Lars Dietrich

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT are increasingly used for learning, yet evidence remains limited regarding their effectiveness in science learning contexts and how learner–AI interaction relates to performance. In a randomized experiment, 185 university students worked on task sheets about lake eutrophication and restoration. Depending on condition, they could use two informational texts (text-only), ChatGPT configured to answer only on the basis of these texts (ChatGPT-only), or both (text + ChatGPT). Afterwards, all students completed a knowledge test without access to any materials. Test performance was highest in the text-only and text + ChatGPT conditions and lowest in the ChatGPT-only condition, yielding a robust overall condition effect. Chat logs from the ChatGPT conditions were analyzed to examine interaction patterns associated with performance. Although ChatGPT-only students produced substantially more interaction turns than students with access to both texts and ChatGPT, interaction frequency was unrelated to test performance. Instead, specific interaction patterns were differentially associated with performance: deepening questions were positively associated, whereas direct acceptance of AI-generated responses was negatively associated with test performance. Output-steering and questioning additionally emerged as positively associated with performance in individual analyses. Prompting behavior varied with task difficulty, with deepening questions increasing for more demanding ecology tasks. The findings suggest that, in science learning contexts, the educational value of GenAI may depend less on access to the technology than on learners’ epistemic engagement with it.

Climatic treelines mark the low-temperature limit of upright tree growth, yet visible upper tree limits do not necessarily coincide with this thermal boundary. The treeless summit plateau of Mt. Brocken (1,141 m a.s.l.), northern Germany, has repeatedly been interpreted as a climatic treeline. However, visible upper tree limits may also reflect summit syndrome, i.e. exposure-driven suppression of tree stature near mountain summits, as well as historical land use or ongoing management rather than temperature limitation. Here, we reassess the Brocken tree limit using long-term climate records, root-zone temperature measurements, wind data, and recent growth observations of Picea abies . Growing-season temperatures consistently exceeded thermal thresholds commonly associated with global treelines, with mean root-zone temperatures around 8°C in 2025. Growing-season soil temperature well predicted air temperature at the monthly scale, supporting the use of soil temperature measurements as a proxy for thermal conditions at the tree limit: an approach of general utility for logger-based treeline assessment. Long-term air-temperature records likewise remained above commonly reported treeline thresholds and showed significant warming since the 1980s. Spruce individuals surrounding the plateau exhibited vigorous recent height growth, while juvenile trees were observed establishing directly on the plateau. We conclude that the Brocken plateau does not represent a classical temperature-limited treeline but rather an upper tree limit shaped by wind, snow and ice loading and anthropogenic influences (summit syndrome). As such, Mt. Brocken provides a useful model system for distinguishing climatic treelines from exposure- and management-maintained upper tree limits in low-elevation temperate mountains.

Sustainability is not a fact to be read off from ecosystems, but an evaluative framework shaped by human judgements about what should be sustained, for whom, and at what cost. Posthuman and more-than-human approaches, which seek to decentre the human by foregrounding ecological interdependence and the agency of nonhuman actors, offer an important corrective to crude anthropocentrism, but they risk obscuring human normative agency when decentring the human is treated as sustainability’s self-evident direction. This commentary argues that sustainability cannot and should not escape its human normative centre, and proposes ecologically informed humanism, a position that keeps this centre explicit while holding it ethically, politically, and ecologically accountable. Implications follow for sustainability research, governance, and education.

Reflection on the Nature of Science (NOS) is a central goal of science education, as it enables learners to evaluate scientific knowledge and make informed decisions. Teachers’ understanding of NOS is crucial for effective instruction; however, research consistently shows that it remains limited. In this study, we used a 360° environment from a Nobel Prize-winning laboratory to investigate preservice biology teachers’ ( N = 19) reflections on NOS, drawing on the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) and the skills of reflection proposed by Atkins and Murphy (1993). Qualitative interview findings indicated that reflection is recognized in both the cognitive-epistemic and social-institutional system dimensions of the FRA, particularly regarding animal experimentation. Moreover, all skills of reflection were identified with reference to FRA categories in the interviews. This study demonstrates how Atkins and Murphy’s (1993) model can be applied to analyze preservice teachers’ NOS reflections and offers insights into fostering reflective NOS understanding in teacher education. From a theoretical perspective, this study provides a novel lens for analyzing NOS reflection and conceptualizes it as an epistemic competence.

Summary: Treelines mark a functional limit of upright tree growth rather than a strict survival boundary. At these cold margins, photosynthesis and nonstructural carbohydrate reserves often remain sufficient, whereas apical and cambial growth decline, arguing against carbon limitation as the primary cause of growth cessation. We propose that chronic low temperature may contribute importantly to this pattern through hormonal regulation, notably reduced gibberellin availability and persistence of DELLA‐like repressors, together with altered auxin and brassinosteroid signaling. This could maintain meristems in a growth‐repressive state despite continued metabolic activity. We do not present this as the sole explanation for treeline formation, but as a plausible and testable regulatory mechanism that may operate alongside generally reduced metabolic rates and hydraulic or energetic constraints.

Summary: Societal Impact Statement: Plant awareness disparity (plant blindness) refers to the tendency of people to overlook plants in the environment and underestimate their importance to ecosystems and human life. This phenomenon is particularly evident in educational contexts, where students often display limited knowledge and interest in plants compared to animals. Fostering plant awareness is a crucial goal not only in biology education to help people recognize the vital role plants play in ecosystems, but also to inspire them to engage with plant life—whether by conducting research, working with plants in agriculture and food production, or contributing to conservation efforts. Summary: Our research investigates the relationship between plant awareness and image composition among secondary school students, focusing on how the positioning of plants and animals within landscape photographs affects students' perception of them. We conducted a study involving 250 ninth‐grade students from two schools in Germany. The students were presented with two landscape photographs showing a plant and an animal (mammal). We varied the positions of the plant and the animal between the foreground and the middle ground to see whether their position has an influence on their perception. Students provided written descriptions which were analysed separately for both identification and quality of description of the plant and animal (as well as of living and non‐living nature in the background). Our findings indicate that plants are generally less frequently identified and described in less detail than animals. In contrast to animals (mammals), plants in the foreground are more likely to be identified, whereas those in the middle ground often remain completely unmentioned. Students with a higher interest in plants showed better identification and description of them, a trend also observed with animals. Female students provided more detailed descriptions of animals and living nature in general, but not of plants specifically. Our experimental approach enables an evidence‐based analysis of plant perception, derived from student descriptions of landscape photographs with variably positioned plants and animals. Our findings suggest that plants should be positioned more prominently in images to enhance their visibility and improve plant awareness in educational contexts. Moreover, the type of images we used could also be utilized in targeted educational strategies to increase the students' sensitivity to plants and the environment.

Biodynamic farming is a growing branch of organic farming which uses various so-called biodynamic preparations with the aim to enhance plant growth and soil quality. These preparations comprise plant parts fermented in animal sheaths (e.g., cow intestines or deer bladders) which are then applied to manures and composts before applying to the field (compost preparations). Two special preparations based on manure and silica are applied to the crops as field sprays (spray preparations). The effect of these biodynamic preparations, however, is a matter of debate. In a long-term experiment over 27 yrs, within an organic crop rotation, the use of biodynamic compost preparations has recently been shown to impact the soil biological community. Using the same experiment, we investigated whether these soil-level effects also displayed in agronomic parameters of arable crops. We found that the use of biodynamic compost preparations, when compared with farmyard manure (FYM) compost application without preparations, had no effect on yield in any of the investigated crops (spring wheat, winter wheat, oats, winter rye, faba bean, potatoes, maize, and grass/clover), or when data from all crops were pooled. Temporal yield stability of spring wheat and grass/clover was also unaffected by the biodynamic compost preparations. The application of FYM compost, however, led to significant increases in both yield and yield stability as compared to the non-fertilized control. We conclude that while biodynamic compost preparations did influence biological processes in the soil, they did not increase the crop yields in our long-term trial.