Exploring Wetland Ecosystems in the Rhön Biosphere Reserve

Exploring Wetland Ecosystems in the Rhön Biosphere Reserve

April 14, 2025

As part of our ongoing collaboration with our EOCap4Africa project partners, two members of the EORC (Dr. Insa Otte, Lilly Schell) at the University of Würzburg recently took a field trip to the Rhön Biosphere Reserve with our visiting scientists.

We visited two wetland sites—Rotes Moor and Schwarzes Moor—both important ecosystems that play a key role in regional biodiversity and climate regulation.

 

The excursion offered valuable on-the-ground insights into wetland ecology, restoration efforts, and the challenges of monitoring these dynamic landscapes. Observations in the field complemented our remote sensing approaches and sparked lively discussions on linking in-situ data with satellite-based analysis. Field experiences like this are essential for building shared understanding across disciplines and cultures—and for grounding our research in the real-world environments we aim to protect.

you may also like:

Writing in Progress Across Europe!

Writing in Progress Across Europe!

This week, members of the COST Action DSS4ES from all over Europe — including colleagues from Türkiye — have gathered at the Earth Observation Research Cluster of the University of Würzburg for a dedicated writing retreat. Our goal? To collaboratively shape the...

New study on the conservation of biodiversity in West Africa

New study on the conservation of biodiversity in West Africa

A new study by our team, led by Insa Otte, on the conflict between biodiversity conservation in protected areas and agricultural development in West Africa has been published in the journal Natur und Landschaft. The abstract: According to the Human Development Report...

New study on invasive species in Rwanda

New study on invasive species in Rwanda

A new publication by EORC members Lilly Schell, Insa Otte, Sarah Schönbrodt-Stitt and Konstantin Müller, was just published   in the Journal Frontiers in Plant Science. Their study, “Synergistic use of satellite, legacy, and in situ data to predict spatio-temporal...

Successful PhD defense by Adomas Liepa

Successful PhD defense by Adomas Liepa

We’re happy to announce that our PhD student Adomas Liepa has successfully defended his doctoral thesis, titled “Potential of Satellite Earth Observation in Seasonal Monitoring of Complex Agricultural Environments of East Africa”, on Thursday, July 24th at 11:00 AM....

Visiting Scientist Anastacia Makati from ORI at EORC

Visiting Scientist Anastacia Makati from ORI at EORC

As part of the project „EOCap4Africa: Earth Observation in Africa: Capacity development for the conservation of ecosystems and their services" funded by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) we had the pleasure to host Ms. Anastacia Makati as a...