TY - GEN A1 - Michalko, Radek A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Pekár, Stano T1 - Interaction between hunting strategy, habitat type and stratum drive intraguild predation and cannibalism T2 - Oikos N2 - Intraguild predation (IGP) is a common interaction between generalist predators when they competitively exploit similar resources and prey on each other. Theoretical models predict limitations for intraguild predator coexistence unless some mechanisms, such as the utilization of alternative prey (i.e. trophic niche partitioning) and cannibalism, increase the relative intraspecific clustering and interspecific segregation. As hunting strategies determine trophic niches of predators and their own vulnerability to predation, the hunting strategies may also determine the relative importance of cannibalism, predation, and exploitative competition and consequently the intensity of IGP. The importance of hunting strategies on the potential outcome of IGP and how habitat properties modify the interaction between hunting strategies remain poorly understood. Using published data on spider prey of spider predators, we first investigated how predation of a top-predator on a mesopredator is determined by the functional distance between both predators to understand how predation and exploitation are distributed in spider communities. Subsequently, we investigated the predation among spiders with particular hunting strategies to understand which strategies interact most frequently. We also investigated whether the interaction between hunting strategies was influenced by habitat type (forest, open (semi)natural habitat, agroecosystem) or by habitat stratum (ground versus vegetation). The hunting strategies of top-predators and mesopredators interacted to determine the relative capture proportions of conspecifics and hetero-specifics. This interaction was further modified by habitat type and stratum. Two mechanisms can reinforce coexistence in highly diverse spider communities. First, top-predators preyed most frequently on functionally distinct mesopredators, which indicates the overall intensity of IGP may be relaxed by a balanced distribution between exploitative competition and predation. Second, cannibalism was common for top-predators with a hunting strategy of frequently preying on functionally similar mesopredators. Cannibalism may lead to self-limitation of top-predator populations and may thereby facilitate coexistence between two predator species. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.08355 SN - 1600-0706 IS - 3 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Hecker, Lutz Philip A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Yang, Xueyan A1 - Querhammer, Lisa A1 - Stöckmann, Ina A1 - Wätzold, Frank T1 - Insektenverluste durch den Einsatz von Konditionierern bei der Behandlung von Mähgut - ökologische und ökonomische Aspekte T2 - Natur und Landschaft. Zeitschrift für Naturschutz und Landschaftspflege Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.19217/NuL2022-02-03 SN - 0028-0615 VL - 97 IS - 2 SP - 78 EP - 84 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Heitmann, Nadja A1 - Glemnitz, Michael A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Müller, Marina E. H. T1 - Unselective Transport of Phytopathogenic Fusarium Fungi from Litter and Soil by Ground-Dwelling Arthropods Links Semi-Natural and Agricultural Habitats T2 - Microorganisms N2 - The dispersal of propagules, such as fungal spores or seeds by actively moving animals, connects and shapes communities. The dispersal of plant pathogens by arthropods might be a crucial mechanism in the spread of several crop diseases. Ground-dwelling arthropods are potential linkers between fungal communities in semi-natural and agricultural habitats by transporting propagules of Fusarium fungi. We compared the Fusarium communities on the body surface of ground-dwelling arthropods with litter in semi-natural and soil in agricultural habitats with a focus on the Fusarium community. We found three relatively distinct Fusarium communities with moderate overlap. We detected a higher richness of Fusarium species on the body surface of arthropods compared to litter and soil communities. The results suggest that the Fusarium community on the body surface of arthropods relates to the composition observed in litter and soil with limited filtering mechanisms between communities. Ground-dwelling arthropods are relevant agents for the distribution of Fusarium and therefore link fungal communities in adjacent habitats. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10020335 SN - 2076-2607 VL - 10 IS - 2 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Sikorski, Johannes A1 - Baumgartner, Vanessa A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus T1 - The evolution of ecological diversity in Acidobacteria T2 - Frontiers in Microbiology N2 - Acidobacteria occur in a large variety of ecosystems worldwide and are particularly abundant and highly diverse in soils. In spite of their diversity, only few species have been characterized to date which makes Acidobacteria one of the most poorly understood phyla among the domain Bacteria. We used a culture-independent niche modeling approach to elucidate ecological adaptations and their evolution for 4,154 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of Acidobacteria across 150 different, comprehensively characterized grassland soils in Germany. Using the relative abundances of their 16S rRNA gene transcripts, the responses of active OTUs along gradients of 41 environmental variables were modeled using hierarchical logistic regression (HOF), which allowed to determine values for optimum activity for each variable (niche optima). By linking 16S rRNA transcripts to the phylogeny of full 16S rRNA gene sequences, we could trace the evolution of the different ecological adaptations during the diversification of Acidobacteria. This approach revealed a pronounced ecological diversification even among acidobacterial sister clades. Although the evolution of habitat adaptation was mainly cladogenic, it was disrupted by recurrent events of convergent evolution that resulted in frequent habitat switching within individual clades. Our findings indicate that the high diversity of soil acidobacterial communities is largely sustained by differential habitat adaptation even at the level of closely related species. A comparison of niche optima of individual OTUs with the phenotypic properties of their cultivated pepresentatives showed that our niche modeling approach (1) correctly predicts those physiological properties that have been determined for cultivated species of Acidobacteria but (2) also provides ample information on ecological adaptations that cannot be inferred from standard taxonomic descriptions of bacterial isolates. These novel information on specific adaptations of not-yet-cultivated Acidobacteria can therefore guide future cultivation trials and likely will increase their cultivation success. KW - physiological traits KW - 16S rRNA gene transcripts KW - optimum niche modeling KW - Acidobacteria KW - adaptation KW - ecological diversity KW - evolution Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.715637 SN - 1664-302X N1 - viele weitere Autor*innen VL - Vol. 13 IS - 2 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Potapov, Anton A1 - Beaulieu, Frédéric A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Bluhm, Sarah L. A1 - Degtyarev, Maxim I. A1 - Devetter, Miloslav A1 - Goncharov, Anton A. A1 - Gongalsky, Konstantin B. A1 - Klarner, Bernhard A1 - Korobushkin, Daniil I. T1 - Feeding habits and multifunctional classification of soil-associated consumers from protists to vertebrates T2 - Biological Reviews N2 - Soil organisms drive major ecosystem functions by mineralising carbon and releasing nutrients during decomposition processes, which supports plant growth, aboveground biodiversity and, ultimately, human nutrition. Soil ecologists often operate with functional groups to infer the effects of individual taxa on ecosystem functions and services. Simultaneous assessment of the functional roles of multiple taxa is possible using food-web reconstructions, but our knowledge of the feeding habits of many taxa is insufficient and often based on limited evidence. Over the last two decades, molecular, biochemical and isotopic tools have improved our understanding of the feeding habits of various soil organisms, yet this knowledge is still to be synthesised into a common functional framework. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the feeding habits of consumers in soil, including protists, micro-, meso- and macrofauna (invertebrates), and soil-associated vertebrates. We have integrated existing functional group classifications with findings gained with novel methods and compiled an overarching classification across taxa focusing on key universal traits such as food resource preferences, body masses, microhabitat specialisation, protection and hunting mechanisms. Our summary highlights various strands of evidence that many functional groups commonly used in soil ecology and food-web models are feeding on multiple types of food resources. In many cases, omnivory is observed down to the species level of taxonomic resolution, challenging realism of traditional soil food-web models based on distinct resource-based energy channels. Novel methods, such as stable isotope, fatty acid and DNA gut content analyses, have revealed previously hidden facets of trophic relationships of soil consumers, such as food assimilation, multichannel feeding across trophic levels, hidden trophic niche differentiation and the importance of alternative food/prey, as well as energy transfers across ecosystem compartments. Wider adoption of such tools and the development of open interoperable platforms that assemble morphological, ecological and trophic data as traits of soil taxa will enable the refinement and expansion of the multifunctional classification of consumers in soil. The compiled multifunctional classification of soil-associated consumers will serve as a reference for ecologists working with biodiversity changes and biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships, making soil food-web research more accessible and reproducible. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12832 SN - 1469-185X N1 - viele weitere Autor*innen VL - 97 IS - 3 SP - 1057 EP - 1117 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Meyer, Svenja A1 - Kundel, Dominika A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Fliessbach, Andreas A1 - Scheu, Stefan T1 - Trophic niche but not abundance of Collembola and Oribatida changes with drought and farming system T2 - PeerJ N2 - Higher frequencies of summer droughts are predicted to change soil conditions in the future affecting soil fauna communities and their biotic interactions. In agroecosystems drought effects on soil biota may be modulated by different management practices that alter the availability of different food resources. Recent studies on the effect of drought on soil microarthropods focused on measures of abundance and diversity. We here additionally investigated shifts in trophic niches of Collembola and Oribatida as indicated by stable isotope analysis (13C and 15N). We simulated short-term summer drought by excluding 65% of the ambient precipitation in conventionally and organically managed winter wheat fields on the DOK trial in Switzerland. Stable isotope values suggest that plant litter and root exudates were the most important resources for Collembola (Isotoma caerulea, Isotomurus maculatus and Orchesella villosa) and older plant material and microorganisms for Oribatida (Scheloribates laevigatus and Tectocepheus sarekensis). Drought treatment and farming systems did not affect abundances of the studied species. However, isotope values of some species increased in organically managed fields indicating a higher proportion of microorganisms in their diet. Trophic niche size, a measure of both isotope values combined, decreased with drought and under organic farming in some species presumably due to favored use of plants as basal resource instead of algae and microorganisms. Overall, our results suggest that the flexible usage of resources may buffer effects of drought and management practices on the abundance of microarthropods in agricultural systems. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12777 SN - 2167-8359 VL - 10 IS - 12 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Damptey, Frederick Gyasi A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Menor, Imma Oliveras A1 - Garcia de la Riva, Enrique T1 - The functional Structure of Tropical Plant Communities and soil Properties Enhance Ecosystem Functioning and Multitunctionality in Different Ecosystems in Ghana T2 - Forests N2 - Plant functional traits are useful in tracking changes in the environment, and play an important role in determining ecosystem functioning. The relationship between plant functional traits and ecosystem functioning remains unclear, although there is growing evidence on this relationship. In this study, we tested whether the functional structure of vegetation has significant effects on the provision of ecosystem services. We analysed plant trait composition (specific leaf area, leaf carbon and nitrogen ratio, isotopic carbon fraction, stem dry matter content, seed mass and plant height), soil parameters (nutrients, pH, bulk density) and proxies of ecosystem services (carbon stock, decomposition rate, invertebrate activity) in twenty-four plots in three tropical ecosystems (active restored and natural forests and an agroforestry system) in Ghana. For each plot, we measured above-ground biomass, decomposition rates of leaves and invertebrate activity as proxies for the provision of ecosystem services to evaluate (i) whether there were differences in functional composition and soil properties and their magnitude between ecosystem types. We further aimed to (ii) determine whether the functional structure and/or soil parameters drove ecosystem functions and multifunctionality in the three ecosystem types. For functional composition, both the leaf economic spectrum and seed mass dimension clearly separated the ecosystem types. The natural forest was more dominated by acquisitive plants than the other two ecosystem types, while the non-natural forests (agroforest and restored forest) showed higher variation in the functional space. The natural forest had higher values of soil properties than the restored forest and the agroforestry system, with the differences between the restored and agroforestry systems driven by bulk density. Levels of ecosystem service proxies and multifunctionality were positively related to the functional richness of forest plots and were mainly explained by the differences in site conditions. Our study demonstrated the effects of functional forest structure on ecosystem services in different forest ecosystems located in the semi-deciduous forest zone of Ghana. KW - functional traits KW - functional diversity KW - multifunctionality KW - plants KW - post-mining restorations KW - resource use strategies KW - tropical forest KW - West Africa Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/f13020297 SN - 1999-4907 VL - 13 IS - 2 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Hecker, Lutz Philip A1 - Wätzold, Frank A1 - Yang, Xueyan A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus T1 - Squeeze it or leave it? An ecological-economic assessment of the impact of mower conditioners on arthropod populations in grassland T2 - Journal of Insect Conservation N2 - This study addresses the use of conditioners as a driver of arthropod loss in agricultural landscapes. Conditioners compress the freshly cut mowing material mechanically to destroy the evaporation-inhibiting wax layer of the grass material. This compression potentially increases the physical damage to several arthropod groups during the mowing process. We have combined an ecological field study on the impact of conditioners on arthropods at the plot level with an analysis of the economic rationale of applying conditioners in differently managed grasslands in the study region, in order to understand the impact of applying conditioners on the damage to arthropods at the landscape level. The use of conditioners in the mowing process significantly increased the overall percentage of damaged individuals by 18% from 52% without to 70% with conditioner use. Aphids and plant lice, beetles, thrips and mites were most severely affected by additional damage. We also found that the use of conditioners takes place on substantially more than 20% of all grasslands in the study region. Depending on the respective grassland area managed with conditioners in the future, grasslands could be losing an additional 4% to 18% of their overall arthropod numbers only due to the use of conditioners compared to a scenario without conditioners. As the damage due to the use of conditioners is presumably higher in extensively managed grasslands, and the profit of their use is higher in intensively managed grasslands, we suggest, as an implication for insect conservation, concentrating measures to disincentivise the use of conditioners on extensively managed grassland. KW - Biodiversity loss KW - Conditioner KW - Insect mortality KW - Mowing technology KW - Technological innovation KW - Insect extinction and conservation Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-022-00392-5 SN - 1572-9753 VL - 26 IS - 3 SP - 463 EP - 475 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus A1 - Djoudi, El Aziz A1 - Schnerch, Benjamin A1 - Michalko, Radek T1 - Climatic conditions and functional traits affect spider diets in agricultural and non-agricultural habitats worldwide T2 - Ecography N2 - Spiders are dominant predators in terrestrial ecosystems and feed on prey from the herbivore and detritivore subsystem (dual subsystem omnivory) as well as on other predators (intraguild predation). Little is known about how global change potentially affects the importance of different prey groups in predator diets. In this meta-analysis we identify the impact of climatic conditions, land-use types and functional traits of spider species on the relative importance of Hemiptera, Araneae and Collembola prey in spider diets. We use a dataset including 78 publications with 149 observational records of the diet composition of 96 spider species in agricultural and non-agricultural habitats in 24 countries worldwide. The importance of Hemiptera prey was not affected by climatic conditions and was particularily high in smaller spider species in agricultural habitats. Araneae prey was most important for actively hunting, larger spider species in non-agricultural habitats. Collembola prey was most important for small, actively hunting spider species in regions with higher temperature seasonality. Spider species with a higher importance of Araneae prey for their diet also had higher importances of Collembola and lower importances of Hemiptera prey. Future increases of temperature seasonality predicted for several regions worldwide may go along with an increasing importance of Collembola prey which also related to a higher importance of intraguild prey here. Two global change drivers predicted for many regions of the world (increasing climatic seasonality and ongoing conversion of non-agricultural to agricultural land) both hold the potential to increase the importance of Collembola prey in spider diets. The importance of Hemiptera and Araneae prey may however show contrasting responses to these two drivers. These complex potential effects of global change components and their impact on functional traits in spider communities highlight the importance to simultaneously consider multiple drivers of global change to better understand future predator–prey interactions. KW - alternative prey KW - biological control KW - climate change KW - intraguild predation KW - land-use change KW - predator–prey interactions Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06090 SN - 1600-0587 IS - 3 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Feng, Lanya A1 - Lysakowski, Bartosz A1 - Eisenschmidt, Jenny A1 - Birkhofer, Klaus T1 - The impact of wildfire and mammal carcasses on beetle emergence from heathland soils T2 - Ecological Entomology N2 - Wildfires alter the composition of insect communities due to fire-induced mortality, and the post-fire vegetation and soil conditions also affect the initial re-colonisation and subsequent local emergence of adults from burnt soils. However, the impact of wildfires on re-colonisation and emergence of carrion-associated scavenging species from soils has previously been neglected. We established an experiment in an unmanaged heathland area that was affected by a severe wildfire in 2017 by adding wild boar carcasses to burnt and unburnt areas 204 days after the wildfire. Adult beetles were then collected with emergence tents at paired sites with and without carcasses and in burnt and unburnt areas from 27 April to 10 August 2018. The wildfire did not significantly affect the diversity or abundance of soil-emerging beetles. Community composition in the burnt area differed significantly from the unburnt area with higher numbers of Staphylinidae and lower numbers of phytophagous beetle families (Curculionidae and Elateridae) emerging from soils, probably reflecting the structurally simpler vegetation and reduced litter one year after the wildfire. Scavenging beetles generally colonise mammal carcasses in burnt areas to the same extent as in unburnt areas, but the post-fire conditions favoured some species with very specialised habitat preferences. A few rare species of conservation concern almost exclusively occurred in the burnt area and in most cases in combination with the presence of a carcass. This result highlights the joint importance of heathland wildfires and carcass resources for species conservation in beetle communities. KW - carcass KW - Coleoptera KW - insect conservation KW - scavengers KW - wildfire KW - soil emergence Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/een.13179 SN - 1365-2311 VL - 47 IS - 5 SP - 883 EP - 894 ER -