Direction:of Ecology and Geography
Position:Associate Professor
Nils Hein is an experienced project coordinator and scientist specializing in ecology, biogeography and physical geography. From 2020 to 2024 he was the project coordinator for the Caucasus Barcode of Life Project (CaBOL). Previously, he was Associate Professor of Physical Geography at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, Georgia, from 2019 to 2020. In 2014, he completed his PhD in Physical Geography at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. His dissertation focused on the ecology and biogeography of arachnids of the alpine tundra. He also obtained a diploma in landscape ecology at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster in 2008, where his thesis investigated how reproduction in Lycosidae (wolf spiders) varies with elevation.
Scientific interests / research interests
My research is superiorly organized along environmental gradients; these are temporal succession states in ecosystems (e.g. in coastal areas), spatial gradients (e.g. elevation, microtopography) in mountain areas, and hemeroby levels (e.g. land use). I am particularly focusing on comparative high mountain research and multiple geographical phenomena from global to local scales.
Featured publications
- Hein, N., Pétillon, J., Pape, R., Feilhauer, H., Vanselow, K.A., Löffler, J. (2019): Broad-Scale Rather than Fine-Scale Environmental Variation Drives Body Size in a Wandering Predator (Araneae, Lycosidae). – Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 51: 315–326.
- Hein, N., Löffler, J., Feilhauer, H. (2019): Mapping of Arthropod Alpha and Beta Diversity in Heterogeneous Arctic-Alpine Ecosystems. – Ecological Informatics 54: 101007.
- Thormann, Jana, Dirk Ahrens, Cort Anderson, Jonas J. Astrin, Levan Mumladze, Björn Rulik, David Tarkhnishvili, Marianne Espeland, Matthias Geiger, Nils Hein, Giorgi Iankoshvili, Elisabeth Karalashvili, Ximo Mengual, Carsten Morkel, Marco T. Neiber, Ralph S. Peters, André Reimann, Axel Ssymank, Thomas Wesener, Joachim Ziegler & Bernhard Misof (2019): A prelude to the Caucasus Barcode of Life Platform (CaBOL): Biodiversity Days in Georgia in 2018 and 2019. – Bonn zoological Bulletin 68 (2): 275–296.
- Hein, N., Merkelbach, J., Zech, K., Weijers, S. (2020): Drought sensitivity of Empetrum nigrum shrub growth at the species’ southern lowland distribution range margin. Plant Ecology (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-020-01107-z
- Kankaanpää, T., Vesterinen, E., Hardwick, B., Schmidt, N.M., Andersson, T., Aspholm, P.E., Barrio, I., Beckers, N., Bêty, J., Birkemoe, T., Desiervo, M., Drotos, K., Ehrich, E., Gilg, O., Gilg, V., Hein, N., Høye, T.T., Jakoben, K.M., Jodouin, C., Jorna, J., Kozlov, M.V., Kresse, J.-C., Leandri-Breton, D.-J., Lecomte, N., Loonen, M., Marr, P., Monckton, S.K., Olsen, M., Otis, J.A., Pyle, M., Roos, R.E., Raundrup, K., Rozhkova, D., Sabard, B., Sokolov, A., Sokolova, N., Solecki, A.M., Urbanowicz, C., Villeneuve, C., Vyguzova, E., Zverev, V., Roslin, T. (2020): Parasitoids indicate major climate-induced shifts in arctic communities. – Global Change Biology 26: 6276–6295.
- Anthony, S. E., Buddle, C. M., Høye, T. T., Hein, N., Sinclair, B. J. (2021). Thermal acclimation has limited effect on the thermal tolerances of summer-collected Arctic and sub-Arctic wolf spiders. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, Volume 257, 2021, 110974.
- Hein, N., Astrin, J. J., Beckers, N., Giebner, H., Langen, K., Löffler, J., Misof, B. & Fonseca, V. G. (2024). Arthropod diversity in the alpine tundra using metabarcoding: Spatial and temporal differences in alpha‐and beta‐ Ecology and Evolution, 14(2), e10969.
- Tarkhnishvili, D., Seropian, A., Erhardt, C., Kachlishvili, N., Krammer, H. J., & Hein, N. (2024). How dispersal rates depend on the prey capture strategy: A case study of Georgia’s spiders. Ecology and Evolution, 14(5), e11372.
- Wellenbeck, A., Fehrmann, L., Feilhauer, H., Schmidtlein, S., Misof, B., & Hein, N. (2024). Discriminating woody species assemblages from National Forest Inventory data based on phylogeny in Georgia. Ecology and Evolution, 14(7), e11569.
An extensive list of publications
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- Buchholz, S., & Hein, N. (2007) Die epigäische Webspinnenfauna (Araneae) verschiedener Habitattypen der Emsaue bei Münster (NRW). Natur und Heimat, 67, 109–124.
- Hein, N., Solhøy, T., Schatz, H. & Löffler, J. (2013) An orbatid species Provertex kuehnelti Mihelčič, 1959 (Acari, Orbatida) new to Fennoscandia. Norwegian Journal of Entomology, 60, 163–168.
- Hågvar, S., Hein, N., Löffler, J., Lundmo, S., & Straumfors, P. (2013) New data on the distribution of Chionea Dalman, 1816 (Diptera, Limoniidae), and on habitat Choice of C. araneoides Dalman, 1816 at high Altitudes. Norwegian Journal of Entomology, 60, 176–181.
- Hein, N., Feilhauer, H., Finch, Schmidtlein, S. & Löffler, J. (2014) Snow cover determines the ecology and biogeography of spiders (Araneae) in alpine tundra ecosystems. Erdkunde, 68, 157–172.
- Hein, N., Pape, R., Finch, O.-D. & Löffler, J. (2014) Alpine activity patterns of Mitopus morio (Fabricius, 1779) are induced by variations in temperature and humidity at different scales in central Norway. Journal of Mountain Science, 11, 644–655.
- Beckers, N., Hein, N., & Löffler, J. (2015) Klimaökologische Diversitätsmuster von Laufkäfern (Carabidae) im norwegischen Hochgebirge. Norden, 21,45–53. Bremen.
- Hein, N., Feilhauer, H., Löffler, J. & Finch, O.-D. (2015) Elevational variation of reproductive traits in five Pardosa (Lycosidae) species. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 47, 67–73.
- Hein, N., Brendel, M.R., Feilhauer, H., Finch, O.-D. & Löffler, J. (2018) Egg size vs. egg number trade-off in the alpine-tundra wolf spider, Pardosa palustris (Araneae: Lycosidae). Polar Biology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2301-x.
- Beckers, N., Hein, N., Vanselow, K.A. & Löffler, J. (2018) Effects of microclimatic thresholds on the activity-abundance and distribution patterns of alpine Carabidae species. Annales Zoologici Fennici, 55, 25–44.
- Beckers, N., Hein, N., Anneser, A., Vanselow, K.A., & Löffler, J. (2020) Differences in mobility and dispersal capacity determine body size clines in two common alpine-tundra arthropods. Insects, 11, 74.
- Wehner, A., Hein, N., Beckers, N., Dobbert, S., Pape, R., & Löffler, J. (2022) Early snow melt and diverging thermal constraints control body size in arctic–alpine spiders. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 138, 1-13.
- Seropian, A., Arsenashvili, E., Bulbulashvili, N., Shubashishvili, A., Iankoshvili, G., Todua, M., Ananiashvili, A., Japarashvili, S., Chkhartisvhili, T., Memishishi, A., Balkhamishvili, S., Chitadze, B., Karalashvili, E., Mumladze, L., Hein, N. & Rulik, B. (2023). Into the unknown: the first barcode-assisted checklist of Psocoptera (Insecta, Psocodea) of Georgia with a census on country species richness. ZooKeys, 1168, 77.
- Rduch, V., Dey, L.-S., Ghazaryan, A., Husemann, M., Iankoshvili, G., Krammer, H.J., Lambrecht, M., Marabuto, E., Mengual, X., Müller, B., Peters, R.S., Rulik, B., Salden, T., Silva-Brandão, K.L., Espeland, M., Thormann, J., Töpfer, T., Weiß, C., Żyła, D., & Hein, N. (2024) Exkursion in den Kaukasus: Der CaBOL BioBlitz 2022 in Armenien und Georgien. Koenigiana, 18, 21-40.
- Salden, T., Müller, B., Japoshvili, G., Hein, N., Ugrelidze, A. & Peters, R.S. (2024) First records of the Hymenoptera superfamilies and families Mymarommatoidea: Mymarommatidae and Stephanoidea: Stephanidae in Georgia. Caucasiana, 3, 145-150. https://doi.org/10.3897/caucasiana.3.e124925
- Seropian, A., Bulbulashvili, N., Krammer, H.-J., Thormann, J., Hein, N., Karalashvili, E., Kachlishvili, N. & Datunashvili, A. (2024). Picking pearls from the Silk Road: Insights into the spider (Arachnida, Araneae) diversity in Georgia from the Caucasus Barcode of Life (CaBOL) project. Part III. Caucasiana, 3, 89-118. https://doi.org/10.3897/caucasiana.3.e1208
Current Courses |
Course Catalog |
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ST 2020
WT 2019/20
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