TY  - JOUR
A1  - Peters, Marcell K.
A1  - Hemp, Andreas
A1  - Appelhans, Tim
A1  - Behler, Christina
A1  - Classen, Alice
A1  - Detsch, Florian
A1  - Ensslin, Andreas
A1  - Ferger, Stefan W.
A1  - Frederiksen, Sara B.
A1  - Gebert, Frederike
A1  - Haas, Michael
A1  - Helbig-Bonitz, Maria
A1  - Hemp, Claudia
A1  - Kindeketa, William J.
A1  - Mwangomo, Ephraim
A1  - Ngereza, Christine
A1  - Otte, Insa
A1  - Röder, Juliane
A1  - Rutten, Gemma
A1  - Costa, David Schellenberger
A1  - Tardanico, Joseph
A1  - Zancolli, Giulia
A1  - Deckert, Jürgen
A1  - Eardley, Connal D.
A1  - Peters, Ralph S.
A1  - Rödel, Mark-Oliver
A1  - Schleuning, Matthias
A1  - Ssymank, Axel
A1  - Kakengi, Victor
A1  - Zhang, Jie
A1  - Böhning-Gaese, Katrin
A1  - Brandl, Roland
A1  - Kalko, Elisabeth K.V.
A1  - Kleyer, Michael
A1  - Nauss, Thomas
A1  - Tschapka, Marco
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf
T1  - Predictors of elevational biodiversity gradients change from single taxa to the multi-taxa community level
JF  - Nature Communications
N2  - The factors determining gradients of biodiversity are a fundamental yet unresolved topic in ecology. While diversity gradients have been analysed for numerous single taxa, progress towards general explanatory models has been hampered by limitations in the phylogenetic coverage of past studies. By parallel sampling of 25 major plant and animal taxa along a 3.7 km elevational gradient on Mt. Kilimanjaro, we quantify cross-taxon consensus in diversity gradients and evaluate predictors of diversity from single taxa to a multi-taxa community level. While single taxa show complex distribution patterns and respond to different environmental factors, scaling up diversity to the community level leads to an unambiguous support for temperature as the main predictor of species richness in both plants and animals. Our findings illuminate the influence of taxonomic coverage for models of diversity gradients and point to the importance of temperature for diversification and species coexistence in plant and animal communities.
KW  - community ecology
KW  - macroecology
KW  - tropical ecology
KW  - biodiversity
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-169374
VL  - 7
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schleuning, Matthias
A1  - Farwig, Nina
A1  - Peters, Marcell K.
A1  - Bergsdorf, Thomas
A1  - Bleher, Bärbel
A1  - Brandl, Roland
A1  - Dalitz, Helmut
A1  - Fischer, Georg
A1  - Freund, Wolfram
A1  - Gikungu, Mary W.
A1  - Hagen, Melanie
A1  - Garcia, Francisco Hita
A1  - Kagezi, Godfrey H.
A1  - Kaib, Manfred
A1  - Kraemer, Manfred
A1  - Lung, Tobias
A1  - Naumann, Clas M.
A1  - Schaab, Gertrud
A1  - Templin, Mathias
A1  - Uster, Dana
A1  - Wägele, J. Wolfgang
A1  - Böhning-Gaese, Katrin
T1  - Forest Fragmentation and Selective Logging Have Inconsistent Effects on Multiple Animal-Mediated Ecosystem Processes in a Tropical Forest
JF  - PLoS ONE
N2  - Forest fragmentation and selective logging are two main drivers of global environmental change and modify biodiversity and environmental conditions in many tropical forests. The consequences of these changes for the functioning of tropical forest ecosystems have rarely been explored in a comprehensive approach. In a Kenyan rainforest, we studied six animal-mediated ecosystem processes and recorded species richness and community composition of all animal taxa involved in these processes. We used linear models and a formal meta-analysis to test whether forest fragmentation and selective logging affected ecosystem processes and biodiversity and used structural equation models to disentangle direct from biodiversity-related indirect effects of human disturbance on multiple ecosystem processes. Fragmentation increased decomposition and reduced antbird predation, while selective logging consistently increased pollination, seed dispersal and army-ant raiding. Fragmentation modified species richness or community composition of five taxa, whereas selective logging did not affect any component of biodiversity. Changes in the abundance of functionally important species were related to lower predation by antbirds and higher decomposition rates in small forest fragments. The positive effects of selective logging on bee pollination, bird seed dispersal and army-ant raiding were direct, i.e. not related to changes in biodiversity, and were probably due to behavioural changes of these highly mobile animal taxa. We conclude that animal-mediated ecosystem processes respond in distinct ways to different types of human disturbance in Kakamega Forest. Our findings suggest that forest fragmentation affects ecosystem processes indirectly by changes in biodiversity, whereas selective logging influences processes directly by modifying local environmental conditions and resource distributions. The positive to neutral effects of selective logging on ecosystem processes show that the functionality of tropical forests can be maintained in moderately disturbed forest fragments. Conservation concepts for tropical forests should thus include not only remaining pristine forests but also functionally viable forest remnants.
KW  - Ant-following birds
KW  - Land-use change
KW  - Habitat fragmentation
KW  - Rain-forest
KW  - Functional diversity
KW  - Plantation forests
KW  - Amazonian forest
KW  - Prunus-africana
KW  - Seed dispersal
KW  - Logged forests
Y1  - 2011
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-140093
VL  - 6
IS  - 11
ER  -