An African Buffalo (Syncerus caffer) grazing the Amboseli Swamp: a highly diverse, fragile ecosystem in the dry savannas of southern Kenya which is sustained by the rains falling on the neighbouring Mount Kilimanjaro.
Biodiversity and Climate
Research field III integrates geosciences and biosciences to analyze and predict the feedbacks among biodiversity, climate and other anthropogenic drivers in past, present, and future. Our research spans across all levels of biodiversity ranging from the genome to organismal traits to the processes and functions shaping entire ecosystems. We provide the basis for understanding the evolutionary and ecological capacities of biodiversity to respond and adapt to climate change.
Professor for Biogeography, Head of Research Group 'Biogeography and Ecosystem Ecology', 'Quantitative Biogeography', Speaker of GRADE Sustain (Goethe Graduate Academy)
My main research interest is to understand the distribution of life on earth (e.g. species, biodiversity, vegetation types, ecosystems) through space and time. I am particularly interested in interactions between climate and the terrestrial biosphere. This includes potential impacts of climate change on species, ecosystems and associated ecosystem services, as well as the role of the biosphere in the earth climate system (e.g. carbon and water cycling). Methodologically, vegetation and ecosystem modelling at local to global scales has been at the core of my work.
I am fascinated by interactions between organisms, especially if they are mutually beneficial for both partners*. To understand the structure and function of ecological networks, I study species interactions in ecological communities along environmental gradients and across large spatial scales. My research uses trait-based approaches in combination with field studies, experiments and simulation models to predict the impacts of climate and land-use change on ecosystem functions and services. (*I usually become enthusiastic if one of the interaction partners has wings and a beak.)
Research
– Plant-animal interactions and ecological networks
– Functional diversity of ecological communities
– Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
– Pollination and seed dispersal by animals
– Nature’s contributions to people
Methods
– Observational and experimental field studies
– Functional trait measurements
– Network analyses
– Trait-based analyses and models
Study areas
– Tropical Andes
– Tropical and subtropical Africa
– Germany
Barczyk, M.K., Acosta‐Rojas, D.C., Espinosa, C.I., Homeier, J., Tinoco, B.A., Velescu, A., Wilcke, W., Schleuning, M., Neuschulz, E. L. (2024). Environmental conditions differently shape leaf, seed and seedling trait composition between and within elevations of tropical montane forests. Oikos, e10421.
Bello, C., Schleuning, M. & Graham, C.H. (2023). Analyzing trophic ecosystem functions with the interaction functional space. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 38, 424-434.
Bianco, G., Manning, P., Schleuning, M. (2024). A quantitative framework for identifying the role of individual species in Nature’s Contributions to People. Ecology Letters, 27, e14371.
Martins, L.P., Stouffer, D.B., Blendinger, P.G., Böhning-Gaese, K., Costa, J.M., Dehling, D.M., Donatti, C.I., Emer, C., Galetti, M., Heleno, R., Menezes, I., Morante-Filho, J.C., Muñoz, M.C., Neuschulz, E.L., Pizo, M.A., Quitián, M., Ruggera, R.A., Saavedra, F., Santillán, V., Schleuning, M., da Silva, L.P., da Silva, F.R., Tobias, J.A., Traveset, A., Vollstädt, M.G.R., Tylianakis, J.M. (2024). Birds optimize fruit size consumed near their geographic range limits. Science, 385, 331-336.
Schleuning, M., García, D., Tobias, J.A. (2023). Animal functional traits: Towards a trait‐based ecology for whole ecosystems. Functional Ecology, 37, 4-12.
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