Joint impacts of climate and predation on multitrophic communities and ecosystem functioning

Lead:
Dr Malte Jochum (contact: malte.jochum@idiv.de)

Overarching research question:
How do simultaneous changes in climate and predator communities affect above-belowground temperate forest communities and ecosystem functioning?

Setting:
Temperate forest soil and litter system, above and belowground; Fagus sylvatica and Quercus petraea trees (2 each) planted in each subunit, predators (see treatments) and two collembola species

Experimental design:
4 predator levels, 3 climate levels, each of the 12 combinations replicated 4 times (48 replicates = Ecotron Subunits)

Treatments:
Climate change (drought) and predator (wolf spider, predatory mite, both, none) treatments

Duration:
04/2021–12/2021

Main collaborating teams and staff involved:

• Helge Bruelheide, Ines Laude (MLU, iDiv)
• François Buscot (UNZ, iDiv), Anna Heintz-Buschart (Univ. Amsterdam)
• Julia Tiede (WWU Münster)
• Nicole van Dam, Henriette Uthe (iDiv, Univ. of Jena)
• Tesfaye Wubet (UFZ, iDiv)
• Ulrich Brose, Benoit Gauzens (iDiv, Univ. of Jena)
• Stefan Scheu, Melanie Pollierer (Univ. Göttingen)
• Olga Ferlian (UL, iDiv)
• Nico Eisenhauer, Jes Hines, Alban Gebler, Lisa Ertel, Anja Zeuner, Conn Heijungs, Merlin Helle (UL, iDiv)

For further detail, please see here (PDF) or contact malte.jochum@idiv.de