Jan Rudolph (Kassel University)
Jan Rudolp's Master thesis was awarded with the Prize for the Best Plant Science Master Thesis, which was carried out at Kassel University in the year 2026 with the title:
Investigation of plant-derived aerosol particles at different heights in a floodplain forest using metabarcoding
eDNA metabarcoding can be used to detect seasonal and interannual variations in airborne plant traces, as this basic research study demonstrated.
Due to global warming, weather extremes are occurring with increased frequency, which in turn can severely impact vegetation by causing periods of drought, making it essential to understand the reactions of plants to such stressors in order to implement effective protective measures.
As part of the Leipziger Auwaldkran Project of the University of Leipzig, passive pollentraps were placed within the urban floodplain forest at three positions and at three different heights (3, 15.5 and 28 m) each and have been collected weekly since 2019. In this master‘s thesis the samples of three-week periods in spring and autumn were analyzed for the years 2019 – 2023. The identification of taxa was conducted using metabarcoding, and subsequently the observed diversity was examined for seasonal and interannual differences, as well as for correlations with different climatic factors.
A total of 94 genera were detected, with the generic composition of samples collected earlier in the year consistently differing significantly from the ones collected later in the year. Additionally, only little variations were observed between autumns of different years, while the generic composition detected for samples originating in spring showed greatly increased fluctuations on a year-to-year basis. Incorporating various weather parameters revealed a correlation to recent precipitation events, though these only accounted for a small portion of the observed variations. Thus, the results of this study indicate that recent drought periods appear to have had, at least in part, an influence on the pollen production of certain taxa. Therefore, one aim of future research could be to identify additional environmental or physiological factors responsible for the observed fluctuations in spring.
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Jan Rudolph conducted this work at the institute of biology in the field of botany in the working group of Prof. Dr. Birgit Gemeinholzer.
