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Land-use intensification is a major driver of biodiversity loss(1,2). Alongside reductions in local species diversity, biotic homogenization at larger spatial scales is of great concern for conservation. Biotic homogenization means a decrease in beta-diversity (the compositional dissimilarity between sites). Most studies have investigated losses in local (alpha)-diversity(1,3) and neglected biodiversity loss at larger spatial scales. Studies addressing beta-diversity have focused on single or a few organism groups (for example, ref. 4), and it is thus unknown whether land-use intensification homogenizes communities at different trophic levels, above-and belowground. Here we show that even moderate increases in local land-use intensity (LUI) cause biotic homogenization across microbial, plant and animal groups, both above- and belowground, and that this is largely independent of changes in alpha-diversity. We analysed a unique grassland biodiversity dataset, with abundances of more than 4,000 species belonging to 12 trophic groups. LUI, and, in particular, high mowing intensity, had consistent effects on beta-diversity across groups, causing a homogenization of soil microbial, fungal pathogen, plant and arthropod communities. These effects were nonlinear and the strongest declines in beta-diversity occurred in the transition from extensively managed to intermediate intensity grassland. LUI tended to reduce local alpha-diversity in aboveground groups, whereas the alpha-diversity increased in belowground groups. Correlations between the alpha-diversity of different groups, particularly between plants and their consumers, became weaker at high LUI. This suggests a loss of specialist species and is further evidence for biotic homogenization. The consistently negative effects of LUI on landscape-scale biodiversity underscore the high value of extensively managed grasslands for conserving multitrophic biodiversity and ecosystem service provision. Indeed, biotic homogenization rather than local diversity loss could prove to be the most substantial consequence of land-use intensification.
Species diversity promotes the delivery of multiple ecosystem functions (multifunctionality). However, the relative functional importance of rare and common species in driving the biodiversity multifunctionality relationship remains unknown. We studied the relationship between the diversity of rare and common species (according to their local abundances and across nine different trophic groups), and multifunctionality indices derived from 14 ecosystem functions on 150 grasslands across a land use intensity (LUI) gradient. The diversity of above- and below-ground rare species had opposite effects, with rare above-ground species being associated with high levels of multifunctionality, probably because their effects on different functions did not trade off against each other. Conversely, common species were only related to average, not high, levels of multifunctionality, and their functional effects declined with LUI. Apart from the community level effects of diversity, we found significant positive associations between the abundance of individual species and multifunctionality in 6% of the species tested. Species specific functional effects were best predicted by their response to LUI: species that declined in abundance with land use intensification were those associated with higher levels of multifunctionality. Our results highlight the importance of rare species for ecosystem multifunctionality and help guiding future conservation priorities.
Land-use intensification is a key driver of biodiversity change. However, little is known about how it alters relationships between the diversities of different taxonomic groups, which are often correlated due to shared environmental drivers and trophic interactions. Using data from 150 grassland sites, we examined how land-use intensification (increased fertilization, higher livestock densities, and increased mowing frequency) altered correlations between the species richness of 15 plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate taxa. We found that 54% of pairwise correlations between taxonomic groups were significant and positive among all grasslands, while only one was negative. Higher land-use intensity substantially weakened these correlations(35% decrease in rand 43% fewer significant pairwise correlations at high intensity), a pattern which may emerge as a result of biodiversity declines and the breakdown of specialized relationships in these conditions. Nevertheless, some groups (Coleoptera, Heteroptera, Hymenoptera and Orthoptera) were consistently correlated with multidiversity, an aggregate measure of total biodiversity comprised of the standardized diversities of multiple taxa, at both high and lowland-use intensity. The form of intensification was also important; increased fertilization and mowing frequency typically weakened plant-plant and plant-primary consumer correlations, whereas grazing intensification did not. This may reflect decreased habitat heterogeneity under mowing and fertilization and increased habitat heterogeneity under grazing. While these results urge caution in using certain taxonomic groups to monitor impacts of agricultural management on biodiversity, they also suggest that the diversities of some groups are reasonably robust indicators of total biodiversity across a range of conditions.
Introducing the CTA concept
(2013)
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a new observatory for very high-energy (VHE) gamma rays. CTA has ambitions science goals, for which it is necessary to achieve full-sky coverage, to improve the sensitivity by about an order of magnitude, to span about four decades of energy, from a few tens of GeV to above 100 TeV with enhanced angular and energy resolutions over existing VHE gamma-ray observatories. An international collaboration has formed with more than 1000 members from 27 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America. In 2010 the CTA Consortium completed a Design Study and started a three-year Preparatory Phase which leads to production readiness of CTA in 2014. In this paper we introduce the science goals and the concept of CTA, and provide an overview of the project.
Aus dem Inhalt dieser Ausgabe: Artikel und Miszellen: Sylvia Powels-Niami: Die Samaritaner, ihre Geschichte, Religion und Literatur, Ronit Meroz: Der Aufbau des Buches Sohar, Nathanael Riemer: „Der Rabbiner“ – eine vergessene Zeitschrift eines christlichen Hebraisten, Ulrich Knufinke: Jüdische Friedhofsbauten um 1800 in Deutschland : Architektur als Spiegel der Auseinandersetzungen um Haskala, „Emanzipation“ und „Assimilation“, Manfred Voigts: Die „Freie Wissenschaftliche Vereinigung“ - eine antiantisemitische Studentenverbindung, Susanne Marquardt/Petra Werner: Katalogisierung von Judaica und Hebraica am Beispiel Berlin-Brandenburger Bibliotheken Tagungen: Jüdische Identitäten in Ostmitteleuropa im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert im Wandel (Elena Panagiotidis), 700 Jahre Juden in Krakau (Elvira Grözinger), Jüdisches Archivwesen (Martina Strehlen), Geschichte und geistige Physiognomie der Veitel Heine Ephraimschen Lehranstalt Berlin (Moritz Reininghaus) Rezensionen: Un beau livre d’histoires. Eyn shön Mayse bukh (Nathanel Riemer), Juliette Guilbaud, Nicolas Le Moigne, Thomas Lüttenberg (Hrsg.): Normes culturelles et construction de la déviance (Robert Jütte), Monika Preuß, „...aber die Krone des guten Namens überragt sie.“ (Robert Jütte), Jeremy Barham (Hrsg.): Perspectives on Gustav Mahler; Philip V. Bohlman: Jüdische Volksmusik; Tina Frühauf: Orgel und Orgelmusik in deutsch-jüdischer Kultur (Daniel Jütte), „Aus Kindern wurden Briefe. Die Rettung jüdischer Kinder aus Nazi-Deutschland“. Hrsg. v. Gudrun Maierhof, Chana Schütz, Hermann Simon (Elvira Grözinger), Meike Gotham: Die Rechtsnation und ihr Staat (Gabriel Miller), Matthias N. Lorenz: „Auschwitz drängt uns auf einen Fleck“ (Elvira Grözinger) Jüdische Studien in aller Welt: Eindrücke von Forschungsreisen nach Moskau, Jerusalem und New York (Jascha Nemtsov)
PaRDeS. Zeitschrift der Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien e. V., möchte die fruchtbare und facettenreiche Kultur des Judentums sowie seine Berührungspunkte zur Umwelt in den unterschiedlichen Bereichen dokumentieren. Daneben dient die Zeitschrift als Forum zur Positionierung der Fächer Jüdische Studien und Judaistik innerhalb des wissenschaftlichen Diskurses sowie zur Diskussion ihrer historischen und gesellschaftlichen Verantwortung.