Diana Masch

Contact / Address


Diana Masch
PhD Student

Department of Ecology of Agroecosystems
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ
Theodor-Lieser-Strasse 4 | D-06120 Halle/Saale
Germany

Tel.:
Email:
Web:

+49 341 6025 3467
diana.masch@ufz.de
ResearchGate

Diana Masch

Current Research Project

  • Changes of fungal communities over time and regions in the Biodiversity Exploratories  Biodiversity Exploratories
  • Challenges of using ITS Amplicon sequencing for ecological research questions

Furthermore I am Interested in soil fauna & fungi-insect interactions and feedback effects from the canopy to the soil and backwards.


CV 

since Oct. 2026

PhD candidate at the Department Ecology of Agroecosystems at the Helmholtz-Center for environmental Research in Halle(Saale), Prof. Marion Schrumpf

Aug. 2025 - Sept. 2026

Research Scientist at the Department of Exposure Science at the Helmholtz-Center for environmental Research in Leipzig, Prof. Werner Brack & Prof. Annika Jahnke

2021 - 2025

MSc Biology at the Martin-Luther-University in Halle (Saale)

Thesis: "Plants and pollinators - global patterns along elevational gradients" in collaboration with the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Prof. Tiffany Knight

  • Research assistant in the Department Entomology & Plant Defense Physiology, heads: Prof. D. G. Heckel & PD Dr. Axel Mithöfer, Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena
  • Research assistant in the Department Population Ecology, head: Prof. H. Schielzeth at Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena
  • Research assistant in the Department of Soil Ecology, head: Prof. F. Buscot at Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research, Halle (Saale)
  • Research assistant in the Department of Bioinformatics & Scientific Data, head: Dr. S. Neumann at Leibniz-Institute for Plant Biochemistry, Halle (Saale)
  • Research assistant in the Department of Ecosystems of the Future, head: Dr. S. Klotz at Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research, Halle (Saale)

2017 - 2020

BSc Biology, Freie Universität, Berlin

Thesis: "The impact of Bark Beetle infestations on the fungal diversity and community structure in Picea abies L.", Prof. Francois Buscot

  • Student helper in the Department of Soil Ecology, head: Prof. F. Buscot at Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research, Halle (Saale)
  • Student helper in the Department of Biochemistry of Plant Interactions, head: Prof. T. Romeis at Leibniz-Institute for Plant Biochemistry, Halle (Saale)
  • Student helper in the Department of Applied Zoology, head: Prof. M. Hilker at Freie Universität, Berlin


Awards

Katharina-Heinroth-Award 2021 for the Bachelor Thesis from the Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde (founded 1773), Berlin

Scholarship of the Accenture-Foundation, the Deutsche Bank Foundation and the German Economy Foundation, 2010 - 2012


Publications

Masch, D., Buscot, F., Rohe, W., & Goldmann, K. (2025). Bark beetle infestation alters mycobiomes in wood, litter, and soil associated with Norway spruce. FEMS Microbiol Ecol, 101(3).  DOI


Lu, H. H., Meents, A. K., Fliegmann, J., Hwang, M. J., Suen, C. S., Masch, D., Felix, G., Mithöfer, A., & Yeh, K. W. (2023). Identification of a damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) receptor and its cognate peptide ligand in sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). Plant Cell Environ, 46(8), 2558-2574.  DOI