Konsequenzen des Artensterbens in komplexen Nahrungsnetzen

世界生态系统面临着人口过度捕捞、全球变暖和土地利用集约化等扰动，最终导致物种灭绝。目前最紧迫的科学问题之一是解决生物多样性丧失对生态系统结构和功能的影响。目前关于物种灭绝后果的研究大多集中在小的功能群上，而自然生态系统是由复杂的食物网组成的，物种的相加和补偿效应相互作用地调节对扰动的反应。该项目旨在评估物种灭绝的后果，最近汇编了一组跨越不同生态系统类型的30个复杂的自然食物网。模拟方法涉及对其他物种生物量的短期(1年)影响(相互作用强度)和连锁次生物种灭绝的长期(30年)风险。实验室实验使用森林土壤食物网对这些模型预测进行了评估。这些方法第一次提供了解决物种灭绝后果的机会，结合了(1)不同生态系统类型的复杂自然食物网的动态模型，以及(2)使用森林土壤食物网对模型预测的评估。

The world’s ecosystems are exposed to perturbations including over-harvesting of populations, global warming and land-use intensification, which eventually cause extinctions. One of the currently most urgent scientific questions addresses the consequences of this biodiversity loss on the structure and functioning of ecosystems. Most current studies on consequences of extinctions focus on small functional groups, whereas natural ecosystems are organized as complex food webs with additive and compensatory effects of species interactively regulating responses to perturbations. This project aims at evaluating consequences of species extinctions in a recently compiled set of 30 complex natural food webs across different ecosystem types. Simulation approaches address the short-term (1 year) effects on other species biomasses (interaction strengths) and the long-term (30 years) risks of cascading secondary extinctions. Laboratory experiments evaluate these model predictions using forest soil food webs. For the first time, these approaches offer the opportunity to address the consequences of species extinctions combining (1) dynamic models of complex natural food webs for different ecosystem types, and (2) evaluations of model predictions using forest soil food webs.