TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ziegler, Alice
A1  - Meyer, Hanna
A1  - Otte, Insa
A1  - Peters, Marcell K.
A1  - Appelhans, Tim
A1  - Behler, Christina
A1  - Böhning-Gaese, Katrin
A1  - Classen, Alice
A1  - Detsch, Florian
A1  - Deckert, Jürgen
A1  - Eardley, Connal D.
A1  - Ferger, Stefan W.
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Gebert, Friederike
A1  - Haas, Michael
A1  - Helbig-Bonitz, Maria
A1  - Hemp, Andreas
A1  - Hemp, Claudia
A1  - Kakengi, Victor
A1  - Mayr, Antonia V.
A1  - Ngereza, Christine
A1  - Reudenbach, Christoph
A1  - Röder, Juliane
A1  - Rutten, Gemma
A1  - Schellenberger Costa, David
A1  - Schleuning, Matthias
A1  - Ssymank, Axel
A1  - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf
A1  - Tardanico, Joseph
A1  - Tschapka, Marco
A1  - Vollstädt, Maximilian G. R.
A1  - Wöllauer, Stephan
A1  - Zhang, Jie
A1  - Brandl, Roland
A1  - Nauss, Thomas
T1  - Potential of airborne LiDAR derived vegetation structure for the prediction of animal species richness at Mount Kilimanjaro
JF  - Remote Sensing
N2  - The monitoring of species and functional diversity is of increasing relevance for the development of strategies for the conservation and management of biodiversity. Therefore, reliable estimates of the performance of monitoring techniques across taxa become important. Using a unique dataset, this study investigates the potential of airborne LiDAR-derived variables characterizing vegetation structure as predictors for animal species richness at the southern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. To disentangle the structural LiDAR information from co-factors related to elevational vegetation zones, LiDAR-based models were compared to the predictive power of elevation models. 17 taxa and 4 feeding guilds were modeled and the standardized study design allowed for a comparison across the assemblages. Results show that most taxa (14) and feeding guilds (3) can be predicted best by elevation with normalized RMSE values but only for three of those taxa and two of those feeding guilds the difference to other models is significant. Generally, modeling performances between different models vary only slightly for each assemblage. For the remaining, structural information at most showed little additional contribution to the performance. In summary, LiDAR observations can be used for animal species prediction. However, the effort and cost of aerial surveys are not always in proportion with the prediction quality, especially when the species distribution follows zonal patterns, and elevation information yields similar results.
KW  - biodiversity
KW  - species richness
KW  - LiDAR
KW  - elevation
KW  - partial least square regression
KW  - arthropods
KW  - birds
KW  - bats
KW  - predictive modeling
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262251
SN  - 2072-4292
VL  - 14
IS  - 3
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ditzel, Pia
A1  - König, Sebastian
A1  - Musembi, Peter
A1  - Peters, Marcell K.
T1  - Correlation between coral reef condition and the diversity and abundance of fishes and sea urchins on an East African coral reef
JF  - Oceans
N2  - Coral reefs are one of the most diverse marine ecosystems, providing numerous ecosystem services. This present study investigated the relationship between coral reef condition and the diversity and abundance of fishes, on a heavily fished East African coral reef at Gazi Bay, Kenya. Underwater visual censuses were conducted on thirty 50 × 5 m belt transects to assess the abundance and diversity of fishes. In parallel, a 25-m length of each of the same transects was recorded with photo-quadrats to assess coral community structure and benthic characteristics. For statistical analyses, multi-model inference based on the Akaike Information Criterion was used to evaluate the support for potential predictor variables of coral reef and fish diversity. We found that coral genus richness was negatively correlated with the abundance of macroalgae, whereas coral cover was positively correlated with both the abundance of herbivorous invertebrates (sea urchins) and with fish family richness. Similarly, fish family richness appeared mainly correlated with coral cover and invertebrate abundance, although no correlates of fish abundance could be identified. Coral and fish diversity were very low, but it appears that, contrary to some locations on the same coast, sea urchin abundance was not high enough to be having a negative influence on coral and fish assemblages. Due to increasing threats to coral reefs, it is important to understand the relationship among the components of the coral reef ecosystem on overfished reefs such as that at Gazi Bay.
KW  - coral reef ecosystem
KW  - coral reef resilience
KW  - global warming
KW  - climate change
KW  - overfishing
KW  - indicator species
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-284503
SN  - 2673-1924
VL  - 3
IS  - 1
SP  - 1
EP  - 14
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kronauer, Daniel J. C.
A1  - Peters, Marcell K.
A1  - Schoning, Caspar
A1  - Boomsma, Jacobus J.
T1  - Hybridization in East African swarm-raiding army ants
N2  - Background: Hybridization can have complex effects on evolutionary dynamics in ants because of the combination of haplodiploid sex-determination and eusociality. While hybrid non-reproductive workers have been found in a range of species, examples of gene-flow via hybrid queens and males are rare. We studied hybridization in East African army ants (Dorylus subgenus Anomma) using morphology, mitochondrial DNA sequences, and nuclear microsatellites. Results: While the mitochondrial phylogeny had a strong geographic signal, different species were not recovered as monophyletic. At our main study site at Kakamega Forest, a mitochondrial haplotype was shared between a “Dorylus molestus-like” and a “Dorylus wilverthi-like” form. This pattern is best explained by introgression following hybridization between D. molestus and D. wilverthi. Microsatellite data from workers showed that the two morphological forms correspond to two distinct genetic clusters, with a significant proportion of individuals being classified as hybrids. Conclusions: We conclude that hybridization and gene-flow between the two army ant species D. molestus and D. wilverthi has occurred, and that mating between the two forms continues to regularly produce hybrid workers. Hybridization is particularly surprising in army ants because workers have control over which males are allowed to mate with a young virgin queen inside the colony.
KW  - Zoologie
KW  - Dorylinae
KW  - Formicidae
KW  - introgression
KW  - microsatellites
KW  - mtDNA
KW  - gene flow
Y1  - 2011
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-68798
ER  -