MainzBaum: Join Now and Explore City Trees as Habitats
For nearly three years, the “MainzBaum – Dein Lebensraum” project—carried out by the Rhineland-Palatinate Nature and Environment Foundation in cooperation with the Parks and Environment Department—has been investigating the importance of Mainz’s urban trees for biodiversity. To mark the conclusion of the project, residents, students, and anyone else interested are once again invited to become researchers themselves and document the animals and plants found on trees in their local area.
Fall Is Research Season
As fall arrives, life around the trees changes too. The leaves change color and fall, fruits and chestnuts litter the paths, and the tree canopies grow increasingly sparse. This offers a particularly good view of the animals that have lived in and around the trees throughout the summer.
What happens to them when temperatures drop? Who seeks shelter in the tree bark? Which animals are preparing for winter? And which species might now be spotted among the fallen leaves?
That’s why it’s especially worth taking a closer look at tree trunks, tree canopies, and the area around the trees this fall.
Join In and Discover Biodiversity
Janina Steinkrüger, Head of the Environment Department, invites everyone to participate: “As part of this citizen science initiative, anyone interested can register their own trees on a reporting page and document the animals and plants found there. The collected observations help us learn more about which species are found on different tree species and how biodiversity is distributed in urban areas.”
The results can make an important contribution to better understanding biodiversity in Mainz and to developing measures for its protection as well as for the city’s adaptation to climate change.
Two Additional Research Approaches
In addition to observations by citizens, the project has used other methods over the past two years to study the urban tree habitat.
Throughout the “green leaf season,” volunteers used a special measuring device, the Arborcheck, to record the vitality of selected trees. Using a simple method to measure photosynthetic activity, data was collected on how the trees respond to climatic changes.
In addition, insect traps were set up on native and non-native tree species. These provided insights into the diversity of the insects found there as well as their quantitative distribution.
Get involved now!
The project is in its final stages—and thus offers one last opportunity to get involved. Anyone who spots interesting animals or plants near an urban tree this fall can share these observations with the project and help advance research on the urban tree habitat.
After all, every tree is a small ecosystem—and together we can discover who lives there.