Nature Search

Ecological networks are more sensitive to plant than to animal extinction under climate change

In addition to affecting individual species, climate change can modify species interactions. Coupling simulation models with networks between plants and animal pollinators and seed dispersers, Schleuninget al. show that animal persistence under climate change depends more strongly on plant persistence than vice versa.

Matthias Schleuning
Jochen Fründ
Christian Hof
ResearchOpen Access23 Dec 2016
Nature Communications

Volume: 7, P: 1-9
Species richness is more important for ecosystem functioning than species turnover along an elevational gradient

The authors measure numerous ecosystem functions across an elevational gradient on Mt Kilimanjaro and find that species richness impacts function more than species turnover across sites. They also show that variation in species richness impacts ecosystem functioning more strongly at the landscape scale than at the local scale.

Jörg Albrecht
Marcell K. Peters
Matthias Schleuning
Research20 Sept 2021
Nature Ecology & Evolution

Volume: 5, P: 1582-1593
Global and regional ecological boundaries explain abrupt spatial discontinuities in avian frugivory interactions

Vertebrate frugivores play important ecological roles. Here, the authors analyse a global dataset on plants and birds and find that plant-frugivore networks are more dissimilar, yet structurally consistent, across ecoregion and biome boundaries.

Lucas P. Martins
Daniel B. Stouffer
Jason M. Tylianakis
ResearchOpen Access14 Nov 2022
Nature Communications

Volume: 13, P: 1-13
Downsizing of animal communities triggers stronger functional than structural decay in seed-dispersal networks

Species loss from ecological networks can impair network stability and ecosystem function. Here the authors simulate animal extinctions in interaction networks between plants and avian frugivores, showing that frugivore extinctions have comparatively weak effects on network structure, but strongly reduce seed-dispersal distance.

Isabel Donoso
Marjorie C. Sorensen
Matthias Schleuning
ResearchOpen Access27 Mar 2020
Nature Communications

Volume: 11, P: 1-8
Predictors of elevational biodiversity gradients change from single taxa to the multi-taxa community level

Explaining species richness patterns is a key question in ecology. Peterset al. sample diverse plant and animal groups across elevation on Mt. Kilimanjaro to show that, while disparate factors drive distributions of individual taxa, diversity overall decreases with elevation, mostly driven by effects of temperature.

Marcell K. Peters
Andreas Hemp
Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter
ResearchOpen Access22 Dec 2016
Nature Communications

Volume: 7, P: 1-11
Environmental context determines the limiting demographic processes for plant recruitment across a species’ elevational range

Dominik Merges
Jörg Albrecht
Eike Lena Neuschulz
ResearchOpen Access02 Jul 2020
Scientific Reports

Volume: 10, P: 1-9
Pollination and seed dispersal are the most threatened processes of plant regeneration

Eike Lena Neuschulz
Thomas Mueller
Katrin Böhning-Gaese
ResearchOpen Access20 Jul 2016
Scientific Reports

Volume: 6, P: 1-6
Plant and animal functional diversity drive mutualistic network assembly across an elevational gradient

Differential responses of plant and animal functional diversity to climatic variation could affect trait matching in mutualistic interactions. Here, Albrecht et al. show that network structure varies across an elevational gradient owing to bottom-up and top-down effects of functional diversity.

Jörg Albrecht
Alice Classen
Matthias Schleuning
ResearchOpen Access09 Aug 2018
Nature Communications

Volume: 9, P: 1-10
Climate–land-use interactions shape tropical mountain biodiversity and ecosystem functions

Elevational trends in biodiversity and ecosystem functions across natural and anthropogenic habitats on Mount Kilimanjaro show that the effects of land use are strongly mediated by climate.

Marcell K. Peters
Andreas Hemp
Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter
Research27 Mar 2019
Nature

Volume: 568, P: 88-92
Projected impacts of climate change on functional diversity of frugivorous birds along a tropical elevational gradient

Irene M. A. Bender
W. Daniel Kissling
Matthias Schleuning
ResearchOpen Access27 Nov 2019
Scientific Reports

Volume: 9, P: 1-12
Biodiversity and ecosystem functions depend on environmental conditions and resources rather than the geodiversity of a tropical biodiversity hotspot

Christine I. B. Wallis
Yvonne C. Tiede
Jörg Bendix
ResearchOpen Access31 Dec 2021
Scientific Reports

Volume: 11, P: 1-14
Speciation and population divergence in a mutualistic seed dispersing bird

Genomic and phylogeographic analyses indicate that resource-specialization did not play a major role in the diversification and speciation of seed dispersing nutcrackers

Jordi de Raad
Martin Päckert
Maria A. Nilsson
ResearchOpen Access09 May 2022
Communications Biology

Volume: 5, P: 1-10
FunAndes – A functional trait database of Andean plants

Selene Báez
Luis Cayuela
Jürgen Homeier
ResearchOpen Access20 Aug 2022
Scientific Data

Volume: 9, P: 1-9

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