@article{HeimHoelzelHeinkenetal.2019,
  author    = {Heim, Ramona J. and H{\"o}lzel, Norbert and Heinken, Thilo and Kamp, Johannes and Thomas, Alexander and Darman, Galina F. and Smirenski, Sergei M. and Heim, Wieland},
  title     = {Post-burn and long-term fire effects on plants and birds in floodplain wetlands of the Russian Far East},
  series = {Biodiversity and conservation},
  volume    = {28},
  journal   = {Biodiversity and conservation},
  number    = {6},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {Dordrecht},
  issn      = {0960-3115},
  doi       = {10.1007/s10531-019-01746-3},
  pages     = {1611 -- 1628},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Wildfires affect biodiversity at multiple levels. While vegetation is directly changed by fire events, animals are often indirectly affected through changes in habitat and food availability. Globally, fire frequency and the extent of fires are predicted to increase in the future. The impact of fire on the biodiversity of temperate wetlands has gained little attention so far. We compared species richness and abundance of plants and birds in burnt and unburnt areas in the Amur floodplain/Russian Far East in the year of fire and 1 year after. We also analysed vegetation recovery in relation to time since fire over a period of 18 years. Plant species richness was higher in burnt compared to unburnt plots in the year of the fire, but not in the year after. This suggests that fire has a positive short-term effect on plant diversity. Bird species richness and abundance were lower on burnt compared to unburnt plots in the year of the fire, but not in the year after. Over a period of 18 years, high fire frequency led to an increase in herb cover and a decrease in grass cover. We show that the effects on biodiversity are taxon- and species-specific. Fire management strategies in temperate wetlands should consider fire frequency as a key driving force of vegetation structure, with carry-over effects on higher trophic levels. Designing fire refuges, i.e., areas that do not burn annually, might locally be necessary to maintain high species richness.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{AlonzoBookhagenMcFaddenetal.2015,
  author    = {Alonzo, Michael and Bookhagen, Bodo and McFadden, Joseph P. and Sun, Alex and Roberts, Dar A.},
  title     = {Mapping urban forest leaf area index with airborne lidar using penetration metrics and allometry},
  series = {Remote sensing of environment : an interdisciplinary journal},
  volume    = {162},
  journal   = {Remote sensing of environment : an interdisciplinary journal},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {New York},
  issn      = {0034-4257},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.rse.2015.02.025},
  pages     = {141 -- 153},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {In urban areas, leaf area index (LAI) is a key ecosystem structural attribute with implications for energy and water balance, gas exchange, and anthropogenic energy use. In this study, we estimated LAI spatially using airborne lidar in downtown Santa Barbara, California, USA. We implemented two different modeling approaches. First, we directly estimated effective LAI (LAIe) using scan angle- and clump-corrected lidar laser penetration metrics (LPM). Second, we adapted existing allometric equations to estimate crown structural metrics including tree height and crown base height using lidar. The latter approach allowed for LAI estimates at the individual tree-crown scale. The LPM method, at both high and decimated point densities, resulted in good linear agreement with estimates from ground-based hemispherical photography (r(2) = 0.82, y = 0.99x) using a model that assumed a spherical leaf angle distribution. Within individual tree crown segments, the lidar estimates of crown structure closely paralleled field measurements (e.g., r(2) = 0.87 for crown length). LAI estimates based on the lidar crown measurements corresponded well with estimates from field measurements (r(2) = 0.84, y = 0.97x + 0.10). Consistency of the LPM and allometric lidar methods was also strong at 71 validation plots (r(2) = 0.88) and at 450 additional sample locations across the entire study area (r(2) = 0.72). This level of correspondence exceeded that of the canopy hemispherical photography and allometric, ground-based estimates (r(2) = 0.53). The first-order alignment of these two disparate methods may indicate that the error bounds for mapping LAI in cities are small enough to pursue large scale, spatially explicit estimation. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{HancockWaeschkeSchumacheretal.2013,
  author    = {Hancock, Christine and W{\"a}schke, Nicole and Schumacher, Uta and Linsenmair, Karl Eduard and Meiners, Torsten and Obermaier, Elisabeth},
  title     = {Fertilizer application decreases insect abundance on Plantago lanceolata - a large-scale experiment in three geographic regions},
  series = {Arthropod-plant interactions : an international journal devoted to studies on interactions of insects, mites, and other arthropods with plants},
  volume    = {7},
  journal   = {Arthropod-plant interactions : an international journal devoted to studies on interactions of insects, mites, and other arthropods with plants},
  number    = {2},
  publisher = {Springer},
  address   = {Dordrecht},
  issn      = {1872-8855},
  doi       = {10.1007/s11829-012-9237-9},
  pages     = {147 -- 158},
  year      = {2013},
  abstract  = {Humans have substantially altered the nitrogen cycle of ecosystems through the application of agricultural fertilizer. Fertilization may not only affect plant species diversity, but also insect dynamics by altering plant nitrogen supplies. We investigated the effect of experimental fertilization on the vegetation, with the ribwort plantain as the focal plant, and on higher trophic levels on differently managed grasslands throughout Germany. Over a period of 2 years, we examined two specialist herbivores and their parasitoid on Plantago lanceolata L., and the composition and structure of the surrounding vegetation. Over 70 sites in three geographic regions, within the large-scale project "German Biodiversity Exploratories", were included in the study. The model system consisted of the host plant P. lanceolata L., the monophagous weevils Mecinus labilis Herbst and M. pascuorum Gyllenhal, and their parasitoid Mesopolobus incultus Walker. Fertilization decreased plant species richness and host plant abundance, whereas it enhanced the total vegetation growth. The increased size and heigher leaf nitrogen content did not improve herbivore performance. On the contrary, the abundance of the two herbivores was decreased by fertilization. The parasitoid depended on the abundance of one of its hosts, M. pascuorum (positively density-dependent). Reduced herbivore abundance due to fertilization might be explained by a lower abundance of the host plant, a lower stalk number, and by changed patterns of host localization within higher vegetation. Fertilization negatively affected the third trophic level by cascading up via host abundance. The relationships between fertilization, surrounding vegetation and the tritrophic system were measured throughout the three regions and over the 2-year period. Our findings present consequences of intensification for a plant-herbivore-parasitoid system, and may have significant implications for the conservation of multitrophic systems in managed grasslands.},
  language  = {en}
}