abstracts der vorträge und poster - Technisches Büro für Ökologie

Burian, Alfred, University of Vienna, flinserl@hotmail.com
Katzenberger, Marco, University of Lisbon
BIODIVERSITY OF WATER-FILLED TREE HOLES IN KIBALE FOREST, A FRAGMENTED
UGANDAN TROPICAL MOIST FOREST
Water-filled tree holes in Africa have been so far widely neglected in research but are nevertheless an
important temporal ecosystem for a number of different highly adapted aquatic and semi-aquatic
organisms. In this study we tried to assess the biodiversity of these habitats and the abiotic factors that
determine this diversity. The preliminary results showed high values for Simpson biodiversity index
and Shannon evenness at family levels. Furthermore the investigated biotic and abiotic factors
including hole volume, depth, temperature, pH, mass of detritus as well as tree diameter at breast
height and canopy cover explained the individual numbers and family assembly of the vast majority of
holes. Against expectations the dissolved oxygen levels did not show any impact on community
structures.
Crowl, Todd, A. National Science Foundation, Division of Environmental Biology,
Long Term Ecological Research and Ecosystem Sciences, Washington, tcrowl@nsf.gov
RIVERS, TREES AND SHRIMP: A VIEW OF A COMPLEX SYSTEM AFTER TWENTY YEARS
OF LOOKING
As part of NSF-sponsored Biocomplexity and Long-Term Ecological Research projects in Puerto
Rico, we have been evaluating the interplay between terrestrial and aquatic energy flow. Over a
twenty year research period, quantified the importance of the stream food web, dominated by
freshwater decapods on ecosystem processes, including hurricane recovery across a series of
watersheds. More recently, we have started to understand the roles human activities, such as land-use
conversion, water withdrawal and road building, play in impacting the aquatic food webs and those
linkages back to the terrestrial ecosystem. Our fundamental goal is to build a coupled socioecological
modeling framework to understand local and regional processes and the feedbacks between
human activities and ecosystem function.
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