@misc{BlaumMosnerSchwageretal.2011,
  author    = {Blaum, Niels and Mosner, Eva and Schwager, Monika and Jeltsch, Florian},
  title     = {How functional is functional?Ecological groupings in terrestrial animal ecology - towards an animal functional type approach},
  series = {Biodiversity and conservation},
  volume    = {20},
  journal   = {Biodiversity and conservation},
  number    = {11},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {Dordrecht},
  issn      = {0960-3115},
  doi       = {10.1007/s10531-011-9995-1},
  pages     = {2333 -- 2345},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {Understanding mechanisms to predict changes in plant and animal communities is a key challenge in ecology. The need to transfer knowledge gained from single species to a more generalized approach has led to the development of categorization systems where species' similarities in life strategies and traits are classified into ecological groups (EGs) like functional groups/types or guilds. While approaches in plant ecology undergo a steady improvement and refinement of methodologies, progression in animal ecology is lagging behind. With this review, we aim to initiate a further development of functional classification systems in animal ecology, comparable to recent developments in plant ecology. We here (i) give an overview of terms and definitions of EGs in animal ecology, (ii) discuss existing classification systems, methods and application areas of EGs (focusing on terrestrial vertebrates), and (iii) provide a "roadmap towards an animal functional type approach" for improving the application of EGs and classifications in animal ecology. We found that an animal functional type approach requires: (i) the identification of core traits describing species' dependency on their habitat and life history traits, (ii) an optimization of trait selection by clustering traits into hierarchies, (iii) the assessment of "soft traits" as substitute for hardly measurable traits, e.g. body size for dispersal ability, and (iv) testing of delineated groups for validation including experiments.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{GiladiMayRistowetal.2014,
  author    = {Giladi, Itamar and May, Felix and Ristow, Michael and Jeltsch, Florian and Ziv, Yaron},
  title     = {Scale-dependent species-area and species-isolation relationships: a review and a test study from a fragmented semi-arid agro-ecosystem},
  series = {Journal of biogeography},
  volume    = {41},
  journal   = {Journal of biogeography},
  number    = {6},
  publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell},
  address   = {Hoboken},
  issn      = {0305-0270},
  doi       = {10.1111/jbi.12299},
  pages     = {1055 -- 1069},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {Aim Patterns that relate species richness with fragment area (the species-area relationship, SAR) and with isolation (the species-isolation relationship, SIR) are well documented. However, those that relate species density - the number of species within a standardized area - with fragment area (D-SAR) or isolation (D-SIR) have not been sufficiently explored, despite the potential for such an analysis to disentangle the underlying mechanisms of SARs and SIRs. Previous spatial theory predicts that a significant D-SAR or D-SIR is unlikely to emerge in taxa with high dispersal limitation, such as plants. Furthermore, a recent model predicts that the detection and the significance of D-SARs or D-SIRs may decrease with grain size. We combined a literature review with grain size-dependent sampling in a fragmented landscape to evaluate the prevalence and grain size-dependent nature of D-SARs and D-SIRs in plants. Location Worldwide (review) and a semi-arid agro-ecosystem in Israel (case study). Methods We combined an extensive literature review of 31 D-SAR studies of plants in fragmented landscapes with an empirical study in which we analysed grain size-dependent D-SARs and D-SIRs using a grain size-dependent hierarchical sampling of species density and species richness in a fragmented, semi-arid agro-ecosystem. Results We found that significantly increasing D-SARs are rare in plant studies. Furthermore, we found that the detection of a significant D-SAR is often possible only after the data have been stratified by species, habitat or landscape characteristics. The results from our case study indicated that the significance and the slopes of both D-SARs and D-SIRs increase as grain size decreases. Main conclusions These results call for a careful consideration of scale while analysing and interpreting the responses of species richness and species density to fragmentation. Our results suggest that grain size-dependent analyses of D-SARs and D-SIRs may help to disentangle the mechanisms that generate SARs and SIRs and may enable early detection of the effects of fragmentation on plant biodiversity.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{RomeroMujalliJeltschTiedemann2018,
  author    = {Romero-Mujalli, Daniel and Jeltsch, Florian and Tiedemann, Ralph},
  title     = {Individual-based modeling of eco-evolutionary dynamics},
  series = {Regional environmental change},
  volume    = {19},
  journal   = {Regional environmental change},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {Heidelberg},
  issn      = {1436-3798},
  doi       = {10.1007/s10113-018-1406-7},
  pages     = {1 -- 12},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {A challenge for eco-evolutionary research is to better understand the effect of climate and landscape changes on species and their distribution. Populations of species can respond to changes in their environment through local genetic adaptation or plasticity, dispersal, or local extinction. The individual-based modeling (IBM) approach has been repeatedly applied to assess organismic responses to environmental changes. IBMs simulate emerging adaptive behaviors from the basic entities upon which both ecological and evolutionary mechanisms act. The objective of this review is to summarize the state of the art of eco-evolutionary IBMs and to explore to what degree they already address the key responses of organisms to environmental change. In this, we identify promising approaches and potential knowledge gaps in the implementation of eco-evolutionary mechanisms to motivate future research. Using mainly the ISI Web of Science, we reveal that most of the progress in eco-evolutionary IBMs in the last decades was achieved for genetic adaptation to novel local environmental conditions. There is, however, not a single eco-evolutionary IBM addressing the three potential adaptive responses simultaneously. Additionally, IBMs implementing adaptive phenotypic plasticity are rare. Most commonly, plasticity was implemented as random noise or reaction norms. Our review further identifies a current lack of models where plasticity is an evolving trait. Future eco-evolutionary models should consider dispersal and plasticity as evolving traits with their associated costs and benefits. Such an integrated approach could help to identify conditions promoting population persistence depending on the life history strategy of organisms and the environment they experience.},
  language  = {en}
}