Abstract booklet - gtö – Society for Tropical Ecology

76 PARALLEL SESSION HALL H IV | TROPICAL ISLAND BIODIVERSITYPARALLEL SESSION HALL H IV | TROPICAL ISLAND BIODIVERSITY 77PATTERNS OF FERN DIVERSITY IN THE SOUTHEAST ASIANARCHIPELAGODirk Nikolaus Karger 1 , Victor B. Amoroso 3 , Dedy Darnaedi 2 , AriefHidayat 2 , Michael Kessler 11University of Zurich, Zurich, CH, dirk.karger@systbot.uzh.ch, 2 Indonesian Instituteof Science (LIPI), Cibinong, ID, 3 Central Mindanao University, Bukidnon, PHTUESDAY 15:15 Hall H IVParallel session: Tuesday, 22 February, 15:15, Hall H IVTropical island biodiversity: magnitude, function and conservationChairs: Holger Kreft, Yann CloughContact: hkreft@uni-goettingen.deTropical islands are in the focus of ecological and biogeographical research formore than 200 years and have sparked some of the most influential works inecology and evolution. Given their small area size, tropical islands contributedisproportionally to global biodiversity, but the biodiversity inventorying of thethousands of islands is a Herculean task and its completion currently out of reach.At the same time, tropical island biodiversity and essential ecosystem functionsare vanishing at an accelerating pace due to a multitude of drivers. This sessionaims at providing an overview about the recent progress in the documentationand understanding of biodiversity on tropical island. We welcome contributionsthat investigate ecological patterns and interactions, invasive species, or effectsof habitat degradation on ecological to biogeographic scales.Island systems have long played a crucial role in investigating patterns ofbiodiversity because they provide comparatively simple systems with clearlydefined subunits of usually varying sizes and ecological conditions. Biodiversity,however, can be measured in different ways, representing different levels ofdiversity (alpha-, beta- and gamma-diversity), and all levels are influenced bydifferent factors. Most studies focusing on island biodiversity use only one ofthese levels. To get an accurate measure of the status of biodiversity on islandsit is important to investigate all levels of biodiversity as well as the influencingfactors. We present first results from a study which investigates fern diversityon all these different levels of biodiversity in the Southeast Asian archipelagoof Indonesia and the Philippines. The Southeast Asian archipelago provides uswith a large number of island of varying sizes and environmental conditionswhich we used as a natural experiment to evaluate the role of different factorsinfluencing the different levels of diversity.TUESDAY 15:15 Hall H IVgtöSociety for Tropical Ecology | Gesellschaft für Tropenökologie e.V. Status and future of tropical biodiversity | Frankfurt, 21 - 24 February 2011gtö