New paper on metacommunity dynamics out! 📃🍁 Led by Oliver Mitesser we show that habitat heterogeneity shifts communities from patch-dynamics toward mass effects and species sorting using beetles as focal taxon. 🐞😍
@betafor.bsky.social @cofeuniwue.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Metacommunity theory has expanded our understanding of how spatial dynamics and local interactions influence species communities, but we lack empirical studies specifically in terrestrial habitats te...
#Forests: Canopy gaps and deadwood increase diversity of #bats and #birds: New study @currentbiology.bsky.social. Bats benefit from variety between different forest patches, birds react strongly to local enrichment on-site. @betafor.bsky.social @cofeuniwue.bsky.social
➡️ go.uniwue.de/forest-div
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Now online in @forestecosyst.bsky.social:
By synthesising data from the @bexplo.bsky.social, we found that promoting a mosaic of forest management types while reducing overall management intensity could foster positive relationships between carbon stocks and arthropods.
doi.org/10.1016/j.fe...
🎉 Congrats to @julian-lunow.bsky.social on his new publication!
Promoting a mosaic of forest management types while reducing overall management intensity can foster positive relationships between carbon stocks and arthropod diversity.
📖 doi.org/10.1016/j.fe...
#Biodiversity#CarbonStorage#Ecology
🔍 We’re hiring! Our chair is looking for a motivated Researcher to join our team! 🌳
The aim of the project is to analyse the influence of canopy openings and deadwood management on insect communities. 🪲🦋
We’re looking forward to your application. 🌲📩
www.uni-wuerzburg.de/karriere/sin...
🏔️New study examined plant–microbe associations in mountain forests across different climatic zones. Plant–microbe associations were more pronounced at low latitudes + intermediate elevations, mediated by abiotic conditions.
@jiayunzou.bsky.social; @sebseibold.bsky.social 👉️ buff.ly/xsZDNG1
New paper out @currentbiology.bsky.social! Led by Clara Wild we show that restoring heterogeneity in forests increases bat and bird diversity. 🧪🍁
Interestingly mechanisms differ between taxa 🐦🦇 and diversity facets.
@cofeuniwue.bsky.social @betafor.bsky.social
Fascinating new insights on the forest volatilome! 🍁🧪
Led by Lena Carlson we identify deadwood as a main driver of VOC beta-diversity, linked to the diversity of beetles. 🪲
@betafor.bsky.social @ecoresearchzoo3.bsky.social
Wild et al. show in a large-scale experiment that increasing forest structural complexity
enhances bat and bird diversity by separating within- and between-patch contributions
to landscape diversity, ...
Context Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) create invisible chemical landscapes that influence ecosystem processes. Yet whether VOC β-diversity (i.e., variability in VOC composition between patches) responds to structural heterogeneity and reflects silvicultural habitat management remains unclear. Objectives In a large field experiment, we quantified how enhanced structural beta complexity (ESBC) affects VOC β-diversity patterns and investigated potential drivers and ecological effects in temperate production forests. Methods We sampled VOCs in ambient forest air using Tenax/Carboxen adsorbent traps at forest floor and 1 m heights across 234 treatment and control forest patches in six German regions. We analyzed VOCs via thermal desorption-gas chromatography mass-spectrometry (TD-GCMS) and examined environmental drivers including deadwood characteristics, canopy cover, tree species dissimilarity, and herb layer dissimilarity. We tested potential ecological relevance by analyzing saproxylic beetle community responses. Results VOC β-diversity increased significantly at 1 m height in heterogeneous forests compared to homogeneous forests, but we found no significant change at the forest floor. Deadwood volume and deadwood structural diversity, rather than canopy openness, were identified as the main drivers of increasing VOC β-diversity. Dissimilarity in beetle community composition was associated with VOC β-diversity, but only for forest floor VOCs, suggesting these chemical patterns may correlate with variables beetles respond to. Conclusions Our findings suggest that volatile β-diversity represents an overlooked dimension of habitat heterogeneity, one that creates invisible chemical heterogeneity influencing inter- and intra-species interactions and ecosystem processes. We demonstrate that enhancing forest heterogeneity through deadwood retention increases both structural heterogeneity and volatile β-diversity.
