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Urban intensity gradients shape community structure, life-history traits and performance in a multitrophic system
(2024)Insect Conservation and DiversityUrban ecosystems are formed by pronounced socio-ecological gradients, which are distinct from other ecosystems and can simultaneously filter and promote taxa, ultimately affecting their interactions. However, the strength of the effect of filtering and facilitation across the different trophic levels could vary among biotic and abiotic factors. Here, we investigate the effects of habitat amount, temperature and host-enemy biotic interactions ...Journal Article -
Dead wood distributed in different-sized habitat patches enhances diversity of saproxylic beetles in a landscape experiment
(2024)Journal of Applied Ecology1. Human intervention often alters the availability of habitat for biodiversity. The conservation of biodiversity therefore requires an optimized habitat management. In forests, dead wood represents one of the most important habitats and in boreal and temperate regions around 25% of forest species depend on it (= saproxylic species). Increasing the amount of dead wood in managed forests has thus become a policy objective, but there is no ...Journal Article -
Recurrent gene flow events occurred during the diversification of clownfishes of the skunk complex
(2024)Molecular EcologyClownfish (subfamily Amphiprioninae) are an iconic group of coral reef fish that evolved a mutualistic interaction with sea anemones, which triggered the adaptive radiation of the clade. Within clownfishes, the "skunk complex" is particularly interesting. Besides ecological speciation, interspecific gene flow and hybrid speciation are thought to have shaped the evolution of the group. We investigated the mechanisms characterizing the ...Journal Article -
Phytodiversity is associated with habitat heterogeneity from Eurasia to the Hengduan Mountains
(2023)New PhytologistThe geographic distribution of plant diversity matches the gradient of habitat heterogeneity from lowlands to mountain regions. However, little is known about how much this relationship is conserved across scales. Using the World Checklist of Vascular Plants and high-resolution biodiversity maps developed by species distribution models, we investigated the associations between species richness and habitat heterogeneity at the ...Journal Article -
Homogeneity in terrestrial land cover is reflected in fish diversity patterns in a Chinese river system
(2023)Environmental DNAIn river systems worldwide, land cover changes have been identified as major drivers of biodiversity change. Quantifying how terrestrial land cover impacts riverine diversity requires local biodiversity assessments. In this study, we investigated the association of terrestrial land cover and the corresponding riverine fish species communities using eDNA-metabarcoding in the Chinese Shaying River basin. This basin is home to about 37 million ...Journal Article -
Quantifying biodiversity using eDNA from water bodies: General principles and recommendations for sampling designs
(2023)Environmental DNAReliable and comparable estimates of biodiversity are the foundation for understanding ecological systems and informing policy and decision-making, especially in an era of massive anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity. Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is at the forefront of technological advances in biodiversity monitoring, and the last few years have seen major progress and solutions to technical challenges from the laboratory to ...Journal Article -
Reduction of invertebrate herbivory by land use is only partly explained by changes in plant and insect characteristics
(2023)Ecological MonographsInvertebrate herbivory is a crucial process contributing to the cycling of nutrients and energy in terrestrial ecosystems. While the function of herbivory can decrease with land-use intensification, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We hypothesize that land-use intensification impacts invertebrate leaf herbivory rates mainly through changes in characteristics of plants and insect herbivores. We investigated herbivory rates (i.e., ...Journal Article -
Combining environmental DNA with remote sensing variables to map fish species distributions along a large river
(2023)Remote Sensing in Ecology and ConservationBiodiversity loss in river ecosystems is much faster and more severe than in terrestrial systems, and spatial conservation and restoration plans are needed to halt this erosion. Reliable and highly resolved data on the state of and change in biodiversity and species distributions are critical for effective measures. However, high-resolution maps of fish distribution remain limited for large riverine systems. Coupling data from global ...Journal Article -
Environmental DNA highlights fish biodiversity in mesophotic ecosystems
(2023)Environmental DNAMesophotic marine ecosystems are characterized by lower light penetration supporting specialized fish fauna. Due to their depths (−30–−150 m), accessibility is challenging, and the structure of mesophotic fish assemblages is generally less known than either shallow reefs or deep zones with soft bottoms which are generally trawled. Environmental DNA metabarcoding from seawater filtered in situ could improve our ability to monitor the ...Journal Article -
Wild bee larval food composition in five European cities
(2022)EcologyUrbanization poses threats and opportunities for the biodiversity of wild bees. At the same time, cities can harbor diverse wild bee assemblages, partly due to the unique plant assemblages that provide resources. While bee dietary preferences have been investigated in various studies, bee dietary studies have been conducted mostly in nonurban ecosystems and data based on plant visitation observations or palynological techniques. This data ...Journal Article