Project Details
Projekt
Synthesis Project 5: Drivers of biodiversity and biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships along climate and land use gradients
Subject Area
Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
Term
from 2010 to 2019
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 107847609
Synthesis project Syn5 will focus on the overarching goals of the research unit FOR 1246 (KiLi) by linking biodiversity and biogeochemical ecosystem states and processes along gradients of climate and land use and by addressing the importance of biodiversity for ecosystem functioning and stability in the context of global environmental change. The project continues and expands the synthesis work of central project Z2 as well as the work of SP7 during the phases one and two of FOR 1246. It will build upon extensive multi-taxa data on abundance, species richness, community composition, species traits, biotic interactions as well as on biogeochemical ecosystem states and processes. The proposed project is subdivided into four workpackages and will evaluate along gradients of climate and land use (1) the importance of phylogenetic relationships and functional traits for the structure of species assemblages, (2) the influence of primary productivity, climate and land use on food-chain length, (3) the relative importance of ecological, climatic and anthropogenic drivers of local and regional biodiversity, and (4) the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality and stability in the context of climate and land use change. The synthesis project Syn5 is closely linked to and will closely collaborate with the other synthesis projects of the research unit FOR 1246.
DFG Programme
Research Units
International Connection
Tanzania
Co-Investigators
Dr. Victor Kakengi; Dr. William Kindeketa; Christine Ngereza
