Is Tree phylogenetic Diversity affecting the Diversity of Arthropods and Microorganisms across Taxa and trophic Levels?

A central property of ecosystems is that within a community the diversity of plants as primary producers begets diversity in associated organisms. Diversity itself can be measured on many scales, from counting species (i.e. species richness) to quantifying functionality (i.e. traits) to using genetic sequences for quantifying the number of evolutionary lineages (i.e. phylogenetic diversity: PD). Species richness is the most commonly used measure for plant diversity, but might not be the most suitable: it is not the number of species per se but the number of different evolutionary lineages within a community that should have the highest impact on the diversity and composition of associated organisms. In the proposed project, I will test the hypothesis that plant PD is superior to species richness in explaining associated diversity by analyzing a large and unique dataset containing a robust plant phylogeny and many arthropod and microbial taxa from different trophic levels. The data were originally collected in a southeast Chinese forest and are replicated well over 27 sampling plots. I expect general and positive relationships between PD and associated diversity that are stronger than relationships with tree species richness. This has so far only been shown for structurally simple experimental grasslands and my study will extend such relationships to forests, helping to understand how diversity begets diversity across trophic levels in such complex ecosystems.

Weitere Informationen: http://www.frias.uni-freiburg.de/de/personen/fellows/aktuelle-fellows/staab
Ansprechpartner: Dr. Michael Staab
Tel: +49761 203 97442
Email: michael.staab@frias.uni-freiburg.de

Projektbeginn: 01.10.2017
Projektende: 31.07.2018

Dr. Michael Staab (Univ. Freiburg)

Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Professur für Naturschutz und Landschaftsökologie
Prof. Dr. Alexandra-Maria Klein
Tennenbacher Straße 4
79106 Freiburg

Telefon: +49 (0) 761 203-67770
Fax: +49 (0) 761 203-3638
Email: alexandra.klein@nature.uni-freiburg.de
https://www.nature.uni-freiburg.de/

• Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies (FRIAS), Land