TY - JOUR A1 - Velzen, Ellen van A1 - Gaedke, Ursula A1 - Klauschies, Toni T1 - Quantifying the capacity for contemporary trait changes to drive intermittent predator-prey cycles JF - Ecological monographs : a publication of the Ecological Society of America N2 - A large and growing body of theory has demonstrated how the presence of trait variation in prey or predator populations may affect the amplitude and phase of predator-prey cycles. Less attention has been given to so-called intermittent cycles, in which predator-prey oscillations recurrently disappear and re-appear, despite such dynamics being observed in empirical systems and modeling studies. A comprehensive understanding of the conditions under which trait changes may drive intermittent predator-prey dynamics, as well as their potential ecological implications, is therefore missing. Here we provide a first systematic analysis of the eco-evolutionary conditions that may give rise to intermittent predator-prey cycles, investigating 16 models that incorporate different types of trait variation within prey, predators, or both. Our results show that intermittent dynamics often arise through predator-prey coevolution, but only very rarely when only one trophic level can adapt. Additionally, the frequency of intermittent cycles depends on the source of trait variation (genetic variation or phenotypic plasticity) and the genetic architecture (Mendelian or quantitative traits), with intermittency occurring most commonly through Mendelian evolution, and very rarely through phenotypic plasticity. Further analysis identified three necessary conditions for when trait variation can drive intermittent cycles. First, the intrinsic stability of the predator-prey system must depend on the traits of prey, predators, or both. Second, there must be a mechanism causing the recurrent alternation between stable and unstable states, leading to a "trait" cycle superimposed on the population dynamics. Finally, these trait dynamics must be significantly slower than the predator-prey cycles. We show how these conditions explain all the abovementioned patterns. We further show an important unexpected consequence of these necessary conditions: they are most easily met when intraspecific trait variation is at high risk of being lost. As trait diversity is positively associated with ecosystem functioning, this can have potentially severe negative consequences. This novel result highlights the importance of identifying and understanding intermittent cycles in theoretical studies and natural systems. The new approach for detecting and quantifying intermittency we develop here will be instrumental in enabling future study. KW - eco-evolutionary feedbacks KW - ecosystem functioning KW - intraspecific trait KW - variation KW - population cycles KW - predator-prey dynamics KW - trait dynamics Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/ecm.1505 SN - 1557-7015 SN - 0012-9615 VL - 92 IS - 2 PB - Wiley CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marquart, Arnim A1 - Goldbach, Lars A1 - Blaum, Niels T1 - Soil-texture affects the influence of termite macropores on soil water infiltration in a semi-arid savanna JF - Ecohydrology : ecosystems, land and water process interactions, ecohydrogeomorphology N2 - Subterranean termites create tunnels (macropores) for foraging that can influence water infiltration and may lead to preferential flow to deeper soil layers. This is particularly important in water limited ecosystems such as semi-arid, agriculturally utilized savannas, which are particularly prone to land degradation and shrub-encroachment. Using termite activity has been suggested as a restoration measure, but their impact on hydrology is neither universal nor yet fully understood. Here, we used highly replicated, small-scale (50 x 50 cm) rain-simulation experiments to analyse the interacting effects of either vegetation (grass dominated vs. shrub dominated sites) or soil texture (sand vs. loamy sand) and termite foraging macropores on infiltration patterns. We used Brilliant Blue FCF as colour tracer to make the flow pathways in paired experiments visible, on either termite-disturbed soil or controls without surface macropores in two semi-arid Namibian savannas (with either heterogeneous soil texture or shrub cover). On highly shrub-encroached plots in the savanna site with heterogeneous soil texture, termite macropores increased maximum infiltration depth and total amount of infiltrated water on loamy sand, but not on sandy soil. In the sandy savanna with heterogeneous shrub cover, neither termite activity nor shrub density affected the infiltration. Termite's effect on infiltration depends on the soil's hydraulic conductivity and occurs mostly under ponded conditions, intercepting run-off. In semi-arid savanna soils with a considerable fraction of fine particles, termites are likely an important factor for soil water dynamics. KW - ecosystem functioning KW - infiltration KW - macropores KW - rain-simulation KW - shrub-encroachment KW - soil texture KW - termites Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.2249 SN - 1936-0584 SN - 1936-0592 VL - 13 IS - 8 PB - Wiley CY - Chichester ER - TY - THES A1 - Guill, Christian T1 - Structure, stability and functioning of food webs T1 - Struktur, Stabilität und Funktion von Nahrungsnetzen N2 - In this thesis, a collection of studies is presented that advance research on complex food webs in several directions. Food webs, as the networks of predator-prey interactions in ecosystems, are responsible for distributing the resources every organism needs to stay alive. They are thus central to our understanding of the mechanisms that support biodiversity, which in the face of increasing severity of anthropogenic global change and accelerated species loss is of highest importance, not least for our own well-being. The studies in the first part of the thesis are concerned with general mechanisms that determine the structure and stability of food webs. It is shown how the allometric scaling of metabolic rates with the species' body masses supports their persistence in size-structured food webs (where predators are larger than their prey), and how this interacts with the adaptive adjustment of foraging efforts by consumer species to create stable food webs with a large number of coexisting species. The importance of the master trait body mass for structuring communities is further exemplified by demonstrating that the specific way the body masses of species engaging in empirically documented predator-prey interactions affect the predator's feeding rate dampens population oscillations, thereby helping both species to survive. In the first part of the thesis it is also shown that in order to understand certain phenomena of population dynamics, it may be necessary to not only take the interactions of a focal species with other species into account, but to also consider the internal structure of the population. This can refer for example to different abundances of age cohorts or developmental stages, or the way individuals of different age or stage interact with other species. Building on these general insights, the second part of the thesis is devoted to exploring the consequences of anthropogenic global change on the persistence of species. It is first shown that warming decreases diversity in size-structured food webs. This is due to starvation of large predators on higher trophic levels, which suffer from a mismatch between their respiration and ingestion rates when temperature increases. In host-parasitoid networks, which are not size-structured, warming does not have these negative effects, but eutrophication destabilises the systems by inducing detrimental population oscillations. In further studies, the effect of habitat change is addressed. On the level of individual patches, increasing isolation of habitat patches has a similar effect as warming, as it leads to decreasing diversity due to the extinction of predators on higher trophic levels. In this case it is caused by dispersal mortality of smaller and therefore less mobile species on lower trophic levels, meaning that an increasing fraction of their biomass production is lost to the inhospitable matrix surrounding the habitat patches as they become more isolated. It is further shown that increasing habitat isolation desynchronises population oscillations between the patches, which in itself helps species to persist by dampening fluctuations on the landscape level. However, this is counteracted by an increasing strength of local population oscillations fuelled by an indirect effect of dispersal mortality on the feeding interactions. Last, a study is presented that introduces a novel mechanism for supporting diversity in metacommunities. It builds on the self-organised formation of spatial biomass patterns in the landscape, which leads to the emergence of spatio-temporally varying selection pressures that keep local communities permanently out of equilibrium and force them to continuously adapt. Because this mechanism relies on the spatial extension of the metacommunity, it is also sensitive to habitat change. In the third part of the thesis, the consequences of biodiversity for the functioning of ecosystems are explored. The studies focus on standing stock biomass, biomass production, and trophic transfer efficiency as ecosystem functions. It is first shown that increasing the diversity of animal communities increases the total rate of intra-guild predation. However, the total biomass stock of the animal communities increases nevertheless, which also increases their exploitative pressure on the underlying plant communities. Despite this, the plant communities can maintain their standing stock biomass due to a shift of the body size spectra of both animal and plant communities towards larger species with a lower specific respiration rate. In another study it is further demonstrated that the generally positive relationship between diversity and the above mentioned ecosystem functions becomes steeper when not only the feeding interactions but also the numerous non-trophic interactions (like predator interference or competition for space) between the species of an ecosystem are taken into account. Finally, two studies are presented that demonstrate the power of functional diversity as explanatory variable. It is interpreted as the range spanned by functional traits of the species that determine their interactions. This approach allows to mechanistically understand how the ecosystem functioning of food webs with multiple trophic levels is affected by all parts of the food web and why a high functional diversity is required for efficient transportation of energy from primary producers to the top predators. The general discussion draws some synthesising conclusions, e.g. on the predictive power of ecosystem functioning to explain diversity, and provides an outlook on future research directions. N2 - In dieser Habilitationsschrift wird eine Zusammenstellung wissenschaftlicher Arbeiten präsentiert, die die Forschung zu komplexen Nahrungsnetzen in verschiedene Richtungen weiterentwickeln. Nahrungsnetze sind die Netzwerke der Räuber-Beute-Interaktionen in einem Ökosystem und bestimmen damit über die Verteilung der von allen Arten zum Überleben benötigten Ressourcen. Sie sind daher ein zentrales Konzept für das Verständnis der Mechanismen, die die Koexistenz einer Vielzahl von Arten ermöglichen. Angesichts der zunehmenden Intensität des anthropogenen globalen Wandels und sich weiter beschleunigendem Artensterben ist ein solches Verständnis von zentraler Bedeutung, nicht zuletzt auch für das menschliche Wohlergehen. Die Studien im ersten Teil der Thesis befassen sich mit generellen Mechanismen, die die Struktur und Stabilität von Nahrungsnetzen bestimmen. Es wird gezeigt, wie die allometrische Skalierung metabolischer Raten mit der Körpermasse der Individuen ihre Persistenz in größenstrukturierten Nahrungsnetzen unterstützt, und wie dies mit dem adaptiven Jagdverhalten von Räubern interagiert um stabile Nahrungsnetzstrukturen zu erzeugen. Basierend auf der Analyse empirisch dokumentierter Räuber-Beute-Paare wird zudem gezeigt, dass das Körpergrößenverhältnis von Räuber- und Beutearten deren Interaktionsstärke so beeinflusst, dass Populationsoszillationen stabilisiert werden. Weitere Studien demonstrieren, dass es zum Verständnis bestimmter populationsdynamischer Phänomene notwendig sein kann, die interne Struktur der betrachteten Populationen (z.B. die Größe von Alterskohorten) zu berücksichtigen. Auf diesen allgemeinen Erkenntnissen aufbauend werden im zweiten Teil der Habilitationsschrift Studien vorgestellt, die sich mit den Auswirkungen des anthropogenen globalen Wandels auf die Persistenz von Arten befassen. Erwärmung reduziert die Diversität in größenstrukturierten Nahrungsnetzen, indem sie zum Aussterben großer Räuberarten führt. Dies geschieht dadurch, dass die Respirationsrate wechselwarmer Tiere bei Erwärmung schneller ansteigt als ihre maximale Fraßrate. In Parasitoid-Wirt-Netzwerken mit flacher Größenstruktur hat Erwärmung keinen derartigen negativen Effekt, allerdings führt dort Eutrophierung durch die Induktion starker Populationsoszillationen zu Destabilisierung und Artensterben. In weiteren Studien werden die Auswirkungen von Habitatveränderung untersucht. Analog zur Erwärmung führt zunehmende Habitatisolation in den einzelnen Habitatflecken zu einem Rückgang der Diversität aufgrund des Aussterbens von großen Räuberarten. In diesem Fall wird das durch die Zunahme der Migrationsmortalität kleinerer und daher weniger mobiler Arten verursacht, welche dazu führt, dass ein immer größerer Anteil der Biomassenproduktion dieser Arten an die lebensfeindliche Matrix zwischen den Habitatflecken verloren geht. Es wird weiterhin gezeigt, dass zunehmende Isolation zur Desynchronisierung von Populationsoszillationen zwischen den einzelnen Habitatflecken führt. Allerdings führt die Zunahme der Wanderungsmortalität aufgrund eines indirekten Effektes auf die Fraßraten in den Habitatflecken zu einer Verstärkung der lokalen Populationsoszillationen, was den positiven Effekt der Desynchronisierung ausgleicht. Zuletzt wird in diesem Abschnitt ein neuartiger Mechanismus vorgestellt, der die Diversität in Meta-Gemeinschaften unterstützen kann. Er basiert auf selbstorganisierter Bildung räumlicher Muster in der Biomassenverteilung der Arten. Diese Muster erzeugen räumlich-zeitlich fluktuierende Selektionsdrücke, die die lokalen Artengemeinschaften in einem permanenten Nichtgleichgewichtszustand halten und dazu zwingen, sich ständig neu anzupassen. Da dieser Mechanismus auf der räumlichen Ausdehnung der Metagemeinschaften basiert, kann er ebenfalls empfindlich auf Habitatveränderungen reagieren. Im dritten Teil der Habilitationsschrift werden die Effekte von Biodiversität auf Ökosystemfunktionen untersucht. Die Studien beziehen sich dabei vor allem auf Bestand und Produktionsrate von Biomasse sowie auf die trophische Transfereffizienz. Es wird gezeigt, dass zunehmende Diversität von Tiergemeinschaften eine Verschiebung der Größenspektren von Pflanzen- und Tiergemeinschaften hin zu größeren Arten mit geringerer spezifischer Respirationsrate bewirkt, wodurch es den Pflanzengemeinschaften möglich wird, ihren Biomassenbestand trotz erhöhtem Fraßdruck zu erhalten. In einer weiteren Studie wird gezeigt, dass der im Allgemeinen positive Zusammenhang zwischen Biodiversität und den genannten Ökosystemfunktionen verstärkt wird, wenn neben den Fraßbeziehungen der Arten auch die zahlreichen weiteren Interaktionsmöglichkeiten der Arten (wie zum Beispiel Flächenkonkurrenz sessiler Arten) berücksichtigt werden. Abschließend werden zwei Studien präsentiert, auf funktioneller Diversität als zentraler erklärender Variable beruhen. Diese wird interpretiert als der Wertebereich, den funktionelle Merkmale, die die Interaktionen der Arten bestimmen, überspannen. Dieser Ansatz erlaubt es, mechanistisch nachzuvollziehen, wie die ökologischen Funktionen von Nahrungsnetzen von den einzelnen Teilen der Netzwerke beeinflusst werden, und warum eine hohe funktionelle Diversität für den effizienten Transport der Biomasse von den Primärproduzenten zu den Räubern an der Spitze der Nahrungskette notwendig ist. In der allgemeinen Diskussion werden einige zusammenfassende Schlussfolgerungen gezogen, die zum Beispiel die Vorhersagekraft von Ökosystemfunktionen zum Erklären der Diversität betreffen, und es wird ein Ausblick auf künftige Forschungsansätze gegeben. KW - ecology KW - food webs KW - biodiversity KW - anthropogenic global change KW - metacommunities KW - ecosystem functioning KW - functional diversity KW - Ökologie KW - Nahrungsnetze KW - Biodiversität KW - anthropogener globaler Wandel KW - Metagemeinschaften KW - Ökosystemfunktionen KW - funktionelle Diversität Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-561153 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Warren, Ben H. A1 - Simberloff, Daniel A1 - Ricklefs, Robert E. A1 - Aguilee, Robin A1 - Condamine, Fabien L. A1 - Gravel, Dominique A1 - Morlon, Helene A1 - Mouquet, Nicolas A1 - Rosindell, James A1 - Casquet, Juliane A1 - Conti, Elena A1 - Cornuault, Josselin A1 - Maria Fernandez-Palacios, Jose A1 - Hengl, Tomislav A1 - Norder, Sietze J. A1 - Rijsdijk, Kenneth F. A1 - Sanmartin, Isabel A1 - Strasberg, Dominique A1 - Triantis, Kostas A. A1 - Valente, Luis M. A1 - Whittaker, Robert J. A1 - Gillespie, Rosemary G. A1 - Emerson, Brent C. A1 - Thebaud, Christophe T1 - Islands as model systems in ecology and evolution: prospects fifty years after MacArthur-Wilson JF - Ecology letters N2 - The study of islands as model systems has played an important role in the development of evolutionary and ecological theory. The 50th anniversary of MacArthur and Wilson's (December 1963) article, An equilibrium theory of insular zoogeography', was a recent milestone for this theme. Since 1963, island systems have provided new insights into the formation of ecological communities. Here, building on such developments, we highlight prospects for research on islands to improve our understanding of the ecology and evolution of communities in general. Throughout, we emphasise how attributes of islands combine to provide unusual research opportunities, the implications of which stretch far beyond islands. Molecular tools and increasing data acquisition now permit re-assessment of some fundamental issues that interested MacArthur and Wilson. These include the formation of ecological networks, species abundance distributions, and the contribution of evolution to community assembly. We also extend our prospects to other fields of ecology and evolution - understanding ecosystem functioning, speciation and diversification - frequently employing assets of oceanic islands in inferring the geographic area within which evolution has occurred, and potential barriers to gene flow. Although island-based theory is continually being enriched, incorporating non-equilibrium dynamics is identified as a major challenge for the future. KW - Community assembly KW - diversification KW - ecosystem functioning KW - genomics KW - island biogeography KW - islands as model systems KW - speciation Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12398 SN - 1461-023X SN - 1461-0248 VL - 18 IS - 2 SP - 200 EP - 217 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Venail, Patrick A1 - Gross, Kevin A1 - Oakley, Todd H. A1 - Narwani, Anita A1 - Allan, Eric A1 - Flombaum, Pedro A1 - Isbell, Forest A1 - Joshi, Jasmin Radha A1 - Reich, Peter B. A1 - Tilman, David A1 - van Ruijven, Jasper A1 - Cardinale, Bradley J. T1 - Species richness, but not phylogenetic diversity, influences community biomass production and temporal stability in a re-examination of 16 grassland biodiversity studies JF - Functional ecology : an official journal of the British Ecological Society N2 - Hundreds of experiments have now manipulated species richness (SR) of various groups of organisms and examined how this aspect of biological diversity influences ecosystem functioning. Ecologists have recently expanded this field to look at whether phylogenetic diversity (PD) among species, often quantified as the sum of branch lengths on a molecular phylogeny leading to all species in a community, also predicts ecological function. Some have hypothesized that phylogenetic divergence should be a superior predictor of ecological function than SR because evolutionary relatedness represents the degree of ecological and functional differentiation among species. But studies to date have provided mixed support for this hypothesis. Here, we reanalyse data from 16 experiments that have manipulated plant SR in grassland ecosystems and examined the impact on above-ground biomass production over multiple time points. Using a new molecular phylogeny of the plant species used in these experiments, we quantified how the PD of plants impacts average community biomass production as well as the stability of community biomass production through time. Using four complementary analyses, we show that, after statistically controlling for variation in SR, PD (the sum of branches in a molecular phylogenetic tree connecting all species in a community) is neither related to mean community biomass nor to the temporal stability of biomass. These results run counter to past claims. However, after controlling for SR, PD was positively related to variation in community biomass over time due to an increase in the variances of individual species, but this relationship was not strong enough to influence community stability. In contrast to the non-significant relationships between PD, biomass and stability, our analyses show that SR per se tends to increase the mean biomass production of plant communities, after controlling for PD. The relationship between SR and temporal variation in community biomass was either positive, non-significant or negative depending on which analysis was used. However, the increases in community biomass with SR, independently of PD, always led to increased stability. These results suggest that PD is no better as a predictor of ecosystem functioning than SR.Synthesis. Our study on grasslands offers a cautionary tale when trying to relate PD to ecosystem functioning suggesting that there may be ecologically important trait and functional variation among species that is not explained by phylogenetic relatedness. Our results fail to support the hypothesis that the conservation of evolutionarily distinct species would be more effective than the conservation of SR as a way to maintain productive and stable communities under changing environmental conditions. KW - biodiversity KW - community biomass KW - data synthesis KW - ecosystem functioning KW - grasslands KW - phylogenetic diversity KW - relatedness KW - stability Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.12432 SN - 0269-8463 SN - 1365-2435 VL - 29 IS - 5 SP - 615 EP - 626 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Socher, Stephanie A. A1 - Prati, Daniel A1 - Boch, Steffen A1 - Müller, Jörg A1 - Klaus, Valentin H. A1 - Hölzel, Norbert A1 - Fischer, Markus T1 - Direct and productivity-mediated indirect effects of fertilization, mowing and grazing on grassland species richness JF - The journal of ecology N2 - Recent declines in biodiversity have given new urgency to questions about the relationship between land-use change, biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Despite the existence of a large body of research on the effects of land use on species richness, it is unclear whether the effects of land use on species richness are principally direct or indirect, mediated by concomitant changes in ecosystem processes. Therefore, we compared the direct effects of land use (fertilization, mowing and grazing) on species richness with indirect ones (mediated via grassland productivity) for grasslands in central Europe. We measured the richness and above-ground biomass in 150 grassland plots in 3 regions of Germany (the so-called Biodiversity Exploratories). We used univariate and structural equation models to examine direct and indirect land-use effects. The direct effects of mowing (-0.37, effect size) and grazing (0.04) intensity on species richness were stronger compared with the indirect effects of mowing (-0.04) and grazing (-0.01). However, the strong negative effect of fertilization (-0.23) on species richness was mainly indirect, mediated by increased productivity compared with the weak direct negative effect (-0.07). Differences between regions in land-use effects showed five times weaker negative effects of mowing (-0.13) in the region with organic soils (Schorfheide-Chorin), strong overall negative effects of grazing (-0.29) for the region with organic soils opposed to a similar strong positive effect (0.30) in the Hainich-Dun region, whereas the Schwabische Alb region displayed a five times weaker positive effect (0.06) only. Further, fertilization effects on species richness were positive (0.03) for the region with organic soils compared to up to 25 times stronger negative effects in the other two regions. Synthesis. Our results clearly show the importance of studying both direct and indirect effects of land-use intensity. They demonstrate the indirect nature, via productivity, of the negative effect of fertilization intensity on plant species richness in the real-world context of management-induced gradients of intensity of fertilization, mowing and grazing. Finally, they highlight that careful consideration of regional environments is necessary before attempting to generalize land-use effects on species diversity. KW - biodiversity KW - determinants of plant community diversity and structure KW - ecosystem functioning KW - functional plant group KW - land use KW - productivity KW - species richness KW - structural equation modelling Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2012.02020.x SN - 0022-0477 VL - 100 IS - 6 SP - 1391 EP - 1399 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - THES A1 - Schmidtke, Andrea T1 - Biodiversity effects on the performance of terrestrial plant and phytoplankton communities T1 - Der Effekt der Biodiversität auf die Performance von terrestrischen Pflanzen und Phytoplankton-Gemeinschaften N2 - Die Ökosysteme unserer Erde sind durch das rasante Artensterben infolge von Umweltveränderungen durch den Menschen und des globalen Klimawandels stark betroffen. Mit den Auswirkungen dieses Artenverlustes und der damit einhergehenden Veränderung der Diversität beschäftigt sich die heutige Biodiversitätsforschung. Spezieller wird der Effekt der Diversität auf Ökosystemprozesse wie beispielsweise den Biomasseaufbau von Primärproduzenten oder der Resistenz einer Gemeinschaft gegen die Einwanderung neuer Arten untersucht. Die Quantifizierung des Einflusses der Diversität auf die Primärproduktion und das Verständnis der zugrunde liegenden Mechanismen ist von besonderer Wichtigkeit. In terrestrischen Pflanzengemeinschaften wurde bereits ein positiver Diversitätseffekt auf die Gemeinschaftsbiomasse beobachtet. Dies wird hauptsächlich durch den Komplementaritäts- und/oder den Dominanzeffekt erklärt. Die Komplementarität zwischen Arten ist beispielsweise bei Unterschieden in der Ressourcenausnutzung gegeben (z.B. unterschiedliche Wurzeltiefen). Diese kann zu einer besseren Nährstoffausnutzung in diverseren Gemeinschaften führen, die letztlich deren höhere Biomassen erklärt. Der Dominanzeffekt hingegen beruht auf der in diverseren Gemeinschaften höheren Wahrscheinlichkeit, eine hochproduktive Art anzutreffen, was letztlich die höhere Biomasse der Gemeinschaft verursacht. Diversitätseffekte auf Ökosystemprozesse wurden bisher hauptsächlich auf der Gemeinschaftsebene untersucht. Analysen über die Reaktionen, die alle Arten einer Gemeinschaft einschließen, fehlen bisher. Daher wurde der Einfluss der Diversität auf die individuelle Performance von Pflanzenarten innerhalb des Biodiversitätsprojektes „Das Jena Experiment“ untersucht. Dieses Experiment umfasst 60 Arten, die charakteristisch für Mitteleuropäische Graslandschaften sind. Die Arten wurden in die 4 funktionellen Gruppen Gräser, kleine Kräuter, große Kräuter und Leguminosen eingeteilt. Im Freilandversuch zeigte sich, dass mit steigender Artenzahl die individuelle Pflanzenhöhe zunahm, während die individuelle oberirdische Biomasse sank. Der positive Diversitätseffekt auf die pflanzliche Gemeinschaftsbiomasse kann folglich nicht auf der individuellen oberirdischen Biomassezunahme beruhen. Überdies reagierten die einzelnen funktionellen Gruppen und sogar die einzelnen Arten innerhalb einer funktionellen Gruppe unterschiedlich auf Diversitätsveränderungen. Folglich ist zu vermuten, dass einige Ökosystemprozesse auf Gemeinschaftsebene durch die Reaktionen von bestimmten funktionellen Gruppen bzw. Arten hervorgerufen werden. Diversitätseffekte auf Gemeinschaftsbiomassen wurden bislang hauptsächlich mit terrestrischen Pflanzen und weniger mit frei-schwebenden Algenarten (Phytoplankton) erforscht. Demzufolge wurde der Einfluss der Diversität auf die Biomasse von Phytoplankton-Gemeinschaften experimentell untersucht, wobei es sowohl zu negativen als auch positiven Diversitätseffekten kam. Eine negative Beziehung zwischen Diversität und Gemeinschaftsbiomasse zeigte sich, wenn schnell-wüchsige Algenarten nur geringe Biomassen in Mono- und Mischkultur aufbauten. Die vorhandenen Nährstoffe in der Mischkultur wurden von den schnell-wüchsigen Arten monopolisiert und folglich standen sie den langsam-wüchsigen Algenarten, welche viel Biomasse in Monokultur aufbauten, nicht mehr zur Verfügung. Zu einem positiven Diversitätseffekt auf die Gemeinschaftsbiomasse kam es, wenn die Artengemeinschaft eine positive Beziehung zwischen Wachstumsrate und Biomasse in Monokultur zeigte, sodass die schnell-wüchsige Algenarten viel Biomasse aufbauten. Da diese schnell-wüchsigen Algen in der Mischkultur dominant wurden, bestand die Gemeinschaft letztlich aus hoch-produktiven Algenarten, was zu einer erhöhten Gesamtbiomasse führte. Diese beiden Versuchsansätze verdeutlichen Mechanismen für die unterschiedlichen Reaktionen der Gemeinschaften auf Diversitätsveränderungen, welche auch für terrestrische Pflanzengemeinschaften gefunden wurden. Ein anderer wichtiger Ökosystemprozess, der von der Diversität beeinflusst wird, ist die Anfälligkeit von Gemeinschaften gegenüber invasiven Arten (Invasibilität). Die Invasibilität wird von einer Vielzahl von Faktoren beeinflusst und demzufolge wurde der Effekt der Diversität und der Produktivität (Nährstoffgehalt) auf die Invasibilität von Phytoplankton-Gemeinschaften in An- und Abwesenheit eines Herbivoren untersucht. Die zwei funktionell unterschiedlichen invasiven Arten waren die Blaualge Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii (schlecht fressbar) und der Phytoflagellat Cryptomonas sp. (gut fressbar). Es zeigte sich, dass der Fraßdruck, welcher selber durch die Produktivität beeinflusst wurde, einen bedeutenden Effekt auf die Invasibilität von Phytoplankton-Gemeinschaften hat. Die funktionellen Eigenschaften der invasiven und residenten Arten waren zudem bedeutender als die Artenzahl. N2 - To date, positive relationships between diversity and community biomass have been mainly found, especially in terrestrial ecosystems due to the complementarity and/or dominance effect. In this thesis, the effect of diversity on the performance of terrestrial plant and phytoplankton communities was investigated to get a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms in the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning context. In a large grassland biodiversity experiment, the Jena Experiment, the effect of community diversity on the individual plant performance was investigated for all species. The species pool consisted of 60 plant species belonging to 4 functional groups (grasses, small herbs, tall herbs, legumes). The experiment included 82 large plots which differed in species richness (1-60), functional richness (1-4), and community composition. Individual plant height increased with increasing species richness suggesting stronger competition for light in more diverse communities. The aboveground biomass of the individual plants decreased with increasing species richness indicating stronger competition in more species-rich communities. Moreover, in more species-rich communities plant individuals were less likely to flower out and had fewer inflorescences which may be resulting from a trade-off between resource allocation to vegetative height growth and to reproduction. Responses to changing species richness differed strongly between functional groups and between species of similar functional groups. To conclude, individual plant performance can largely depend on the diversity of the surrounding community. Positive diversity effects on biomass have been mainly found for substrate-bound plant communities. Therefore, the effect of diversity on the community biomass of phytoplankton was studied using microcosms. The communities consisted of 8 algal species belonging to 4 functional groups (green algae, diatoms, cyanobacteria, phytoflagellates) and were grown at different functional richness levels (1-4). Functional richness and community biomass were negatively correlated and all community biomasses were lower than their average monoculture biomasses of the component species, revealing community underyielding. This was mainly caused by the dominance of a fast-growing species which built up low biomasses in monoculture and mixture. A trade-off between biomass and growth rate in monoculture was found for all species, and thus fast-growing species built up low biomasses and slow-growing species reached high biomasses in monoculture. As the fast-growing, low-productive species monopolised nutrients in the mixtures, they became the dominant species resulting in the observed community underyielding. These findings suggest community overyielding when biomasses of the component species are positively correlated with their growth rates in monocultures. Aquatic microcosm experiments with an extensive design were performed to get a broad range of community responses. The phytoplankton communities differed in species diversity (1, 2, 4, 8, and 12), functional diversity (1, 2, 3, and 4) and community composition. The species/functional diversity positively affected community biomass, revealing overyielding in most of the communities. This was mainly caused by a positive complementarity effect which can be attributed to resource use complementarity and/or facilitative interaction among the species. Overyielding of more diverse communities occurred when the biomass of the component species was correlated positively with their growth rates in monoculture and thus, fast-growing and high-productive species were dominant in mixtures. This and the study mentioned above generated an emergent pattern for community overyielding and underyielding from the relationship between biomass and growth rate in monoculture as long as the initial community structure prevailed. Invasive species can largely affect ecosystem processes, whereas invasion is also influenced by diversity. To date, studies revealed negative and positive diversity effects on the invasibility (susceptibility of a community to the invasion by new species). The effect of productivity (nutrient concentration ranging from 10 to 640 µg P L-1), herbivory (presence/absence of the generalist feeder) and diversity (3, 4, 6 species were randomly chosen from the resident species pool) on the invasibility of phytoplankton communities consisting of 10 resident species was investigated using semi-continuous microcosms. Two functionally diverse invaders were chosen: the filamentous and less-edible cynaobacterium C. raciborskii and the unicellular and well-edible phytoflagellate Cryptomonas sp. The phytoflagellate indirectly benefited from grazing pressure of herbivores whereas C. raciborskii suffered more from it. Diversity did not affect the invasibility of the phytoplankton communities. Rather, it was strongly influenced by the functional traits of the resident and invasive species. KW - Artenzahl KW - funktionelle Diversität KW - Ökosystemfunktion KW - Performance KW - Primärproduzenten KW - Species number KW - functional diversity KW - ecosystem functioning KW - performance KW - primary producer Y1 - 2009 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-38936 ER -