|
|
Dr. Matthias SchleuningPostDoc B3.10: BIODIVERSITY AND AREA DYNAMICS OF VERTEBRATES Fields of interest I am interested in the structure of ecological communities and the resilience of ecosystem processes to global change. In my current research, I study how climate and land-use gradients affect mutualistic plant-animal interactions at multiple spatial scales, using observational and experimental field studies, demographic models, trait analysis, network approaches and macro-ecological tools. My study sites include temperate and tropical ecosystems (Germany, South Africa, Kenya, Tropical Andes, Costa Rica). Key words: Biodiversity, birds, frugivory, global change, Heliconia, mutualistic networks, Protea, population dynamics, pollination, seed dispersal, tropical forest Current projects • Mutualistic plant-animal networks along land-use and climate gradients • Effects of forest fragmentation and selective logging on ecosystem processes • Ecosystem functioning and forest regeneration in the Tropical Andes • Spatial determinants of animal pollination and plant fecundity in South African Fynbos (with F. Schurr, K. Böhning-Gaese) • Pollination ecology and genetic structure of hummingbird-pollinated herbs Recent publications: Plein, M., L. Längsfeld, E.L. Neuschulz, C. Schultheiß, L. Ingmann, T. Töpfer, K. Böhning-Gaese & M. Schleuning (2013). Constant properties of plant-frugivore networks despite fluctuations in fruit and bird communities in space and time. Ecology, in press. DOI: 10.1890/12-1213.1 Stournaras, K.E., E. Lo, K. Böhning-Gaese, E. Cazetta, D.M. Dehling, M. Schleuning, M.C. Stoddard, M.J. Donoghue, R.O. Prum & H.M. Schaefer (2013). How colorful are fruits? Limited color diversity in fleshy fruits on local and global scales. New Phytologist, in press. DOI: 10.1111/nph.12157 Lippok, D., S.G. Beck, D. Renison, S.C. Gallegos, F.V. Saavedra, I. Hensen & M. Schleuning (2013). Forest recovery of areas deforested by fire increases with elevation in the tropical Andes. Forest Ecology and Management, 295: 69-76. Breitbach, N., K. Böhning-Gaese, I. Laube & M. Schleuning (2012) Short seed-dispersal distances and low seedling recruitment in farmland populations of bird-dispersed cherry trees. Journal of Ecology, 100: 1349-1358. Schleuning*, M., J. Fründ*, A.M. Klein et al. (2012) Specialization of mutualistic interaction networks decreases toward tropical latitudes. Current Biology, 22: 1925-1931. Markl*, J.S., M. Schleuning*, P.M. Forget, P. Jordano, J.E. Lambert, A. Traveset, S.J. Wright & K. Böhning-Gaese (2012) Meta-analysis of the effects of human disturbance on seed dispersal by animals. Conservation Biology, 26: 1072-1081 Press coverage: Interaction networks Conservation biology Contact: |
