Syntheses and statistical service

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Christian Ammer; Dr. Orsolya Decker; Professor Dr. Nico Eisenhauer; Professor Dr. Andreas Fichtner; Dr. Oliver Mitesser; Professor Dr. Jörg Müller; Professorin Dr. Carola Paul; Professor Dr. Dominik Seidel; Professor Dr. Rupert Seidl
• Subject Area: Ecology of Land Use ; Forestry ; Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 459717468

The goal of BETA-FOR is to improve the understanding of the importance of between-patch heterogeneity in forests (ESBC) in comparison to anthropogenically homogenized (Control) forests for multifunctionality and -diversity in space and time. Phase 1 already showed that the effects of heterogeneity on α-, β- and γ-diversity are contingent on taxonomic-functional groups, the facets of diversity and the Hill-numbers considered. This corresponds with recent global studies which found no consistent impact of anthropogenic stressors on α-, β- and γ-diversity. In contrast to these studies, BETA-FOR has quantified biodiversity of multiple taxa and has measured multiple functions in a highly replicated experimental setting in several sites, which allows synthesizing not only across climatic regions within groups and functions, but also across trophic levels and multifunctionality. We developed three main Focal Areas for the syntheses in SP1: In Focal Area 1 – Optimizing forest diversity and multifunctionality – we will synthesise meta-community mechanisms across taxa, diversity facets and trophic levels, expand the Biodiversity - Area Relationship to a Multifunctionality – Area Relationship, and will expand relationships between multidiversity and (ecological) multifunctionality to economic multifunctionality from patch to district scale. In Focal Area 2 – Within & beyond the district: microclimate as link of functions & diversities – we assess box dimension from airborne laser scanning on the landscape level, develop relationships between forest structure and microclimate and will link those biodiversity data. Furthermore, we test the effect of deadwood on microclimate heterogeneity and novel microhabitats. Furthermore, we will link the box dimension with the functional signature of species communities. In Focal Area 3 – Spatio-temporal insurance effects of heterogeneous forests – we will first quantify how experimentally-induced structural and compositional heterogeneity across forest stands drive asynchronous dynamics in multitrophic species composition, trait diversity, and multiple ecosystem functions. We will then investigate the role of Resistance vs. recovery as predictors of long-term stability using the time series. Finally, we will investigate the stability of multifunctionality and stakeholder-relevant services to assess how heterogeneity influences the ecological and economic multifunctionality.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 5375: Enhancing the structural diversity between patches for improving multidiversity and multifunctionality in production forests
• International Connection: China, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, Taiwan
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Dr. Anne Chao; Professor Dr. Torsten Hothorn; Professor Dr. Akira S. Mori; Dr. Fons van der Plas; Professor Dr. Shaopeng Wang