need to quantify and forecast ecological and evolutionary dynamics under environmental change. To address my research objectives, I use statistical methods that quantitatively integrate theory- and process-based models with experimental data and large-scale observations.

Fitness consequences of biotic interactions and their role for eco-evolutionary biodiversity dynamics: towards theory-based synthesis across interaction types (Package Proposal, German Research Foundation, DFG)

Analysis and near-term forecasts of the dynamics of plant communities and plant-animal networks in the South African Fynbos biome (German Research Foundation, DFG)

Evolutionary adaptation to global change in a key plant group (Ministry of Science Research and Arts Baden-Württemberg)

The importance of biotic interactions for demography, niches and geographical ranges of South African Proteaceae (GermanResearch Foundation, DFG)

Biological diversity in fruit orchards / Ökologische Vielfalt in Obstanlagen - (Bundesamt für Naturschutz)

Agriculture 4.0 without Chemical-Synthetic Plant Protection (Federal Ministery of Education and Research)

Oaks under climate change (Hebrew University-Hohenheim Collaborative Research Proposal)

Cooksley H, Dreyling L, Esler KJ, Griebenow S, Neumann G, Valentine A, Schleuning M, Schurr FM (2024) Functional traits shape plant-plant interactions and recruitment in a hotspot of woody plant diversity. New Phytologist 241: 1100-1114. doi: 10.1111/nph.19453

Berger T, Gimpel H, Stein A, Troost C, Asseng S, Bichler M, Bieling C, Birner R, Grass I, Kollmann J, Leonhardt SD, Schurr FM, Weisser WW (2024) Hybrid intelligence for reconciling biodiversity and productivity in agriculture. Nature Food, 5, 270-272. doi: 10.1038/s43016-024-00963-6

Zhu J, Lukic N, Pagel J & Schurr FM (2023) Density-dependent seed dispersal and fecundity profoundly alter the spread dynamics of plant populations. Journal of Ecology, 111, 1735-1748. doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.14142

Pagel J, Treurnicht M, Bond WJ, Kraaij T, Nottebrock H, Schutte-Vlok A, Tonnabel J, Esler KJ, Schurr FM (2020) Mismatches between demographic niches and geographic distributions are strongest in poorly dispersed and highly persistent plant species. PNAS USA 117: 3663-3669. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1908684117

Treurnicht M, Pagel J, Tonnabel J, Esler KJ, Slingsby JA, Schurr FM (2020) Functional traits explain the Hutchinsonian niches of plant species. Global Ecology and Biogeography 29: 534-545. doi: 10.1111/geb.13048

Schurr FM, Pagel J, Cabral JS, Groeneveld J, Bykova O, O'Hara RB, Hartig F, Kissling WD, Linder HP, Midgley GF, Schröder B, Singer A, Zimmermann NE (2012) How to understand species' niches and range dynamics: a demographic research agenda for biogeography. Journal of Biogeography 39: 2146-2162. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2012.02737.x

Complete publication list on GoogleScholar.

Since 2014: Full Professor of Landscape Ecology and Vegetation Science, Institute of Landscape and Plant Ecology , University of Hohenheim , Germany

2012-2014: Staff Researcher (CR1), Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institute of Evolutionary Sciences, University of Montpellier, France

2005 – 2012: Senior Scientist, Research Group Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, University of Potsdam , Germany

2011: Senior Scientist, Functional Plant Biogeography, University of Frankfurt/Main , Germany

2010: Habilitation and Private Lecturer ('Privatdozent') in Plant Ecology and Evolutionary Ecology, University of Potsdam , Germany

2008: Marie Curie Research Fellow at Institute of Evolutionary Sciences, University of Montpellier, France (EU Marie Curie Project FEMMES)

2002 – 2005: PhD student at the Department of Ecological Modelling, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ , Leipzig, Germany and the Department of Botany, University of Regensburg , Germany

2001: Research stay at the Department of Botany, University of Cape Town and the South African National Biodiversity Institute , South Africa

1997 – 2001: Studies of Biology at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Germany