ORCID Profile
0000-0002-2757-8959
Current Organisation
Technical University of Munich
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Environmental Science and Management | Environmental Management | Urban Design | Conservation and Biodiversity
Urban and Industrial Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity | Climate Change Adaptation Measures | Expanding Knowledge in Built Environment and Design |
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2016
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-10-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-019-12737-X
Abstract: Recent progress in remote sensing provides much-needed, large-scale spatio-temporal information on habitat structures important for bio ersity conservation. Here we examine the potential of a newly launched satellite-borne radar system (Sentinel-1) to map the bio ersity of twelve taxa across five temperate forest regions in central Europe. We show that the sensitivity of radar to habitat structure is similar to that of airborne laser scanning (ALS), the current gold standard in the measurement of forest structure. Our models of different facets of bio ersity reveal that radar performs as well as ALS median R² over twelve taxa by ALS and radar are 0.51 and 0.57 respectively for the first non-metric multidimensional scaling axes representing assemblage composition. We further demonstrate the promising predictive ability of radar-derived data with external validation based on the species composition of birds and saproxylic beetles. Establishing new area-wide bio ersity monitoring by remote sensing will require the coupling of radar data to stratified and standardized collected local species data.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2016
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-06-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-021-23931-1
Abstract: Land-use intensification is a major driver of bio ersity loss. However, understanding how different components of land use drive bio ersity loss requires the investigation of multiple trophic levels across spatial scales. Using data from 150 agricultural grasslands in central Europe, we assess the influence of multiple components of local- and landscape-level land use on more than 4,000 above- and belowground taxa, spanning 20 trophic groups. Plot-level land-use intensity is strongly and negatively associated with aboveground trophic groups, but positively or not associated with belowground trophic groups. Meanwhile, both above- and belowground trophic groups respond to landscape-level land use, but to different drivers: aboveground ersity of grasslands is promoted by erse surrounding land-cover, while belowground ersity is positively related to a high permanent forest cover in the surrounding landscape. These results highlight a role of landscape-level land use in shaping belowground communities, and suggest that revised agroecosystem management strategies are needed to conserve whole-ecosystem bio ersity.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-11-2020
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.13204
Abstract: Despite increasing interest in β‐ ersity, that is the spatial and temporal turnover of species, the mechanisms underlying species turnover at different spatial scales are not fully understood, although they likely differ among different functional groups. We investigated the relative importance of dispersal limitations and the environmental filtering caused by vegetation for local, multi‐taxa forest communities differing in their dispersal ability, trophic position and body size. Temperate forests in five regions across Germany. In the inter‐region analysis, the independent and shared effects of the regional spatial structure (regional species pool), landscape spatial structure (dispersal limitation) and environmental factors on species turnover were quantified with a 1‐ha grain across 11 functional groups in up to 495 plots by variation partitioning. In the intra‐region analysis, the relative importance of three environmental factors related to vegetation (herb and tree layer composition and forest physiognomy) and spatial structure for species turnover was determined. In the inter‐region analysis, over half of the explained variation in community composition (23% of the total explained 35%) was explained by the shared effects of several factors, indicative of spatially structured environmental filtering. Among the independent effects, environmental factors were the strongest on average over 11 groups, but the importance of landscape spatial structure increased for less dispersive functional groups. In the intra‐region analysis, the independent effect of plant species composition had a stronger influence on species turnover than forest physiognomy, but the relative importance of the latter increased with increasing trophic position and body size. Our study revealed that the mechanisms structuring assemblage composition are associated with the traits of functional groups. Hence, conservation frameworks targeting bio ersity of multiple groups should cover both environmental and biogeographical gradients. Within regions, forest management can enhance β‐ ersity particularly by ersifying tree species composition and forest physiognomy.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-03-2019
DOI: 10.1002/ECY.2679
Abstract: Patterns of feeding interactions between species are thought to influence the stability of communities and the flux of nutrients and energy through ecosystems. However, surprisingly few well-resolved food webs allow us to evaluate factors that influence the architecture of species interactions. We constructed a meta food web consisting of 714 invertebrate species collected over 9 years of suction and pitfall s ling c aigns in the Jena Experiment, a long-term grassland bio ersity experiment located in Jena, Germany. We summarize information on the 51,496 potential trophic links, which were established using information on diet specificity and species traits that typically constrain feeding interactions (trophic group, body size, and vertical stratification). The list of species identities, traits, and link-derivation rules will be useful not only for tests of plant ersity effects on food web structure within the Jena Experiment, but also for considering consistent construction of food webs from empirical data, and for comparisons of network structure across ecosystems. No copyright or proprietary restrictions are associated with the use of this data set other than citation of this Data Paper.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 30-11-2016
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE20575
Abstract: Land-use intensification is a major driver of bio ersity loss. Alongside reductions in local species ersity, biotic homogenization at larger spatial scales is of great concern for conservation. Biotic homogenization means a decrease in β- ersity (the compositional dissimilarity between sites). Most studies have investigated losses in local (α)- ersity and neglected bio ersity loss at larger spatial scales. Studies addressing β- ersity have focused on single or a few organism groups (for ex le, ref. 4), and it is thus unknown whether land-use intensification homogenizes communities at different trophic levels, above- and belowground. Here we show that even moderate increases in local land-use intensity (LUI) cause biotic homogenization across microbial, plant and animal groups, both above- and belowground, and that this is largely independent of changes in α- ersity. We analysed a unique grassland bio ersity dataset, with abundances of more than 4,000 species belonging to 12 trophic groups. LUI, and, in particular, high mowing intensity, had consistent effects on β- ersity across groups, causing a homogenization of soil microbial, fungal pathogen, plant and arthropod communities. These effects were nonlinear and the strongest declines in β- ersity occurred in the transition from extensively managed to intermediate intensity grassland. LUI tended to reduce local α- ersity in aboveground groups, whereas the α- ersity increased in belowground groups. Correlations between the β- ersity of different groups, particularly between plants and their consumers, became weaker at high LUI. This suggests a loss of specialist species and is further evidence for biotic homogenization. The consistently negative effects of LUI on landscape-scale bio ersity underscore the high value of extensively managed grasslands for conserving multitrophic bio ersity and ecosystem service provision. Indeed, biotic homogenization rather than local ersity loss could prove to be the most substantial consequence of land-use intensification.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2013
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2012
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-08-2014
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-06-2023
DOI: 10.1002/EAP.2890
Abstract: Outbreaks of the spongy moth Lymantria dispar can have devastating impacts on forest resources and ecosystems. Lepidoptera‐specific insecticides, such as Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki (BTK) and tebufenozide, are often deployed to prevent heavy defoliation of the forest canopy. While it has been suggested that using BTK poses less risk to non‐target Lepidoptera than leaving an outbreak untreated, in situ testing of this assumption has been impeded by methodological challenges. The trade‐offs between insecticide use and outbreaks have yet to be addressed for tebufenozide, which is believed to have stronger side effects than BTK. We investigated the short‐term trade‐offs between tebufenozide treatments and no‐action strategies for the non‐target herbivore community in forest canopies. Over 3 years, Lepidoptera and Symphyta larvae were s led by canopy fogging in 48 oak stands in southeast Germany during and after a spongy moth outbreak. Half of the sites were treated with tebufenozide and changes in canopy cover were monitored. We contrasted the impacts of tebufenozide and defoliator outbreaks on the abundance, ersity, and functional structure of chewing herbivore communities. Tebufenozide treatments strongly reduced Lepidoptera up to 6 weeks after spraying. Populations gradually converged back to control levels after 2 years. Shelter‐building species dominated caterpillar assemblages in treated plots in the post‐spray weeks, while flight‐dimorphic species were slow to recover and remained underrepresented in treated stands 2 years post‐treatment. Spongy moth outbreaks had minor effects on leaf chewer communities. Summer Lepidoptera decreased only when severe defoliation occurred, whereas Symphyta declined 1 year after defoliation. Polyphagous species with only partial host plant overlap with the spongy moth were absent from heavily defoliated sites, suggesting greater sensitivity of generalists to defoliation‐induced plant responses. These results demonstrate that both tebufenozide treatments and spongy moth outbreaks alter canopy herbivore communities. Tebufenozide had a stronger and longer lasting impact, but it was restricted to Lepidoptera, whereas the outbreak affected both Lepidoptera and Symphyta. These results are tied to the fact that only half of the outbreak sites experienced severe defoliation. This highlights the limited accuracy of current defoliation forecast methods, which are used as the basis for the decision to spray insecticides.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2015
DOI: 10.1890/14-1307.1
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-07-2020
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 06-11-2020
Abstract: Increasing plant ersity controls herbivory by limiting energetic gains and enhancing predation of arthropod herbivores.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2010
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-01-2021
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.15471
Abstract: Ecosystems integrity and services are threatened by anthropogenic global changes. Mitigating and adapting to these changes require knowledge of ecosystem functioning in the expected novel environments, informed in large part through experimentation and modelling. This paper describes 13 advanced controlled environment facilities for experimental ecosystem studies, herein termed ecotrons, open to the international community. Ecotrons enable simulation of a wide range of natural environmental conditions in replicated and independent experimental units while measuring various ecosystem processes. This capacity to realistically control ecosystem environments is used to emulate a variety of climatic scenarios and soil conditions, in natural sunlight or through broad‐spectrum lighting. The use of large ecosystem s les, intact or reconstructed, minimizes border effects and increases biological and physical complexity. Measurements of concentrations of greenhouse trace gases as well as their net exchange between the ecosystem and the atmosphere are performed in most ecotrons, often quasi continuously. The flow of matter is often tracked with the use of stable isotope tracers of carbon and other elements. Equipment is available for measurements of soil water status as well as root and canopy growth. The experiments ran so far emphasize the ersity of the hosted research. Half of them concern global changes, often with a manipulation of more than one driver. About a quarter deal with the impact of bio ersity loss on ecosystem functioning and one quarter with ecosystem or plant physiology. We discuss how the methodology for environmental simulation and process measurements, especially in soil, can be improved and stress the need to establish stronger links with modelling in future projects. These developments will enable further improvements in mechanistic understanding and predictive capacity of ecotron research which will play, in complementarity with field experimentation and monitoring, a crucial role in exploring the ecosystem consequences of environmental changes.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-01-2016
DOI: 10.1111/REC.12327
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-10-2015
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.12380
Publisher: Elsevier
Date: 2019
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 13-03-2015
Abstract: Few projects adequately address design and evaluation
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-2021
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-10-2015
DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS9568
Abstract: Bio ersity loss can affect the viability of ecosystems by decreasing the ability of communities to respond to environmental change and disturbances. Agricultural intensification is a major driver of bio ersity loss and has multiple components operating at different spatial scales: from in-field management intensity to landscape-scale simplification. Here we show that landscape-level effects dominate functional community composition and can even buffer the effects of in-field management intensification on functional homogenization, and that animal communities in real-world managed landscapes show a unified response (across orders and guilds) to both landscape-scale simplification and in-field intensification. Adults and larvae with specialized feeding habits, species with shorter activity periods and relatively small body sizes are selected against in simplified landscapes with intense in-field management. Our results demonstrate that the ersity of land cover types at the landscape scale is critical for maintaining communities, which are functionally erse, even in landscapes where in-field management intensity is high.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-08-2009
DOI: 10.1111/J.1755-0998.2009.02746.X
Abstract: This article documents the addition of 283 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Agalinis acuta Ambrosia artemisiifolia Berula erecta Casuarius casuarius Cercospora zeae-maydis Chorthippus parallelus Conyza canadensis Cotesia sesamiae Epinephelus acanthistius Ficedula hypoleuca Grindelia hirsutula Guadua angustifolia Leucadendron rubrum Maritrema novaezealandensis Meretrix meretrix Nilaparvata lugens Oxyeleotris marmoratus Phoxinus neogaeus Pristomyrmex punctatus Pseudobagrus brevicorpus Seiridium cardinale Stenopsyche marmorata Tetranychus evansi and Xerus inauris. These loci were cross-tested on the following species: Agalinis decemloba Agalinis tenella Agalinis obtusifolia Agalinis setacea Agalinis skinneriana Cercospora zeina Cercospora kikuchii Cercospora sorghi Mycosphaerella graminicola Setosphaeria turcica Magnaporthe oryzae Cotesia flavipes Cotesia marginiventris Grindelia Xpaludosa Grindelia chiloensis Grindelia fastigiata Grindelia lanceolata Grindelia squarrosa Leucadendron coniferum Leucadendron salicifolium Leucadendron tinctum Leucadendron meridianum Laodelphax striatellus Sogatella furcifera Phoxinus eos Phoxinus rigidus Phoxinus brevispinosus Phoxinus bicolor Tetranychus urticae Tetranychus turkestani Tetranychus ludeni Tetranychus neocaledonicus Tetranychus amicus Amphitetranychus viennensis Eotetranychus rubiphilus Eotetranychus tiliarium Oligonychus perseae Panonychus citri Bryobia rubrioculus Schizonobia bundi Petrobia harti Xerus princeps Spermophilus tridecemlineatus and Sciurus carolinensis.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 19-03-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.03.17.435827
Abstract: Understanding the variation in community composition and species abundances, i.e., β- ersity, is at the heart of community ecology. A common approach to examine β- ersity is to evaluate directional turnover in community composition by measuring the decay in the similarity among pairs of communities along spatial or environmental distances. We provide the first global synthesis of taxonomic and functional distance decay along spatial and environmental distance by analysing 149 datasets comprising different types of organisms and environments. We modelled an exponential distance decay for each dataset using generalized linear models and extracted r 2 and slope to analyse the strength and the rate of the decay. We studied whether taxonomic or functional similarity has stronger decay across the spatial and environmental distances. We also unveiled the factors driving the rate of decay across the datasets, including latitude, spatial extent, realm, and organismal features. Taxonomic distance decay was stronger along spatial and environmental distances compared with functional distance decay. The rate of taxonomic spatial distance decay was the fastest in the datasets from mid-latitudes while the rate of functional decay increased with latitude. Overall, datasets covering larger spatial extents showed a lower rate of decay along spatial distances but a higher rate of decay along environmental distances. Marine ecosystems had the slowest rate of decay. This synthesis is an important step towards a more holistic understanding of patterns and drivers of taxonomic and functional β- ersity.
Publisher: Elsevier
Date: 2019
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-11-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-022-01918-5
Abstract: The impact of local bio ersity loss on ecosystem functioning is well established, but the role of larger-scale bio ersity dynamics in the delivery of ecosystem services remains poorly understood. Here we address this gap using a comprehensive dataset describing the supply of 16 cultural, regulating and provisioning ecosystem services in 150 European agricultural grassland plots, and detailed multi-scale data on land use and plant ersity. After controlling for land-use and abiotic factors, we show that both plot-level and surrounding plant ersity play an important role in the supply of cultural and aboveground regulating ecosystem services. In contrast, provisioning and belowground regulating ecosystem services are more strongly driven by field-level management and abiotic factors. Structural equation models revealed that surrounding plant ersity promotes ecosystem services both directly, probably by fostering the spill-over of ecosystem service providers from surrounding areas, and indirectly, by maintaining plot-level ersity. By influencing the ecosystem services that local stakeholders prioritized, bio ersity at different scales was also shown to positively influence a wide range of stakeholder groups. These results provide a comprehensive picture of which ecosystem services rely most strongly on bio ersity, and the respective scales of bio ersity that drive these services. This key information is required for the upscaling of bio ersity-ecosystem service relationships, and the informed management of bio ersity within agricultural landscapes.
Publisher: Pensoft Publishers
Date: 27-09-2019
DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.7.E36387
Abstract: The 150 grassland plots were located in three study regions in Germany, 50 in each region. The dataset describes the yearly grassland management for each grassland plot using 116 variables. General information includes plot identifier, study region and survey year. Additionally, grassland plot characteristics describe the presence and starting year of drainage and whether arable farming had taken place 25 years before our assessment, i.e. between 1981 and 2006. In each year, the size of the management unit is given which, in some cases, changed slightly across years. Mowing, grazing and fertilisation were systematically surveyed: Mowing is characterised by mowing frequency (i.e. number of cuts per year), dates of cutting and different technical variables, such as type of machine used or usage of conditioner. For grazing , the livestock species and age (e.g. cattle, horse, sheep), the number of animals, stocking density per hectare and total duration of grazing were recorded. As a derived variable, the mean grazing intensity was then calculated by multiplying the livestock units with the duration of grazing per hectare [LSU days/ha]. Different grazing periods during a year, partly involving different herds, were summed up to an annual grazing intensity for each grassland. For fertilisation , information on the type and amount of different types of fertilisers was recorded separately for mineral and organic fertilisers, such as solid farmland manure, slurry and mash from a bioethanol factory. Our fertilisation measures neglect dung dropped by livestock during grazing. For each type of fertiliser, we calculated its total nitrogen content, derived from chemical analyses by the producer or agricultural guidelines (Table 3). All three management types, mowing, fertilisation and grazing, were used to calculate a combined land use intensity index (LUI) which is frequently used to define a measure for the land use intensity. Here, fertilisation is expressed as total nitrogen per hectare [kg N/ha], but does not consider potassium and phosphorus. Information on additional management practices in grasslands was also recorded including levelling, to tear-up matted grass covers, rolling, to remove surface irregularities, seed addition, to close gaps in the sward. Investigating the relationship between human land use and bio ersity is important to understand if and how humans affect it through the way they manage the land and to develop sustainable land use strategies. Quantifying land use (the ‘X’ in such graphs) can be difficult as humans manage land using a multitude of actions, all of which may affect bio ersity, yet most studies use rather simple measures of land use, for ex le, by creating land use categories such as conventional vs. organic agriculture. Here, we provide detailed data on grassland management to allow for detailed analyses and the development of land use theory. The raw data have already been used for & 100 papers on the effect of management on bio ersity (e.g. Manning et al. 2015).
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-05-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13513
Abstract: Understanding the variation in community composition and species abundances (i.e., β‐ ersity) is at the heart of community ecology. A common approach to examine β‐ ersity is to evaluate directional variation in community composition by measuring the decay in the similarity among pairs of communities along spatial or environmental distance. We provide the first global synthesis of taxonomic and functional distance decay along spatial and environmental distance by analysing 148 datasets comprising different types of organisms and environments. Global. 1990 to present. From diatoms to mammals. We measured the strength of the decay using ranked Mantel tests (Mantel r ) and the rate of distance decay as the slope of an exponential fit using generalized linear models. We used null models to test whether functional similarity decays faster or slower than expected given the taxonomic decay along the spatial and environmental distance. We also unveiled the factors driving the rate of decay across the datasets, including latitude, spatial extent, realm and organismal features. Taxonomic distance decay was stronger than functional distance decay along both spatial and environmental distance. Functional distance decay was random given the taxonomic distance decay. The rate of taxonomic and functional spatial distance decay was fastest in the datasets from mid‐latitudes. Overall, datasets covering larger spatial extents showed a lower rate of decay along spatial distance but a higher rate of decay along environmental distance. Marine ecosystems had the slowest rate of decay along environmental distances. In general, taxonomic distance decay is a useful tool for biogeographical research because it reflects dispersal‐related factors in addition to species responses to climatic and environmental variables. Moreover, functional distance decay might be a cost‐effective option for investigating community changes in heterogeneous environments.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-06-2014
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2013
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-05-2017
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.13714
Abstract: Agricultural intensification is a leading cause of global bio ersity loss, which can reduce the provisioning of ecosystem services in managed ecosystems. Organic farming and plant ersification are farm management schemes that may mitigate potential ecological harm by increasing species richness and boosting related ecosystem services to agroecosystems. What remains unclear is the extent to which farm management schemes affect bio ersity components other than species richness, and whether impacts differ across spatial scales and landscape contexts. Using a global metadataset, we quantified the effects of organic farming and plant ersification on abundance, local ersity (communities within fields), and regional ersity (communities across fields) of arthropod pollinators, predators, herbivores, and detritivores. Both organic farming and higher in-field plant ersity enhanced arthropod abundance, particularly for rare taxa. This resulted in increased richness but decreased evenness. While these responses were stronger at local relative to regional scales, richness and abundance increased at both scales, and richness on farms embedded in complex relative to simple landscapes. Overall, both organic farming and in-field plant ersification exerted the strongest effects on pollinators and predators, suggesting these management schemes can facilitate ecosystem service providers without augmenting herbivore (pest) populations. Our results suggest that organic farming and plant ersification promote erse arthropod metacommunities that may provide temporal and spatial stability of ecosystem service provisioning. Conserving erse plant and arthropod communities in farming systems therefore requires sustainable practices that operate both within fields and across landscapes.
Publisher: American Society for Microbiology
Date: 15-10-2012
DOI: 10.1128/AEM.01325-12
Abstract: In soil, Acidobacteria constitute on average 20% of all bacteria, are highly erse, and are physiologically active in situ . However, their in idual functions and interactions with higher taxa in soil are still unknown. Here, potential effects of land use, soil properties, plant ersity, and soil nanofauna on acidobacterial community composition were studied by cultivation-independent methods in grassland and forest soils from three different regions in Germany. The analysis of 16S rRNA gene clone libraries representing all studied soils revealed that grassland soils were dominated by subgroup Gp6 and forest soils by subgroup Gp1 Acidobacteria . The analysis of a large number of sites ( n = 57) by 16S rRNA gene fingerprinting methods (terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism [T-RFLP] and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis [DGGE]) showed that Acidobacteria ersities differed between grassland and forest soils but also among the three different regions. Edaphic properties, such as pH, organic carbon, total nitrogen, C/N ratio, phosphorus, nitrate, ammonium, soil moisture, soil temperature, and soil respiration, had an impact on community composition as assessed by fingerprinting. However, interrelations with environmental parameters among subgroup terminal restriction fragments (T-RFs) differed significantly, e.g., different Gp1 T-RFs correlated positively or negatively with nitrogen content. Novel significant correlations of Acidobacteria subpopulations (i.e., in idual populations within subgroups) with soil nanofauna and vascular plant ersity were revealed only by analysis of clone sequences. Thus, for detecting novel interrelations of environmental parameters with Acidobacteria , in idual populations within subgroups have to be considered.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-03-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-019-08856-0
Abstract: Changes in the ersity of plant communities may undermine the economically and environmentally important consumer species they support. The structure of trophic interactions determines the sensitivity of food webs to perturbations, but rigorous assessments of plant ersity effects on network topology are lacking. Here, we use highly resolved networks from a grassland bio ersity experiment to test how plant ersity affects the prevalence of different food web motifs, the smaller recurrent sub-networks that form the building blocks of complex networks. We find that the representation of tri-trophic chain, apparent competition and exploitative competition motifs increases with plant species richness, while the representation of omnivory motifs decreases. Moreover, plant species richness is associated with altered patterns of local interactions among arthropod consumers in which plants are not directly involved. These findings reveal novel structuring forces that plant ersity exerts on food webs with potential implications for the persistence and functioning of multitrophic communities.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-12-2022
DOI: 10.1002/PAN3.10411
Abstract: Research is revealing an increasing number of positive effects of nature for humans. At the same time, bio ersity in cities, where most humans live, is often low or in decline. Tangible solutions are needed to increase urban bio ersity. Architecture is a key discipline that has considerable influence on the built‐up area of cities, thereby influencing urban bio ersity. In general, architects do not design for bio ersity. Conversely, urban conservation planning generally focuses on the limited space free of buildings and does not embrace architecture as an important discipline for the creation of urban green infrastructure. In this paper, we argue that the promotion of bio ersity needs to become a key driving force of architectural design. This requires a new multi‐species design paradigm that considers both human and non‐human needs. Such a design approach needs to maintain the standards of the architectural profession, including the aim to increase the well‐being of humans in buildings. Yet, it also needs to add other stakeholders, organisms such as animals, plants and even microbiota. New buildings designed for humans and other inhabitants can then increase bio ersity in cities and also increase the benefits that humans can derive from close proximity to nature. We review the challenges that this new design approach poses for both architecture and ecology and show that multi‐species‐design goes beyond existing approaches in architecture and ecology. The new design approach needs to make ecological knowledge available to the architectural design process, enabling practitioners to find architectural solutions that can facilitate synergies from a multi‐species perspective. We propose that a first step in creating such a multi‐species habitat is the design of buildings with an ecolope , a multi criteria‐designed building envelope that takes into account the needs of erse organisms. Because there is no framework to design such an ecolope , we illustrate how multi‐species design needs to draw on knowledge from ecology, as well as architecture, and design computation. We discuss how architectures designed via a multi‐species approach can be an important step in establishing beneficial human–nature relationships in cities, and contribute to human well‐being and bio ersity conservation. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 30-01-2015
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-08-2020
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-04-2018
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.3962
Start Date: 08-2021
End Date: 08-2024
Amount: $427,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
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