Research spotlights

Lichens are among the first organisms to recolonize rocks or stony soils after glacial retreat. Researchers from the Bavarian State Collection for Botany (SNSB-BSM), among others, studied lichen vegetation after the melting of ice masses in Antarctica. The scientists published their results in early May in the scientific journal Symbiosis. Climate change has a major […]

Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection, Bavarian State Collection for Botany & SNSB IT Center With around 14 million records of over 4,000 plant species occurring in Bavaria, the new plant portal has grown to become the largest botanical database in Bavaria. From this, a comprehensive plant atlas “Flora of Bavaria” will […]

GBIF.org, as the largest global network for biodiversity data, passed the 1 billion mark of digital evidence on species distribution on 04 July 2018. This milestone symbolizes the great collective achievement of the Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), an initiative established in response to an OECD recommendation in 1999 and currently supported by governments from 123 […]

Deschampsia rhenana is found only at Lake Constance- unfortunately possibly not for much longer. Because the sweet grass species is critically endangered. Until around the year 2000, there were still large populations of the species on the shores of Lake Constance in Bavaria, but then these declined significantly and disappeared completely from 2005 onwards. In […]

The Bavarian Natural History Collections (SNSB) not only possess valuable collection treasures, but also significant data collections that are freely available on the Internet, often with unique, detailed images of large but also microscopic collection objects. The SNSB IT Center now provides more than 5 million data sets and about 290,000 digital images of scientific […]

Hoverflies (also called flower flies), are conspicuous flower visitors of the dipteran family Syrphidae which often mimic the coloration of bees and wasps for protection, however they are totally stingless insects. The larvae (“maggots”) of most species are known to be beneficial organisms that feed on aphids and related insect pests of plants. However, aphids […]

Innovative research and new techniques in the field of environmental and ecosystem sciences not only lead to new understandings, but also to a flood of data. Now it is crucial to learn to manage this ocean of data. The aim is the long term availability of data in open access for users and interested public.  […]

An international team of botanists from Brazil, USA and the Botanische Staatssammlung München, Germany described a new species of carnivorous sundew (Drosera, Droseraceae), which was discovered on a not-so-remote mountain in Southeastern Brazil. The new species, which has been named Drosera magnifica (the magnificent sundew), turned out to be the largest of its kind known […]