Clara Zencominierski, BSc

clara.zencominierski@student.uibk.ac.at

My father taught me to appreciate nature at a very young age. After having graduated from high school, I decided “I want to study the environment”. In 2022, I completed my bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering. For my bachelor’s thesis, I worked intensively on the butterfly fauna and have had a soft spot for this taxon ever since.

With the aim of deepening my knowledge, I decided to study for a Master degree in Ecology and Biodiversity in Innsbruck.

For my master’s thesis, I wanted to focus on a new taxon and chose amphibians.

Together with my fellow students (Cheyenne del Nin, Michael Meusburger, and Sebastian Wildauer), we are mapping the entire Inn Valley for grass frog and common toad populations. In three rounds, we are looking for spawn, larvae, and adults. In addition, we record vegetation data of the water bodies, environmental parameters and landing net catches for accompanying populations and hidden larvae.

Research topics:
Adaptation
Biodiversity
Climate-change biology
Herpetology
Wildlife monitoring