Inside Biodiversity

In this episode, Professor Katrin Böhning-Gaese, scientific director of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, and podcast host Dr. Volker Hahn discuss the Planetary Boundaries framework, focusing not only on the science but also considering the value of this framework for communication. Other questions at the heart of this episode are: Where has communication on climate and biodiversity gone wrong? Is there a tendency to exaggerate risks and understate progress? What are the consequences of catastrophizing rhetoric for mental health and people’s readiness to act? What can biodiversity communication learn from climate communication, and vice versa? Most importantly, how can researchers and the media do better?

In this episode of Inside Biodiversity, Volker Hahn speaks with iDiv's sabbatical guest Miguel Bastos Araújo (Spanish Research Council at the National Museum of Natural Sciences, Madrid), one of the leading experts on species distributions and climate change. Araújo explains how species are shifting their ranges due to climate change, why some traditional protected areas are reaching their limits, and how conservation policy should adapt to a changing climate. The conversation explores how scientific evidence can inform policy and why effective conservation requires navigating multiple, often competing, rationalities. A thought-provoking episode on climate change, biodiversity, and the science-policy interface.

In this episode, Prof. Marten Scheffer from Wageningen University & Research explains critical transitions and tipping points, from shallow lakes and coral reefs to tropical rainforests. Together with host Dr. Volker Hahn, he explores whether local tipping points can be scaled up to a biospheric planetary boundary, and how uncertainty shapes our understanding and communication. Scheffer explains why he believes the concept of tipping points remains relevant for policy and management—even when we do not know where they lie.

Are there tipping points in ecosystems — and if so, can we detect them before the system tips? In this episode of Inside Biodiversity, host Volker Hahn talks with Helmut Hillebrand, professor at the University of Oldenburg and the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity, about the science and the politics behind thresholds, regime shifts, and planetary boundaries. Hillebrand says, “Thinking about biodiversity in binary ways, about below and above a threshold, is the wrong way of thinking about how biodiversity works and how we rely on biodiversity.”

Not every species introduced by humans becomes a problem – but some do, especially on islands. In this episode of Inside Biodiversity, invasion biologist Marten Winter (iDiv and Leipzig University) explains how we define alien vs. invasive alien species, why the raccoon is a management challenge for Europe, and why management is particularly tricky in places like Australia. We also discuss the ethical dilemmas of controlling species such as the red fox – and whether it is possible to identify non-native species without knowing their origin.