@article{MarcusBochDurkaetal.2015,
  author    = {Marcus, Tamar and Boch, Steffen and Durka, Walter and Fischer, Markus and Gossner, Martin M. and M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg and Sch{\"o}ning, Ingo and Weisser, Wolfgang W. and Drees, Claudia and Assmann, Thorsten},
  title     = {Living in Heterogeneous Woodlands - Are Habitat Continuity or Quality Drivers of Genetic Variability in a Flightless Ground Beetle?},
  series = {PLoS one},
  volume    = {10},
  journal   = {PLoS one},
  number    = {12},
  publisher = {PLoS},
  address   = {San Fransisco},
  issn      = {1932-6203},
  doi       = {10.1371/journal.pone.0144217},
  pages     = {18},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Although genetic diversity is one of the key components of biodiversity, its drivers are still not fully understood. While it is known that genetic diversity is affected both by environmental parameters as well as habitat history, these factors are not often tested together. Therefore, we analyzed 14 microsatellite loci in Abax parallelepipedus, a flightless, forest dwelling ground beetle, from 88 plots in two study regions in Germany. We modeled the effects of historical and environmental variables on allelic richness, and found for one of the regions, the Schorfheide-Chorin, a significant effect of the depth of the litter layer, which is a main component of habitat quality, and of the sampling effort, which serves as an inverse proxy for local population size. For the other region, the Schwabische Alb, none of the potential drivers showed a significant effect on allelic richness. We conclude that the genetic diversity in our study species is being driven by current local population sizes via environmental variables and not by historical processes in the studied regions. This is also supported by lack of genetic differentiation between local populations sampled from ancient and from recent woodlands. We suggest that the potential effects of former fragmentation and recolonization processes have been mitigated by the large and stable local populations of Abax parallelepipedus in combination with the proximity of the ancient and recent woodlands in the studied landscapes.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{KrauseBuseMaternetal.2011,
  author    = {Krause, Rolf Harald and Buse, Joern and Matern, Andrea and Schroeder, Boris and Haerdtle, Werner and Assmann, Thorsten},
  title     = {Eresus kollari (Araneae: Eresidae) calls for heathland management},
  series = {The Journal of arachnology},
  volume    = {39},
  journal   = {The Journal of arachnology},
  number    = {3},
  publisher = {American Arachnological Society},
  address   = {College Park},
  issn      = {0161-8202},
  pages     = {384 -- 392},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {Northwest Europe's largest heather-dominated sandy habitats are located in the nature reserve Luneburger Heide, Germany. Yet, even these appear to be losing their ability to support some of their stenotopic species such as the ladybird spider, Eresus kollari Rossi 1846, and are thus becoming increasingly important for the preservation of these species. The habitat requirements of this endangered spider species were investigated in order to obtain data that will help stabilize the last remnants of the species' population in northwest Germany. Several heathland habitats were surveyed by pitfall trapping during the mate-search period of the males. Two statistical methods were applied: logistic regression and boosted regression trees (BRT). Both methods showed that three habitat variables are of prime relevance in predicting the occurrence of E. kollari: a) thickness of the organic layer (a negative effect), b) soil temperature at a depth of 10 cm, and c) Calluna cover in the herb layer (both have positive effect). Our results show that choppering (removing above-ground biomass and most of O-layer) and burning are likely appropriate heathland management measures for the conservation of E. kollari. Such measures improve the species' habitat quality by creating a heterogenic (small-scaled) heathland structure with suitable microhabitats. As Calluna heathlands show a clear senescence of the dominant heather, it is essential that those habitat patches be conserved. Further measures, such as transfer experiments, are recommended.},
  language  = {en}
}