• Kustos der Säugetiersammlung
• Stellvertretender Leiter des Forschungsbereiches Evolution und Geoprozesse
• Forschungsschwerpunkte: Evolutionäre Ökologie, Verhaltensökologie, und Populationsgenetik

Forschungsschwerpunkte

The general objective of my research is a better understanding of evolutionary mechanisms that lead to the differentiation of populations and eventually to speciation. I am particularly interested in selective forces affecting dispersal and in mechanisms that restrict gene flow among populations.

My empirical studies involve bats and grasshoppers especially in Palaearctic and Neotropic regions and combine different methodological approaches including behavioural, ecological, morphological and genetic techniques.

Forschungsprojekte

• DFG-Research Unit BATS (FOR 1508): Dynamically adaptive applications for bat localization using embedded communicating sensor systems
• BMBF funded Research Network Sus100: Das Hausschwein: Gerichtete Selektion und Zeitgeschmack - Morphologie und Genetik über 100 Generationen
• Network GENART – Funktionelle GENomik biologischer ARTbildung (Project leader and coordinator)
• Cryptic species diversity and phylogenetic relationships in selected groups of bats
• Behavioural ecology of bats
• Speciation and sexual selection in acoustically communicating grasshoppers

Günther, L., M.D. Lopez, M. Knörnschild, K. Reid, M. Nagy, F. Mayer 2016: From resource to female defence: the impact of roosting ecology on a bat´s mating strategy. Royal Society Open Science 3: 160503. doi: 10.1098/rsos.160503

Ripperger, S., D. Josic, M. Hierold, A. Kölpin, R. Weigel, M. Hartmann, R. Page & F. Mayer 2016: Automated proximity sensing in small vertebrates: desing of miniaturized sensor nodes and first field tests in bats. Ecology and Evolution: 6(7): 2179-2189. doi: 10.1002/ece3.2040 

Berdan, E.L., C.J. Mazzoni, I. Waurick, J.T. Roehr & F. Mayer 2015: A population genomic scan in Chorthippus grasshoppers unveils previously unknown phenotypic divergence. Molecular Ecology 24: 3918-3930. doi: 10.1111/mec.13276

Mayer, F., D. Berger, B. Gottberger & W. Schulze 2010: Non-ecological radiations in acoustically communicating grasshoppers? In: Evolution in Action - Case Studies in Adaptive Radiation, Speciation and the Origins of Biodiversity (Glaubrecht, M. Hrsg.). Springer, Berlin Heidelberg. 451-464. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-12425-9_21

Mayer, F., C. Dietz & A. Kiefer 2007: Molecular species identification boots bat diversity. Frontiers in Zoology 4: 4. doi: 10.1186/1742-9994-4-4