Drivers of vegetation in insular systems: Towards an integrative approach for functional island biogeography
Final Report Abstract
Natural ecosystems are increasingly imperilled by global climate and land use change. To counteract biodiversity loss, detailed understanding is needed about processes shaping biodiversity patterns that can also be used to develop effective conservation measures. Oceanic islands are an ideal model system to investigate biodiversity patterns and the mechanisms that underpin them. On islands, both the patterns and the mechanisms are relatively easy to observe and likely resemble vegetation dynamics in fragmented landscapes offering a distinct opportunity for biodiversity research. My project, initially designed to include collecting field data on the Fijian Islands, aimed at conducting pioneering research on the link between island biogeography and functional trait ecology. Stopped by the covid-19-pandemic and resulting closed boarders to Australia in early 2020, I was forced to start my project being based in Germany and interacting remotely with my supervisors at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. In response to travel bans, I shifted focus to collating and analysing island data from published resources. The shift of research focus from analysing field collected data to data obtained from published resources enabled high scientific outputs in research fields still connected to my ideas outlined in my initial proposal while not being dependent on unpredictable travel restrictions imposed by the covid-19 pandemic. Visiting the island of Tenerife, Spain, during the last three months of research fellowship allowed me to also gain important research experiences abroad as well as studying the plant ecology of an iconic island system in field. In summary, despite the unexpected changes caused by the pandemic, I was still able to contribute substantially to the novel research field functional island biogeography as outlined in my proposal and leading pioneering, empirical studies on plant community assembly processes through the lens of functional ecology.
Publications
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(2020). Nondestructive estimation of leaf area for 15 species of vines with different leaf shapes. American Journal of Botany, 107(11), 1481-1490
Yu, X., Shi, P., Schrader, J., & Niklas, K. J.
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(2021). A roadmap to plant functional island biogeography. Biological Reviews, 96(6), 2851-2870
Schrader, J., Wright, I.J., Kreft, H., & Westoby, M.
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(2021). Leaf size estimation based on leaf length, width and shape. Annals of Botany, 128, 395-406
Schrader, J., Shi, P., Royer, D.L., Peppe, D.J., Gallagher, R. V., Li, Y., Wang, R., & Wright, I.J.
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(2022). Papua at the Crossroads: A plea for systematic conservation planning in one of the largest remaining areas of tropical rainforest. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 5, 763131
Parsch, C., Wagner, B., Pangau-Adam, M., Nitschke, C. R., Kreft, H., & Schrader, J.
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(2022). Trait ecology of startup plants. New Phytologist
Westoby, M., Schrader, J., & Falster, D. S.
