Anne Fabienne Maihoff

• Ecological and evolutionary forces shaping the functional and phylogenetic diversity of bees
• Patterns and drivers of montane biodiversity along elevational gradients
• Effect of Climate Change on Pollinator Communities
• Chemical ecology
• DNA-Metabarcoding (gut microbiome)/ Transcriptomic Analysis
• Bumblebee ecology
• Applied ecology and nature conservation

ADAPT: Adaptation of alpine pollinators in Times of Global Change: https://www.bayklif.de/juniorgruppen/adapt/

Alpine ecosystems are especially threatened by climate change. ADAPT investigates pollinators' response to changing environmental conditions from molecular level to community level.

Within the project, I focus my research interest on wild bees (especially bumble bees) and address these questions:

• How did the composition of bee communities in the National Park Berchtesgaden change along elevational gradients over the last 10 years?
• How do bumblebee colonies perform in different climatic environments and how do they respond to changing environmental conditions?
• Can functional traits predict insect adaptability to climate change?

since 04/2023 Post-doc researcher at University of Würzburg, Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology (Fellowships of The Bavarian Gender Equality Grant (BFG))

12/2018 - 02/2023 Phd student at University of Würzburg, Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Project: ADAPT- Adaptation of alpine pollinators in Times of Global Change

02/2018 – 11/2018 Part-time research assistant at University of Würzburg, Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology in topic of Evolution and Ecology of Asian Honeybees (incl. research visit at the National Centre for Biological Science, Bangalore, India)

10/2015 – 09/2018 Master of Science in Biology at University of Würzburg, Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology. Master thesis: “Maintaining colony integrity in an aggregation: A comparative study of CHC-complexity and nestmate recognition in the Asian honeybees A. florea and A. dorsata”

• 03/2017 – 05/2017 Study visit at the National Centre for Biological Science, Bangalore, India
• 02/2016 – 03/2016 Study visit at the University of Jyväskylä, Finnland

04/2015 – 09/2015 Traineeship abroad at the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ),  Project: Implementation of the National Biocorridor Program (PNCB), Costa Rica

10/2011 – 08/2013 Bachelor of Science in Biology at University of Münster, Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity. Bachelor thesis:„Trade-off between Infection Status and Fecundity in Drosophila melanogaster“

• 08/2013 – 02/2014 Study Visit at the Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden

Maihoff F, Sahler S, Schoger S, Brenzinger K, Kallnik K, Sauer N , Bofinger L ,Schmitt T, Nooten S, Classen A. 2023. Cuticular hydrocarbons of alpine bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Bombus) are species-specific, but show little evidence of elevation-related climate adaptation. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2023.1082559

Maihoff F, Friess N, Hoiss B, Schmid-Egger C, Kerner J, Neumayer J, Hopfenmüller S, Bässler C, Müller J, Classen A. 2022. Smaller, more diverse and on the way to the top: Rapid community shifts of montane wild bees within an extraordinary hot decade. Diversity and Distributions:1–17. DOI: 10.1111/ddi.13658.

Brenzinger K & Maihoff F, Peters MK, Schimmer L, Bischler T, Classen A. 2022. Temperature and livestock grazing trigger transcriptome responses in bumblebees along an elevational gradient. iScience 25:105175. DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105175.

Kerner JM, Krauss J, Maihoff F, Bofinger L, Classen A. 2022. Alpine butterflies want to fly high: Species and communities shift upwards faster than their host plants. Ecology 104. DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3848.

Maihoff F, Bohlke K, Brockmann A, Schmitt T. 2022. Increased complexity of worker CHC profiles in Apis dorsata correlates with nesting ecology. PLOS ONE 17:e0271745. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271745.

Sponsler D, Kallnik K, Requier F, Classen A, Maihoff AF, Sieger J, Steffan-Dewenter I. 2022. Floral preferences of mountain bumble bees are constrained by functional traits but flexible through elevation and season. Oikos 2022:e08902. DOI: 10.1111/oik.08902.

Sponsler DB, Requier F, Kallnik K, Classen A, Maihoff F, Sieger J, Steffan-Dewenter I. 2022. Contrasting patterns of richness, abundance, and turnover in mountain bumble bees and their floral hosts. Ecology 103:e3712. DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3712.