Senckenberg Topics

Planetary Boundaries

In 2009, Johan Rockström (Stockholm Resilience Centre) and 28 international scientists published the article A safe operating space for humanity, in which they identified nine processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth system. Read more about them here.

Senckenberg Topics

Taxonomy for Sustainability

Climate change and other man-made changes in the environment endanger existing and undiscovered species. Dr. Kai-Horst George from the Senckenberg German Center for Marine Biodiversity Research explains where taxonomy can help and what the work of taxonomists looks like in everyday life.

Senckenberg Topics

Oceans in Climate Change

An Interview with Prof. Dr. Angelika Brandt

Plastic pollution and acidification are changing the oceans. But about 70 percent of our planet is covered by seas, which are thus the largest living space on earth. Our oceans have an enormous influence on the climate, the metabolic cycles and therefore our daily environment!

Senckenberg Topics

Wolf monitoring at Senckenberg

Interview with Dr. Carsten Nowak

There have been wolves in Germany since they returned twenty years ago. This has caused controversy in politics and the media to this day. Dr. Carsten Nowak from the Senckenberg Research Institute speaks about wolf monitoring and Senckenberg's role as a reference center in Germany.

Biodiversity, Systematics and Evolution

Humanity shares its living space with up to 20 million other species — animals, fungi, plants, protists and bacteria. Of these, less than 2 million species have been scientifically recorded.

Biodiversity and Environment

Biodiversity and ecosystem functions are of the utmost importance to humans: They provide us - free of charge, so to speak - with clean water, food and raw materials, and they have a stabilizing effect on the climate.

Biodiversity and Climate

The loss of biodiversity and climate change count amongst the greatest challenges of the era. These factors exercise a mutual influence on each other.

Biodiversity and Earth System Dynamics

The dynamics of the 'System Earth' have remained a focal point of research at Senckenberg to this day. What role did the planet's geodynamic processes play in bringing about life?

Mission Statement of the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung

To understand the natural and anthropogenic dynamics of our planet and its living world and to shape them in terms of sustainable development ...

Colonial Legacies

Being over 200 years long, much of Senckenberg’s history, and many of our collections are connected to colonial times. We thus do not only feel the obligation to address these legacies, yet also believe that cooperating with partners in countries of the “Global South” offers great opportunities for both science and society.

Good research practice

The Good Research Practice (GRP) refers to a self-imposed professional ethical attitude of the national and international scientific community.

Research Data Best Practices

SGN manages large sets of data associated with scientific collections and an increasingly diverse set of other geobiodiversity data. We make sure that legal and ethical obligations are followed and that the long term reusability of the data is guaranteed.