Core Project 10 - Exploratories for large-scale and long-term functional biodiversity research - Vertebrate diversity and ecosystem functioning

陆生脊椎动物作为捕食者、种子传播者和生物扰动者影响着它们的环境。生物多样性探索实验室的框架为研究脊椎动物多样性和人类改良环境中其他类群多样性模式之间的功能反馈环提供了一个独特的机会。通过将物种丰富度和丰富度的长期评估与实验方法相结合，我们评估了鸟类、蝙蝠和大型哺乳动物沿森林和草原不同土地利用类型和强度的种群动态和物种周转，并将它们与重要的生态系统过程联系起来。我们的研究结果形成了核心和后续项目的基线数据，并对生态综合方法做出了重要贡献。从头两年(2008-2009年)收集的数据强调，有必要对鸟类、蝙蝠和大型哺乳动物的动态进行长期的深入了解，以便能够确定影响它们在地方和区域范围内的多样性和丰富性的主要驱动因素，并得出可能对功能关系产生的影响。我们计划继续对3个生物多样性探索实验室的300个试验田(EP)进行标准化监测，以测试a)观察到的多样性格局和丰度的年际差异是否更有可能反映短期波动或长期趋势，以及b)确定这些格局的主要驱动因素。进一步扩大我们的方法，我们希望c)利用LiDAR数据将蝙蝠多样性和活动与森林的结构参数联系起来，d)解决选定鸟类的寄生率与土地利用强度和宿主多样性的关系，以及e)揭示野猪的耕作活动(生物扰动)与植物多样性和土壤结构之间的函数关系。

Terrestrial vertebrates impact their environment as predators, seed dispersers, and bioperturbators. The framework of the Biodiversity Exploratories provides a unique opportunity to study the functional feed back loops between vertebrate diversity and diversity patterns of other taxa in human-modified environments. By combining long-term assessment of species richness and abundances with experimental approaches we assess population dynamics and species turn-over of birds, bats, and large mammals along different land-use types and intensities in forests and grasslands and link them to important ecosystem processes. The results of our study form base-line data for core and further projects and make an important contribution to the ecological synthesis approach. Data collection from the first two years (2008-2009) underline the necessity of long-term insights into the dynamics of birds, bats, and large mammals to permit identification of the main drivers that influence their diversity and abundance on local and regional scales and to derive possible consequences for functional relationships. We plan to continue our standardized monitoring approach on the 300 experimental plots (EPs) of the 3 Biodiversity Exploratories in order to test a) whether the observed year-to-year differences in diversity patterns and abundances are more likely to reflect short-term fluctuations or long-term trends and b) to determine the main drivers of these patterns. Expanding our approach further, we want to c) link bat diversity and activity to structural parameters of the forest using LiDAR data, d) address parasitation rates of selected bird species in relation to land-use intensity and host diversity and e) unravel the functional relationships between plowing activity of wild boar (bioperturbation) and plant diversity as well as soil structure.