First meeting: 02.-06.12.2013

PIs:
Dirk Nikolaus Karger
Jens-Christian Svenning

iDiv member:
Ingolf Kühn

Project summary:
Our perception of biodiversity at the local scale does not necessarily coincide with expectations from our regional-scale knowledge. At large scales, macroecological and biogeographical factors are prominent. At local scales, changes in habitat conditions and disturbances are often the main factors driving biodiversity. This dependence on scale in the strength of potential explanatory factors and processes creates a central challenge for biodiversity research, with an urgent need to integrate evolutionary and historical processes operating at large scales with processes operating at finer scales. One of the main problems, in this regard, is to quantify the regional species pool from which local biodiversity is assembled. To infer which local processes shape patterns of biodiversity via assembly from regional processes, null models have recently been proposed. The challenge, however, with null model approaches is the clear delimitation of the species pool. The definition of the species pool in null models can influence, and even reverse, one´s perception of the ecological processes operating at local spatial scales. In this workshop we aim to develop explicit models for the delineation of the regional species pool to link macroecological- to local-scale biodiversity patterns, by bringing together macroecologists, community ecologists, data holders, and ecological modelers and directly test the developed models on empirical data. Through this we will provide a highly useful tool for community ecologists and conservation planning and foster our understanding of patterns of biodiversity.

Participants:
Anna Cord (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ), John Harte (University of California – Berkeley), Dirk Nikolaus Karger (University of Zurich), Michael Kessler (University of Zurich), Holger Kreft (University of Göttingen), Ingolf Kühn (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH – UFZ), Brody Sandel (University of Aarhus), Juliano Sarmento Cabral (University of Göttingen), Adam Smith (Missouri Botanical Garden), Jens-Christian Svenning (University of Aarhus), Hanna Tuomisto (University of Turku), Patrick Weigelt (University of Göttingen), Carsten Wesche (Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz) Thorsten Wiegand (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ)

Meeting report

Writing retreat: 02.- 04.11.2016

Participants:
Dr. Patrick Weigelt (Uni. Göttingen), Prof. Dr. Juliano Sarmento-Cabral (Uni. Würzburg), Dr. Dirk N. Karger (Uni. Zürich), Christian König (Uni Göttingen)

Meeting report