02.07.2024
On 28.06.24 Nadja Heitmann successfully defended her doctoral thesis at the BTU Cottbus
with the topic "Ground-dwelling arthropods as mobile linkers for the phytopathogenic fungi Fusarium and Alternaria". In her work, Nadja demonstrated for the first time
the importance of ground beetles for the dispersal of disease-causing plant-associated fungi.
In her first publication, she was able to identify a large number and a diverse community of these fungi on the surface as well as inside the beetles using two different micro- and molecular-biological methods. As a result, these mobile organisms connect microbial communities from the soil, the litter layer and the growing plants. Nadja investigated the organismic groups in the transition zones between the edge vegetation of kettle holes and the neighbouring wheat fields in the agricultural region of the landscape laboratory "AgroScapeLab" Quillow.
Nadja showed in her second publication the similarities and differences in the population structure of Fusarium fungi in these different habitats.
From the findings on the seasonal activity of ground beetles around the kettle holes (3rd manuscript of the PhD thesis), conclusions can be drawn about the spatial and temporal
significance of this dispersal pathway for the outbreak of plant diseases.
With her doctoral thesis, funded by ZALF and associated with the DFG Research Training Group "BioMove", Nadja has successfully combined the previously separate fields of entomology and microbiology.
For the first time, she was supervised by two ZALF supervisors (Marina Müller and Michael Glemnitz) from two ZALF Research Areas (RA1 and RA2) and by Prof. Klaus Birkhofer from the BTU. At the same time, the working group "Fungal Interactions" is proud to be able to announce the 4th successful dissertation within 8 months.
We would like to congratulate Nadja on her excellent doctorate and wish her a successful scientific career.
