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Figure: The photo shows storks looking for food in a meadow that has just been mowed. A tractor with attached equipment is driving on the right side of the photo. Other meadows as well as rows of shrubs and individual deciduous trees can be seen in the background.

The main focus of the theoretical part of the project in phase 1 was the plausibility check of the AHTO (Area Herterogeneity Tradeoff). For this purpose, more scenarios and conditions were tested than by the original model. The modelling strategy was adapted to mechanisms and interactions that are widespread in organisms. However, this highly abstract, general approach had to disregard processes and interactions that are important for structuring grassland communities. The development of the model towards these processes and interactions is now the core in the second phase of the project. This extension of the model will allow us to directly and closely link our theoretical, experimental and observational results.


In the first phase of the project, a long-term microcosm experiment was established to test hypotheses generated by our models under very controlled conditions. Long-term monitoring of the experiment is essential because community responses to habitat changes occur through demographic processes (birth rate, death rate and distribution). These processes take a relatively long time, especially for perennial species and those with clonal reproduction. Therefore, a large component of the experimental part of the project is the continuation of monitoring to record the responses of the artificial communities to the different manipulatons in the microcosm. Due to the change in the modulation approach, suitable empirical data must be collected to parameterise the new models. Therefore, another experiment will be set up to measure individual growth responses of plants to the manipulations of habitat conditions.


The most important part of the current project is to link our previous work more directly to the exploratories. Habitat heterogeneity is often brought up as a possible – but never confirmed – explanation for many patterns and processes along the land use gradient (e.g. Blüthgen et al. 2016, Solivieres et al. 2015, Manning et al. 2015). Therefore, in this second phase, field surveys will be conducted in the exploratories, measuring all factors of the theoretical and experimental parts of the project along the land use gradient.


Doc
Ratzbor R. (2021): Habitat heterogeneity as a mechanism determining plant species diversity: A combined experimental and observational study. Dissertation, University of Tübingen
More information:  dx.doi.org
Doc
Ben-Hur E., Kadmon R. (2020): Heterogeneity-diversity relationships in sessile organisms: a unified framework. Ecology Letters 23 (1), 193-207. doi: 10.1111/ele.13418
More information:  doi.org
Doc
Ben-Hur E., Kadmon R. (2020): An experimental test of the area–heterogeneity tradeoff. PNAS 117 (9), 4815-4822. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1911540117
More information:  doi.org

Scientific assistants

Prof. Dr. Ronen Kadmon
Alumni
Prof. Dr. Ronen Kadmon
Prof. Dr. Katja Tielbörger
Alumni
Prof. Dr. Katja Tielbörger
Lara Braun
Alumni
Lara Braun
Ronja Ratzbor
Alumni
Ronja Ratzbor
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