Questionnaire: Vera Prenzel

Your Title, Name, Place of work?
Vera Prenzel, Bonn

What is your current position/function at our institute?
PhD in the project NaPA (Nature-positive Agriculture), zbm (Centre for Biodiversity Monitoring and Conservation Science)

What do you like about your job/position?
My job includes a lot of different work surroundings and work types. From setting up arthropod traps in the field, getting in contact with farmers – for arranging the experiment, during round tables or while discussing results – working in the lab or sitting at the desk determining arthropod or analyzing my data – the tasks vary a lot. I really like this versatility. Being in a research field, which is close to agricultural practice is another positive aspect for me, while this gives the opportunity to incorporate results directly into management techniques.

Can you please describe your tasks at the LIB?
My research aims at exploring if flowering strips have a (positive) impact on arthropod diversity in agricultural landscapes. Overall, 20 farms from all over Germany, Switzerland and Austria are taking part in the project, providing fields with flowering strips for our research. Samples are collected by different trapping methods and besides the fieldwork, I will morphologically identify different arthropods and work with the samples in a molecular lab.

Keyword
biodiversity monitoring

Is there something about the Institute that particularly appeals to you?
Being a part of an institute that works with methods to keep track of the world’s biodiversity and hopefully contribute to preserving our ecosystems is a future-oriented work environment I don’t want to miss.

 

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