Article
Ecology
Paulina Meller, Marion Stellmes, Alessandra Fidelis, Manfred Finckh
Summary: This study provides the first comprehensive understanding of the often overlooked growth form of geoxyle species by analyzing their diversity, functionality, ancestry, and ecology. It highlights the importance of frost as a correlate of geoxyle diversity and emphasizes the need for further studies to understand this important growth form.
JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2022)
Article
Geography
Jens Oldeland, Pia Maria Eibes, Severin David Howard Irl, Ute Schmiedel
Summary: This study investigates the effects of image resolution and classification algorithms on the extraction of terrestrial habitat islands. The results show that image resolution and classification algorithms significantly influence island size and shape parameters, with image resolution being more important for area and shape. Artificial Neural Network consistently performs the best as a classifier.
TRANSACTIONS IN GIS
(2022)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Felicitas Gunter, Jens Oldeland, Mike D. Picker, Joh R. Henschel, Norbert Juergens
Summary: Psammotermes allocerus is the only described species of the genus Psammotermes in Southern Africa, with a large geographical range. Significant genetic diversification was found within P. allocerus, supporting its classification as a species complex consisting of seven highly differentiated genetic groups.
ORGANISMS DIVERSITY & EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Miro Bergauer, Iwona Dembicz, Steffen Boch, Wolfgang Willner, Manuel Babbi, Jonathan Blank-Pachlatko, Chiara Catalano, Beata Cykowska-Marzencka, Jamyra Gehler, Riccardo Guarino, Sabrina Keller, Ivan Moysiyenko, Denys Vynokurov, Stefan Widmer, Jurgen Dengler
Summary: Comprehensive study on the dry grasslands in inner-alpine dry valleys of the Swiss Alps revealed the scale-dependent environmental drivers affecting species richness, with factors such as orientation, litter, and mean annual precipitation playing significant roles at different grain sizes.
Article
Ecology
Gabriele Midolo, Tomas Herben, Irena Axmanova, Corrado Marceno, Ricarda Patsch, Helge Bruelheide, Dirk Nikolaus Karger, Svetlana Acic, Ariel Bergamini, Erwin Bergmeier, Idoia Biurrun, Gianmaria Bonari, Andraz Carni, Alessandro Chiarucci, Michele De Sanctis, Olga Demina, Jurgen Dengler, Tetiana Dziuba, Giuliano Fanelli, Emmanuel Garbolino, Gianpietro Giusso del Galdo, Friedemann Goral, Behlul Guler, Guillermo Hinojos-Mendoza, Florian Jansen, Borja Jimenez-Alfaro, Attila Lengyel, Jonathan Lenoir, Aaron Perez-Haase, Remigiusz Pielech, Vadim Prokhorov, Valerijus Rasomavicius, Eszter Ruprecht, Solvita Rusina, Urban Silc, Zeljko Skvorc, Zvjezdana Stancic, Irina Tatarenko, Milan Chytry
Summary: This article presents a new dataset that identifies optimal positioning of European plant species along gradients of natural and anthropogenic disturbance. The dataset includes disturbance indicator values for 6382 vascular plant species. These indicator values are crucial for integrating disturbance niche optima into large-scale vegetation analyses and macroecological studies.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ute Jandt, Helge Bruelheide, Florian Jansen, Aletta Bonn, Volker Grescho, Reinhard A. Klenke, Francesco Maria Sabatini, Markus Bernhardt-Roemermann, Volker Blueml, Jurgen Dengler, Martin Diekmann, Inken Doerfler, Ute Doering, Stefan Dullinger, Sylvia Haider, Thilo Heinken, Peter Horchler, Gisbert Kuhn, Martin Lindner, Katrin Metze, Norbert Mueller, Tobias Naaf, Cord Peppler-Lisbach, Peter Poschlod, Christiane Roscher, Gert Rosenthal, Sabine B. Rumpf, Wolfgang Schmidt, Joachim Schrautzer, Angelika Schwabe, Peter Schwartze, Thomas Sperle, Nils Stanik, Christian Storm, Winfried Voigt, Uwe Wegener, Karsten Wesche, Burghard Wittig, Monika Wulf
Summary: Long-term analyses suggest substantial turnover of species in biological communities over the past century, while changes in species richness remain marginal. Decrements in species cover are more common than increments, leading to potential losses of species at both local and regional scales.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Francesco Maria Sabatini, Borja Jimenez-Alfaro, Ute Jandt, Milan Chytry, Richard Field, Michael Kessler, Jonathan Lenoir, Franziska Schrodt, Susan K. Wiser, Mohammed A. S. Arfin Khan, Fabio Attorre, Luis Cayuela, Michele De Sanctis, Jurgen Dengler, Sylvia Haider, Mohamed Z. Hatim, Adrian Indreica, Florian Jansen, Anibal Pauchard, Robert K. Peet, Petr Petrik, Valerio D. Pillar, Brody Sandel, Marco Schmidt, Zhiyao Tang, Peter van Bodegom, Kiril Vassilev, Cyrille Violle, Esteban Alvarez-Davila, Priya Davidar, Jiri Dolezal, Bruno Herault, Antonio Galan-de-Mera, Jorge Jimenez, Stephan Kambach, Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas, Holger Kreft, Felipe Lezama, Reynaldo Linares-Palomino, Abel Monteagudo Mendoza, Justin K. N'Dja, Oliver L. Phillips, Gonzalo Rivas-Torres, Petr Sklenar, Karina Speziale, Ben J. Strohbach, Rodolfo Vasquez Martinez, Hua-Feng Wang, Karsten Wesche, Helge Bruelheide
Summary: “Global patterns of regional plant diversity are relatively well known, but whether they hold for local communities is debated. This study created multi-grain global maps of alpha diversity for vascular plants to provide a nuanced understanding of plant diversity hotspots and improve predictions of global change effects on biodiversity.”
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ute Jandt, Helge Bruelheide, Christian Berg, Markus Bernhardt-Romermann, Volker Bluml, Frank Bode, Juergen Dengler, Martin Diekmann, Hartmut Dierschke, Inken Doerfler, Ute Doring, Stefan Dullinger, Werner Hardtle, Sylvia Haider, Thilo Heinken, Peter Horchler, Florian Jansen, Thomas Kudernatsch, Gisbert Kuhn, Martin Lindner, Silvia Matesanz, Katrin Metze, Stefan Meyer, Frank Muller, Norbert Muller, Tobias Naaf, Cord Peppler-Lisbach, Peter Poschlod, Christiane Roscher, Gert Rosenthal, Sabine B. Rumpf, Wolfgang Schmidt, Joachim Schrautzer, Angelika Schwabe, Peter Schwartze, Thomas Sperle, Nils Stanik, Hans-Georg Stroh, Christian Storm, Winfried Voigt, Andreas von Hessberg, Goddert von Oheimb, Eva-Rosa Wagner, Uwe Wegener, Karsten Wesche, Burghard Wittig, Monika Wulf
Summary: This article presents vegetation-plot resurvey data from Germany spanning almost 100 years, providing detailed information on spatial, temporal, and species distribution aspects. The data are crucial for understanding the mechanisms and drivers behind plant diversity change over the past century.
Article
Plant Sciences
Pascal Reutimann, Regula Billeter, Juergen Dengler
Summary: This study compared the influence of grazing and mowing on the diversity and species composition of wet grassland vegetation. The results showed that there was no significant difference in vascular plant diversity between these management regimes at the plot scale. Therefore, both grazing and mowing should be eligible for subsidies from a conservation perspective. At the landscape scale, it is beneficial to have both management types present to ensure high gamma-diversity.
APPLIED VEGETATION SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Lubomir Tichy, Irena Axmanova, Juergen Dengler, Riccardo Guarino, Florian Jansen, Gabriele Midolo, Michael P. P. Nobis, Koenraad Van Meerbeek, Svetlana Acic, Fabio Attorre, Erwin Bergmeier, Idoia Biurrun, Gianmaria Bonari, Helge Bruelheide, Juan Antonio Campos, Andraz Carni, Alessandro Chiarucci, Mirjana Cuk, Renata Custerevska, Yakiv Didukh, Daniel Dite, Zuzana Dite, Tetiana Dziuba, Giuliano Fanelli, Eduardo Fernandez-Pascual, Emmanuel Garbolino, Rosario G. G. Gavilan, Jean-Claude Gegout, Ulrich Graf, Behlul Guler, Michal Hajek, Stephan M. M. Hennekens, Ute Jandt, Anni Jaskova, Borja Jimenez-Alfaro, Philippe Julve, Stephan Kambach, Dirk Nikolaus Karger, Gerhard Karrer, Ali Kavgaci, Ilona Knollova, Anna Kuzemko, Filip Kuzmic, Flavia Landucci, Attila Lengyel, Jonathan Lenoir, Corrado Marceno, Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund, Pavel Novak, Aaron Perez-Haase, Tomas Peterka, Remigiusz Pielech, Alessandro Pignatti, Valerijus Rasomavicius, Solvita Rusina, Arne Saatkamp, Urban Silc, Zeljko Skvorc, Jean-Paul Theurillat, Thomas Wohlgemuth, Milan Chytry
Summary: This study aims to create a harmonized data set of Ellenberg-type indicator values applicable at the European scale by incorporating indicator values from other European regions. The researchers collected and compared data from 13 data sets and provided a new data set of Ellenberg-type indicator values for 8908 European vascular plant species.
JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Thore Engel, Helge Bruelheide, Daniela Hoss, Francesco M. Sabatini, Jan Altman, Mohammed A. S. Arfin-Khan, Erwin Bergmeier, Tomas Cerny, Milan Chytry, Matteo Dainese, Juergen Dengler, Jiri Dolezal, Richard Field, Felicia M. Fischer, Dries Huygens, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Anke Jentsch, Dirk N. Karger, Jens Kattge, Jonathan Lenoir, Frederic Lens, Jaqueline Loos, Ulo Niinemets, Gerhard E. Overbeck, Wim A. Ozinga, Josep Penuelas, Gwendolyn Peyre, Oliver Phillips, Peter B. Reich, Christine Roemermann, Brody Sandel, Marco Schmidt, Franziska Schrodt, Eduardo Velez-Martin, Cyrille Violle, Valerio Pillar
Summary: This study evaluates the effects of dominance and niche partitioning on biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships in grassland systems worldwide. The results indicate that dominance effects, related to the traits of the dominant species, have a significant impact on BEF relationships, while functional diversity (FD) does not affect primary productivity (NDVI).
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Nadiia Skobel, Dariia Borovyk, Denys Vynokurov, Ivan Moysiyenko, Andriy Babytskiy, Iryna Bednarska, Olesia Bezsmertna, Olha Chusova, Polina Dayneko, Jurgen Dengler, Riccardo Guarino, Kateryna Kalashnik, Alexander Khodosovtsev, Vitalii Kolomiychuk, Oksana Kucher, Anna Kuzemko, Viktor Shapoval, Olha Umanets, Natalia Zagorodniuk, Maryna Zakharova, Iwona Dembicz
Summary: This paper presents two sampling-event datasets from southern Ukraine, documenting occurrences of vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens. The data collected is of significant value in the understudied region and will contribute to international databases and networks.
BIODIVERSITY DATA JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Susanne Riedel, Stefan Widmer, Manuel Babbi, Serge Buholzer, Andreas Gruenig, Felix Herzog, Nina Richner, Juergen Dengler
Summary: Grasslands in Europe are important for species diversity but are threatened. This study presents the Historic Square Foot Dataset, which provides insights into grassland diversity and species composition over 100 years ago. The dataset is valuable for studying grassland biodiversity and productivity.
JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biology
Luisa Conti, Enrique Valencia, Thomas Galland, Lars Gotzenberger, Jan Leps, Anna E-Vojtko, Carlos P. Carmona, Maria Majekova, Jiri Danihelka, Juergen Dengler, David J. Eldridge, Marc Estiarte, Ricardo Garcia-Gonzalez, Eric Garnier, Daniel Gomez, Vera Hadincova, Susan P. Harrison, Tomas Herben, Ricardo Ibanez, Anke Jentsch, Norbert Juergens, Miklos Kertesz, Katja Klumpp, Frantisek Krahulec, Frederique Louault, Rob H. Marrs, Gabor Onodi, Robin J. Pakeman, Meelis Partel, Begona Peco, Josep Penuelas, Marta Rueda, Wolfgang Schmidt, Ute Schmiedel, Martin Schuetz, Hana Skalova, Petr Smilauer, Marie Smilauerova, Christian Smit, MingHua Song, Martin Stock, James Val, Vigdis Vandvik, David Ward, Karsten Wesche, Susan K. Wiser, Ben A. Woodcock, Truman P. Young, Fei-Hai Yu, Martin Zobel, Francesco de Bello
Summary: Ecological theory suggests that the stability patterns in plant populations are influenced by their ecological strategies. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the specific traits underlying species stability across different biomes. In this study, we analyzed a worldwide collection of long-term vegetation records and found that leaf dry matter content and seed mass were associated with greater stability over time. Other traits also played a role, but to a lesser extent. Further research is needed to understand the role of other traits and intraspecific variability in species stability.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Paulina Meller, Raquel Frazao, Fernanda Lages, Norbert Juergens, Manfred Finckh
Summary: Fire plays a crucial role in the ecology of tropical grasslands globally, but detailed studies on the response of plant functional groups to fire seasonality in humid Afrotropical grasslands are scarce. Research shows that the timing of fires affects the cover and diversity of trees, grasses, geoxyles, and herbs, with different plant groups reacting differently to different fire treatments.
AFRICAN JOURNAL OF RANGE & FORAGE SCIENCE
(2022)