Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Title: Experimentally dealing with the impacts of an increasing number of factors: global change and soil as a case study
Abstract: Dealing with a large number, say 10, of jointly acting factors is a challenge in experiments in environmental research (and other fields). For the case of global change, we have developed a method of dealing with this problem by generating a gradient of factor number, randomly sampling from a pool of factors. This way we could show that with an increasing factor number, there is a progressive decline in soil processes (such as soil aggregation, decomposition) and microbial biodiversity. We have also applied a similar idea to global observational data, and more recently also to restoration ecology. Can this approach also be useful in other natural science fields, maybe yours?
Profile: Matthias Rillig is a professor of ecology at Freie Universität Berlin. He obtained his PhD from the University of California, Davis. He joined the faculty of the University of Montana, USA, and in 2007 moved to Berlin. Matthias is a soil ecologist, most interested in fungi, working on global change impacts in terrestrial ecosystems. Matthias is a fellow of the German National Academy of Sciences and the Academia Europaea.
Personal Website: rilliglab.org
Find out more about the TSVP on the program website: oist.jp/visiting-program
#OIST #OIST_TSVP #RestorationEcology #Environment #research #oist #oist_tsvp #Theoretical #Science #VisitingProgram #Okinawa #TSVP
Title: Experimentally dealing with the impacts of an increasing number of factors: global change and soil as a case study
Abstract: Dealing with a large number, say 10, of jointly acting factors is a challenge in experiments in environmental research (and other fields). For the case of global change, we have developed a method of dealing with this problem by generating a gradient of factor number, randomly sampling from a pool of factors. This way we could show that with an increasing factor number, there is a progressive decline in soil processes (such as soil aggregation, decomposition) and microbial biodiversity. We have also applied a similar idea to global observational data, and more recently also to restoration ecology. Can this approach also be useful in other natural science fields, maybe yours?
Profile: Matthias Rillig is a professor of ecology at Freie Universität Berlin. He obtained his PhD from the University of California, Davis. He joined the faculty of the University of Montana, USA, and in 2007 moved to Berlin. Matthias is a soil ecologist, most interested in fungi, working on global change impacts in terrestrial ecosystems. Matthias is a fellow of the German National Academy of Sciences and the Academia Europaea.
Personal Website: rilliglab.org
Find out more about the TSVP on the program website: oist.jp/visiting-program
#OIST #OIST_TSVP #RestorationEcology #Environment #research #oist #oist_tsvp #Theoretical #Science #VisitingProgram #Okinawa #TSVP
