Keynote Presentations from the AVEC International Summer School, Peyresq, 14-27 September 2003

Speaker: Klemens Ekschmitt
Klemens.Ekschmitt<at>allzool.bio.uni-giessen.de
Justus Liebig University, Dep of Animal Ecology, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, D-35392 Giessen, Germany

Title of the talk: Animal diversity and global change - when and why do species go extinct? (pdf: 1,6 Mb)

Summary of the talk by a student: Students´ summary (pdf)

Abstract

An elaborated landscape model will be used to interactively explore and illustrate the conditions under which species disappear from the map of a given area. Although the model was prepared to describe real landscapes, we shall feed it with artificial data, because this will enable us to test the generality of our hypotheses independently of possible peculiarities of specific landscapes. The simulations will address in detail (1) the discrepancy of perceived vs. factual diversity and (2) differences between life strategies in their robustness against regional extinction.

Recommended background literature on this presentation:

• Ekschmitt K, Stierhof T, Dauber J, Kreimes K, Wolters V (2003): On the quality of soil biodiversity indicators: abiotic and biotic parameters as predictors of soil faunal richness at different spatial scales. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 98: 273-283. doi:10.1016/S0167-8809(03)00087-2


• Ekschmitt K, Klein A, Pieper B, Wolters V (2001): Biodiversity and functioning of ecological communities - why is diversity important in some cases and unimportant in others? Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science 164: 239-246. doi:10.1002/1522-2624(200106)164:3<239::AID-JPLN239>3.0.CO;2-0


• Ekschmitt K, Griffiths BS (1998): Soil biodiversity and its implications for ecosystem functioning in a heterogeneous and variable environment. Applied Soil Ecology 10: 201-215.


• Ekschmitt K, Weber M, Wolters V (1997): Spiders, Carabids and Staphylinids - the ecological potential of predatory macroarthropods. In: Benckiser (Ed.): Fauna in Soil Ecosystems. Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York, pp. 307-362.


• Ekschmitt K, Breckling B (1994): Competition and Coexistence: On Contributions of Modelling to the Evolution of Ecological Theory. Ecological Modelling 75/76: doi:10.1016/0304-3800(94)90008-6 71-82.

AVEC is a EU FP5 Concerted Action No. EVK2-2001-00074

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