Dr. rer. nat. Felix Zitzmann

Main research areas

• Biodiversity (e.g. avifauna, ground beetles, mammals, vascular plants) in the agricultural landscape
• Novel ecosystems (e.g. short rotation plantations, paludicultures, modern agroforestry systems, solar parks) and their importance as habitats for various species groups
• Impact regulation, species protection and production-integrated nature conservation measures (PIK, AUKM, CEF and FCS measures)

I am currently working on the following topics, among others, as part of research projects or in collaboration with students:

• How does the dragonfly fauna of a reed-bed paludiculture experiment site develop in the first years after establishment?
• How do cultivated plants and accompanying vegetation develop in paludiculture with reeds and bulrushes in the first years after establishment?
• Which habitat and landscape parameters influence the occurrence of reed-breeding species in reed beds in Lower Saxony?
• Which mammals use short rotation coppice strips as habitat in modern agroforestry systems? Are the tree strips suitable habitats for the strictly protected dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius? Does the wildcat Felis silvestris use the tree strips as habitat? 
• Which wood-breeding bird species breed in different types of SRC?
• What is the importance of short rotation coppice for the biotope network of forest carabids?
• Which species of ground beetles and spiders hibernate and breed in different areas of solar parks?
• Which birds, butterflies, carabid beetles, mammals and vascular plants use solar parks as habitats?
• Which bird species breed on the technical structures of solar parks?
• What are the characteristics of solar parks in Lower Saxony and what are the potential impacts on biodiversity and biotope networks?
• Which bird and mammal species use an agri-PV test site as a habitat (research project by Lara Diekmann)?
•  ...

Teaching activities

• Supervision of study projects and bachelor/ master theses
• Coordination and teaching of the modules "Faunistic Field Methods" and "Faunistic-ecological Methods in Landscape Planning"
• Lectures in the modules "Biodiversity and Nature Conservation", "Nature Conservation and Landscape Planning: Principles and methods" and "Planning-related ecology"
• Field trips, charettes

Peer Reviewer

• AMBIO A Journal of the Human Environment
• Applied Carabidology
• Ecology and Evolution
• Journal of Sustainable Forestry
• Nature Conservation and Landscape Planning