The term “biodiversity“ conjures scenes of tropical forests or coral reefs… and worries about the exponential loss of species worldwide. Ecology and evolutionary biology have made important contributions to a deeper understanding of biodiversity, not only by quantifying the rapid change of ecosystems, but also by showing that there is need for a deeper understanding of the quality of interactions within them: Why do some environments have high biodiversity and others low? What does biodiversity tell us about ecosystem function and stability? What are the consequences of changing biodiversity? Millions of years of evolution have generally led to an increase of biodiversity over time, but were also punctuated by five major mass extinction events. The “anthropocene”, our current era in which the impact of human behavior is fundamentally changing the surface of the earth, is predicted to become the sixth. While this crisis lends urgency to scientific work, it also implies that research on biodiversity must include socio-political questions: Which social and institutional settings encourage behavior in favor of biodiversity? Our program will open on the evening of June 9, 2022 with a panel discussion that spans the origins, benefits, and challenges of biodiversity. On the following day, the group will visit the exhibit and the collections of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, meet its Director General and the team of the museum’s new Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery. The program will close with a session on urban beekeeping that will discuss how bees – which are globally exposed to ecological hazards – are able to adapt to unlikely ecological niches.

Thursday, June 9, 2022

5.30 p.m.: Reception at the Wissenschaftskolleg (Wallotstr. 19)

6.30 p.m.: Panel & Discussion (Large Seminar Room)

Conceptual Challenges of Biodiversity

• Sharon Y. Strauss (Biology, Fellow 2019/2020, UC Davis): Why Should We Care About Biodiversity? Its Origins and Functions in a Changing World
• Judith Bronstein (Biology, Fellow 2018/2019, University of Arizona): Diversity in the Desert: The Intrinsic Value of the World's “Barren Places”
• Monique Borgerhoff Mulder (Anthropology, Fellow 2011/2012, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig): The Challenge of Reconciling Biodiversity and Human Livelihoods

Moderation: Mark Schwartz (Biology, UC Davis)

8 p.m.: Buffet

Friday, June 10, 2022

10.00 a.m.: Excursion to the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin

Meeting with the Director General Prof. Dr. Johannes Vogel

Visit of the permanent exhibition, the collections and meeting with the team of the museum’s new Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery

4.00 p.m.: Members' Assembly of the Fellows‘ Club

5.30 p.m.: Urban Beekeeping – from Scientific Research to Citizen Activism

Session presented by the College for Life Sciences

Kirsten Traynor (Biology, LAVES Bieneninstitut Celle, Fellow 2018/2019)

Moderation: Jana Petri

7 p.m.: BBQ and further discussion