0000000001324772
AUTHOR
Simon Thorn
BioTIME: A database of biodiversity time series for the Anthropocene
Abstract Motivation The BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community-led open-source database of biodiversity time series. Our goal is to accelerate and facilitate quantitative analysis of temporal patterns of biodiversity in the Anthropocene. Main types of variables included The database contains 8,777,413 species abundance records, from assemblages consistently sampled for a minimum of 2 years, which need not necessarily be consecutive. In addition, th…
How much is enough – estimating set-aside areas in naturally disturbed forests
The amount of naturally disturbed forests in the Northern Hemisphere has increased as a consequence of global change. Natural disturbances, such as wildfires, windstorms and insect outbreaks affect billions of trees and cause significant economic losses. Post-disturbance logging is a common practice globally to 'salvage' some of these economic returns. However, salvage logging can have negative effects on ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. Those taxa, which depend on deadwood (i.e. saproxylic), are most affected. Hence, scientists increasingly encourage the retention of disturbance-affected areas as a main tool to omit the negative effects of salvage logging on biodiversity. However, t…
Biodiversity and ecosystem services in forest - the ‘BioHolz’ project
Whenever a tree dies, it makes room for millions of organisms contributing to the crucial ecosystem process of decomposition. The diversity of saproxylic organisms, which are depending in at least some stage of their life on decaying wood, comprises about one third of all forest species. Forest management in Europe of the last centuries changed forest structures and in particular reduced the amount of available dead wood, which is mirrored by the current extinction risk of saproxylic species1. However, society expects a forest to be a multi-functional ecosystem, which provides, among others, timber, recreation and biodiversity conservation. In the trans-disciplinary project ‘BioHolz’, we tr…
Fostering deadwood enrichment in managed forests – The importance of tree species and sun exposure for saproxylic species
Central European forests have been shaped by more than 2000 years of human exploitation. During this time, the increasing requirement of timber led to significant structural changes within the ecosystem. Because of declining deadwood amounts, numerous saproxylic species become extinct or threatened. Yet, various strategies of deadwood enrichment have been developed since the 1990th mainly focused on a quantitative increase. As recently shown, also microclimate and tree species are important drivers of saproxylic communities. However, it remains unclear how active forest management can increase deadwood most efficiently. For this study, we exposed a total of 108 logs of six common tree speci…