@article{KoetschanKittelmannLuetal.2014,
  author    = {Koetschan, Christian and Kittelmann, Sandra and Lu, Jingli and Al-Halbouni, Djamila and Jarvis, Graeme N. and M{\"u}ller, Tobias and Wolf, Matthias and Janssen, Peter H.},
  title     = {Internal Transcribed Spacer 1 Secondary Structure Analysis Reveals a Common Core throughout the Anaerobic Fungi (Neocallimastigomycota)},
  series = {PLOS ONE},
  volume    = {9},
  journal   = {PLOS ONE},
  number    = {3},
  doi       = {10.1371/journal.pone.0091928},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-117058},
  pages     = {e91928},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) is a popular barcode marker for fungi and in particular the ITS1 has been widely used for the anaerobic fungi (phylum Neocallimastigomycota). A good number of validated reference sequences of isolates as well as a large number of environmental sequences are available in public databases. Its highly variable nature predisposes the ITS1 for low level phylogenetics; however, it complicates the establishment of reproducible alignments and the reconstruction of stable phylogenetic trees at higher taxonomic levels (genus and above). Here, we overcame these problems by proposing a common core secondary structure of the ITS1 of the anaerobic fungi employing a Hidden Markov Model-based ITS1 sequence annotation and a helix-wise folding approach. We integrated the additional structural information into phylogenetic analyses and present for the first time an automated sequence-structure-based taxonomy of the ITS1 of the anaerobic fungi. The methodology developed is transferable to the ITS1 of other fungal groups, and the robust taxonomy will facilitate and improve high-throughput anaerobic fungal community structure analysis of samples from various environments.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{MartinReinekingSeoetal.2015,
  author    = {Martin, Emily A. and Reineking, Bj{\"o}rn and Seo, Bumsuk and Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf},
  title     = {Pest control of aphids depends on landscape complexity and natural enemy interactions},
  series = {PeerJ},
  volume    = {3},
  journal   = {PeerJ},
  number    = {e1095},
  doi       = {10.7717/peerj.1095},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-148393},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Aphids are a major concern in agricultural crops worldwide, and control by natural enemies is an essential component of the ecological intensification of agriculture. Although the complexity of agricultural landscapes is known to influence natural enemies of pests, few studies have measured the degree of pest control by different enemy guilds across gradients in landscape complexity. Here, we use multiple natural-enemy exclosures replicated in 18 fields across a gradient in landscape complexity to investigate (1) the strength of natural pest control across landscapes, measured as the difference between pest pressure in the presence and in the absence of natural enemies; (2) the differential contributions of natural enemy guilds to pest control, and the nature of their interactions across landscapes. We show that natural pest control of aphids increased up to six-fold from simple to complex landscapes. In the absence of pest control, aphid population growth was higher in complex than simple landscapes, but was reduced by natural enemies to similar growth rates across all landscapes. The effects of enemy guilds were landscape-dependent. Particularly in complex landscapes, total pest control was supplied by the combined contribution of flying insects and ground-dwellers. Birds had little overall impact on aphid control. Despite evidence for intraguild predation of flying insects by ground-dwellers and birds, the overall effect of enemy guilds on aphid control was complementary. Understanding pest control services at large spatial scales is critical to increase the success of ecological intensification schemes. Our results suggest that, where aphids are the main pest of concern, interactions between natural enemies are largely complementary and lead to a strongly positive effect of landscape complexity on pest control. Increasing the availability of seminatural habitats in agricultural landscapes may thus benefit not only natural enemies, but also the effectiveness of aphid natural pest control.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{KoenigKraussKelleretal.2022,
  author    = {K{\"o}nig, Sebastian and Krauss, Jochen and Keller, Alexander and Bofinger, Lukas and Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf},
  title     = {Phylogenetic relatedness of food plants reveals highest insect herbivore specialization at intermediate temperatures along a broad climatic gradient},
  series = {Global Change Biology},
  volume    = {28},
  journal   = {Global Change Biology},
  number    = {13},
  doi       = {10.1111/gcb.16199},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-276441},
  pages     = {4027 -- 4040},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {The composition and richness of herbivore and plant assemblages change along climatic gradients, but knowledge about associated shifts in specialization is scarce and lacks controlling for the abundance and phylogeny of interaction partners. Thus, we aimed to test whether the specialization of phytophagous insects in insect-plant interaction networks decreases toward cold habitats as predicted by the 'altitude niche-breadth hypothesis' to forecast possible consequences of interaction rewiring under climate change. We used a non-invasive, standardized metabarcoding approach to reconstruct dietary relationships of Orthoptera species as a major insect herbivore taxon along a broad temperature gradient (~12°C) in Southern Germany. Based on Orthoptera surveys, feeding observations, collection of fecal pellets from >3,000 individuals of 54 species, and parallel vegetation surveys on 41 grassland sites, we quantified plant resource availability and its use by herbivores. Herbivore assemblages were richer in species and individuals at sites with high summer temperatures, while plant richness peaked at intermediate temperatures. Corresponding interaction networks were most specialized in warm habitats. Considering phylogenetic relationships of plant resources, however, the specialization pattern was not linear but peaked at intermediate temperatures, mediated by herbivores feeding on a narrow range of phylogenetically related resources. Our study provides empirical evidence of resource specialization of insect herbivores along a climatic gradient, demonstrating that resource phylogeny, availability, and temperature interactively shape the specialization of herbivore assemblages. Instead of low specialization levels only in cold, harsh habitats, our results suggest increased generalist feeding due to intraspecific changes and compositional differences at both ends of the microclimatic gradient. We conclude that this nonlinear change of phylogeny-based resource specialization questions predictions derived from the 'altitude-niche breadth hypothesis' and highlights the currently limited understanding of how plant-herbivore interactions will change under future climatic conditions.},
  language  = {en}
}