Project Details
Projekt
Community-level trait variation of plants and animals and their associated ecosystem functions across environmental gradients
Applicants
Professorin Dr. Nina Farwig; Privatdozentin Dr. Eike Lena Neuschulz; Privatdozent Dr. Matthias Schleuning
Subject Area
Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 386807763
Environmental conditions filter species with similar traits and ecological strategies, leading to trait covariation within communities and associated changes in biotic processes and ecosystem functioning. In subprojects of phase 2 of RESPECT, we examined how plant and animal trait composition influence mutualistic (e.g., seed dispersal) and antagonistic (e.g., herbivory) interactions across climate and land-use gradients. We investigated how abiotic and biotic filters shape plant trait diversity, seed rain, and seedling recruitment (B3), and linked plant traits to herbivory and other biotic processes (B4). Additionally, we integrated herbivory into a biodiversity-informed land surface model and found in a synthesis study that species richness was the main driver of ecosystem functioning across the environmental gradients. In Syn-B2, the subprojects will join forces and test the central hypotheses of RESPECT by quantifying how trait diversity and composition vary along environmental gradients and how they affect the resistance of the associated biotic processes and ecosystem functions to climate and land-use changes. More specifically, we will compile traits related to organismal size and resource use for different taxa (plants, arthropods, birds) to assess how trait composition changes across trophic levels in response to climatic and land-use gradients (WP1); to evaluate how trait composition relates to biotic processes and rates of ecosystem functions (WP2); and to develop future scenarios to explore how changes in plant and animal trait diversity and composition may affect biotic processes and ecosystem functions with changing climate and land use (WP3). This will allow us to provide insights into the importance of trait diversity and composition for ecosystem functioning, which can inform conservation management and forest restoration efforts.
DFG Programme
Research Units
