Synthesis Project 4: Predicting ecosystem functions from functional diversity and plant-animal interaction networks

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Biodiversity supports the functioning of ecosystems and contributes to their robustness against climate and land-use change. Many ecosystem functions are mediated by plant-animal interactions that are organized in community-wide interaction networks. It is unclear how changes in plant and animal diversity translate into changes in the structure of these networks and how such changes impact the resulting ecosystem functions. Here we will study biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships for plants and their animal pollinators and seed dispersers (insects, birds and bats) along climate and land-use gradients on Mt. Kilimanjaro. We will combine data on biodiversity, species traits, plant-animal interactions and ecosystem functions to address three important questions. First, we will test whether the functional diversity of plants or animals drives changes in interaction networks and whether interaction networks are bottom-up or top-down controlled. Second, we will examine how changes in functional and interaction diversity are related to changes in the ecosystem functions of pollination and seed dispersal. Third, we will correlate response traits (with respect to climate and land use) and effect traits (with respect to mutualistic plant-animal networks) of the interacting plant and animal species. Based on these empirical data, we will run a trait-based niche model of plant-animal interaction networks to simulate the impacts of climate and land-use change on ecosystem functions of animals. Overall, this synthesis project will reveal mechanistic links between biodiversity, plant-animal interactions and ecosystem functions and will quantify the robustness of ecological communities of interacting plant and animal species to climate and land-use change on Mt. Kilimanjaro.