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C. Anlanger, C. Noss, S. Hille, I. Schnauder, M. Brauns, M. Weitere, K. Koll, A. Lorke:
"A novel scaling concept to relate abiotic diversity to biodiversity in lotic ecosystems";
Talk: 6th biennial Symposium of the International Society for River Science (ISRS), Wien; 2019-09-08 - 2019-09-13; in: "Riverine landscapes as coupled socio-ecological system", (2019), 1 pages.

The habitat heterogeneity hypothesis posits that species diversity increases with increasing habitat heterogeneity in space and time because structurally complex habitats provide more physical niches as well as higher and more diverse supply of resources. Furthermore, it is supposed that increasing species diversity has a positive effect on ecological functioning such as nutrient retention in streams. Lotic habitat properties like riverbed roughness and associated turbulence and their effect on benthic plants and animals have been subject to many studies. However, knowledge on relevant spatial-temporal scales for biodiversity are insufficient. We propose a novel concept based on variance partitioning of physical parameters allowing the estimation of abiotic and biotic diversity at identical spatial and temporal scales. The inspiration for the proposed concept stems from ecology where diversity is usually expressed from species richness and abundance. Diversity on a regional scale (gamma diversity) is expressed as sum of alpha (variability on the spot scale) und beta (variability between spots) diversity. The concept is tested on the basis of near-bed flow measurements at a meander bend of a large lowland river (Mulde River, Germany) in combination with quantifications of macroinvertebrate communities. We show the predictive nature of the concept for biodiversity and demonstrate the concept to be an integrative tool for biodiversity research in stream ecosystems.

habitat, abiotic biodiversity, lotic system