Dr. Sara König

Contact

Department of Soil System Science

Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ
Theodor-Lieser-Str. 4
06120 Halle (Saale)
Germany

Tel.: +49 341 6025-2347

sara.koenig@ufz.de

Sara König

Research interests

My research interests focus on spatiotemporal dynamics of soil ecosystems and the resilience behaviour of their functions under environmental fluctuations. I develop and apply mechanistic simulation models for investigating related research questions in various scenarios. I am especially interested in

  • finding trade-offs between describing complex systems adequately, while keeping enough simplicity for understanding the model dynamics
  • applying a systemic approach involving knowledge of various disciplines
  • combining theory, simulation models and empirical work
  • gaining a mechanistic understanding of the dynamic response to fluctuating conditions or management strategies

In my current position in the BonaRes project, I am developing the systemic soil model BODIUM for understanding and predicting the influence of soil management on soil functions under different conditions.

Full CV

uncovering stability Structure of the BODIUM model

2024 (1)

2023 (2)

2021 (1)

2020 (1)

2019 (1)

2018 (2)

2017 (2)

2016 (3)

2018- PostDoc at the Department of Soil System Science
BonaRes project
2017-2018 Sponsorship Coordinator for ISME17
2016-2018 PostDoc at the Department of Ecological Modelling
(in cooperation with the Department of Environmental Microbiology)
2012-2016 PhD Student at UFZ within the Twin Project, topic:
"Modelling spatiotemporal dynamics of biodegradation under disturbances"
2011-2012 Master of Science Environmental Systems and Resources Management,
University of Osnabrück
2007-2011 Bachelor of Science Applied System Science,
University of Osnabrück
2018 - 2020 Institute of Environmental Systems Research, Osnabrück University, Germany
  • Modelling Exercise for compact course 'Modelling in Ecological risk management II' (2 SWS)
  • Lecture 'Modelling of soil functions and the impact of land use'
2014 - 2019 Institute of Environmental Systems Research, Osnabrück University, Germany
 
  • Introduction to statistical analysis with R
2014 - 2019 Institute of Environmental Systems Research, Osnabrück University, Germany
 
  • Modelling Exercise for compact course 'Introduction to Ecological risk management' (2 SWS)
  • Lecture 'Spatiality and functional resilience'
2013 - 2017 Department Ecological Modelling, UFZ, Leipzig & Kohren-Sahlis, Germany
 
  • Modelling exercise of annual winter school 'Ecological Modelling' (8 days)
2011 - 2012 Institute of Environmental Systems Research, Osnabrück University, Germany
 
  • Supervision of bachelor students
  • Exercise for 'Data and Models' (2 SWS)

Talks

2019

König, S., Weller, U., Lang, B., Mayer, S., Stößel, B., Vogel, H.-J., Wiesmeier, M., Wollschläger, U. (2019): The importance of long-term field experiments for modelling soil functions in agricultural systems. DOK conference, Monte Verita, Switzerland

König, S., Vogel, H.-J., Harms, H., Worrich, A. (2019): Functional stability in soil ecosystems - Insights from the microscale modelling perspective. Gesellschaft für Ökologie (GfÖ), Münster, Germany

König, S., Weller, U., Lang, B., Mayer, S., Stößel, B., Vogel, H.-J., Wiesmeier, M., Wollschläger, U. (2019): Systemic modelling of soil functions under the impact of land management. Deutsche Bodenkundliche Gesellschaft (DBG), Bern, Switzerland

König, S., Vogel, H.-J., Weller, U. (2019): Hydrological modelling of a dynamic pore space. European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU), Vienna, Austria

König, S., Weller, U., Lang, B., Mayer, S., Stößel, B., Vogel, H.-J., Wiesmeier, M., Wollschläger, U. (2019): The importance of long-term field experiments for modelling soil functions in agricultural systems. LTFE Meeting IOSDV, Gießen, Germany

2018

König, S., Worrich, A., Banitz, T., Harms, H., Kästner, M., Miltner, A., Wick, L., Frank, K., Thullner, M., Centler, F. (2018): Increased activity of surviving bacteria facilitate functional resistance to recurrent disturbances: a modelling study. Ecology of Soil Microorganisms (ESM), Helsinki, Finland

2017

König, S., Worrich, A., Banitz, T., Harms, H., Kästner, M., Miltner, A., Wick, L., Frank, K., Thullner, M., Centler, F. (2017): Stable biomass versus stable function - opposite effects of spatial fragmentation on the resistance of virtual microbial ecosystems. Joint Meeting of the British Ecological Society (BES) and the Ecological Society of Germany (GfÖ): Ecology Across Borders (EAB), Ghent, Belgium

König, S., Firle, A.-L., Koehnke, M. Banitz. T., Frank, K. (2017): Too big or too narrow? Disturbance characteristics determine the functional resilience in virtual microbial ecosystems. Conference on Functional ecology and environment (FEE), Ecolab, Toulouse, France

König, S., Firle, A.-L., Koehnke, M., Banitz, T., Frank, K. (2017): Too big or too narrow? Disturbance characteristics determine the functional resilience in virtual microbial ecosystems. European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU), Vienna, Austria

2016

König, S., Worrich, A., Banitz, T., Centler, F., Kästner, M., Miltner, A., Wick, L., Thullner, M., Frank, K. (2016): Where is the edge of collapse? Insights from modelling microbial ecosystem functions under recurrent disturbances. Annual Meeting of the British Ecological Society (BES), Liverpool, UK

König, S., Worrich, A., Wick, L., Miltner, A., Kästner, M., Thullner, M., Centler, F., Banitz, T., Frank, K. (2016): Can you escape the beat? Modelling spatiotemporal biodegradation dynamics during periodic disturbances. European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU), Vienna, Austria

2015

König, S., Worrich, A., Banitz, T., Centler, F., Frank, K., Kästner, M., Miltner, A., Wick, L., Thullner, M. (2015): Modelling bacterial degradation after disturbances. 15th EuCheMS International Conference on Chemistry and the Environment (ICCE), Leipzig, Germany

König, S., Banitz, T., Centler, F., Frank, K., Thullner, M. (2015): Functional resilience of microbial ecosystems in soil: How important is a spatial analysis? European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU), Vienna, Austria

Poster pitches

König, S., Banitz, T., Centler, F., Frank, K., Thullner, M. (2015): Functional resilience of microbial ecosystems in soil: How important is a spatial analysis? 6th Congress of European Microbiologists (FEMS), Maastricht, Netherlands

Posters

König, S., Lang, B., Ließ, M., Russell, D., Vogel, H.-J., Weller, U., Wiesmeier, M., Wollschläger, U. (2019): Modelling the dynamics of soil functions for agricultural land use: how to adequately represent biological processes? Gesellschaft für Ökologie (GfÖ), Münster, Germany

König, S., Worrich, A., Banitz, T., Centler, F., Harms, H., Kästner, M., Miltner, A., Wick, L. Y., Thullner, M., Frank, K. (2018): On the edge of collapse: Modelling microbial ecosystem functions under spatially heterogeneous recurrent disturbances. International Symposium on Microbial Ecology (ISME17), Leipzig, Germany

König, S., Worrich, A., Kästner, M., Miltner, A., Wick, L. Y., Thullner, M., Banitz, T., Frank, K., Centler, F. (2015): Hot spots and cold spots: Modelling biodegradation dynamics in response to disturbance regimes. Ecology of soil microorganisms (ESM), Prague, Czech Republic

König, S., Banitz, T., Centler, F., Frank, K., Thullner, M. (2015): Functional resilience of microbial ecosystems in soil: How important is a spatial analysis? 6th Congress of European Microbiologists (FEMS), Maastricht, Netherlands

König, S. & Worrich, A., Banitz, T., Centler, F., Frank, K., Kästner, M., Miltner, A., Thullner, M., Wick, L. (2015): Uncovering stability mechanisms in microbial ecosystems. 6th Congress of European Microbiologists (FEMS), Maastricht, Netherlands

Worrich, A. & König, S., Banitz, T., Centler, F., Frank, K., Kästner, M., Miltner, A., Thullner, M., Wick, L. (2015): Uncovering stability mechanisms in microbial ecosystems: combining microcosm experiments, computational modelling and ecological theory in a multidisciplinary approach. European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU), Vienna, Austria

König, S., Frank, K., Thullner, M. (2015): Recovering ecosystem functioning: The meaning of space for microbes. Higrade Conference, UFZ, Leipzig, Germany