Deutsch Intern

BETA-FOR – ENHANCING STRUCTURAL DIVERSITY IN PRODUCTION FORESTS

Plant-Animal Interactions - Pollination Parasitsm and Seed Dispersal

Work program 1

Diversity and abundance of potential invertebrate seed dispersers

Work program 2

Pollinator diversity

Work program 3

Seed – animal interactions and seed removal rates

Work program 4

Plant-pollinator interactions and seed set

Work program 5

Resource-host-antagonist interactions of trap-nesting bees and wasps

Work program 6

Intra and interspecific species traits and phylogeny

Team

Dr. Alice Classen

Julius-Maximilians-University Wuerzburg
Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology

Email: alice.classen@uni-wuerzburg.de

Prof. Dr. Heike Feldhaar

University of Bayreuth
Department for Animal Ecology

Email: feldhaar@uni-bayreuth.de

PI

Prof. Dr. Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter

Julius-Maximilians-University Wuerzburg
Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology

Email: ingolf.steffan@uni-wuerzburg.de

Lisa Albert

University of Bayreuth
Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geosciences
Population Ecology

PhD

Claudia Masso

Julius-Maximilians-University Wuerzburg
Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology

Email: claudia.masso-estaje@uni-wuerzburg.de

PhD

Dr. Bastian Schauer

University of Bayreuth
Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geosciences
Population Ecology

Postdoc (Support)

Objectives

Within forest patches, we first aim to understand the impact of forest management (Enhancement of Structural Alpha complexity, ESC), nesting and food resources and microclimate on the diversity and composition of seed dispersers and pollinators, on their interactions with plants and higher trophic levels, and on related ecosystem functions, such as seed removal rates, pollination, and parasitism.

The study framework of the RU gives us the unique possibility to test our main hypothesis, in which we predict that high heterogeneity in forest management practices, as experimentally introduced by ESBC, increases the turnover of invertebrate species and/or functional groups, and translates into complementary species interactions, seed dispersal, pollination and parasitism events at the landscape scale.

If this main hypothesis holds true, we expect to find a higher γ-diversity and, importantly, a higher γ-multifunctionality in landscapes with ESBC practices, than in control districts. By investigating two crucial functions in plant reproduction, our subproject will substantially contribute to our understanding on what kind of forest management is needed to counteract ongoing species and ecosystem function losses at local and landscape scales.