5) Organization of biological communities: test of the modern unified theory
5.1 Checking reliability of statistical methods used in community assembly studies by analysis of simulated data
In previous work (Botta-Dukát & Czúcz 2015), we have shown that some of the widely used statistical method are not reliable: their Type I or Type II error rate is too high. The main message of that work is that all methods should be checked using simulated data. In the recent project we will continue this work by testing further methods.
Ádám Kun, Beáta Oborny & Ulf Dieckmann (2019) Five main phases of landscape degradation revealed by a dynamic mesoscale model analysing the splitting, shrinking, and disappearing of habitat patches. Scientific Reports 9: 11149
Michael T. Gastner, Károly Takács, Máté Gulyás, Zsuzsanna Szvetelszky, Beáta Oborny (2019) The impact of hypocrisy on opinion formation: A dynamic model. PLOS ONE 14(6): e0218729
Róbert Juhász and Beáta Oborny (2019) Percolation theory suggests some universal features in range margins across environmental gradients. arXiv:1909.00585 [q-bio.PE]
Schmera, D, J Podani, Z Botta-Dukát & T Erős (2018) On the reliability of the Elements of Metacommunity Structure framework for separating idealized metacommunity patterns. Ecological Indicators 85: 853–860
5.2 Organization of animal communities of grasslands
The majority of our current knowledge on the organization of grassland communities are based on plant species and vegetation. In this study we use data on arthropod and vertebrate animal species from a large, landscape-scale habitat restoration and management program (3.2.) in a unified framework and analysis to test those predictions of the most important theories of community organization that bear on taxonomic and functional diversity as well as species composition.
Lengyel, Sz, B Kosztyi, DS Schmeller, P-Y Henry, M Kotarac, Y-P Lin & K Henle (2018) Evaluating and benchmarking biodiversity monitoring: Metadata-based indicators for sampling design, sampling effort and data analysis. Ecological Indicators 85: 624-633
5.3 Trait-based studies of community assembly
Trait-based methods allow estimating the relative role of local (environmental filtering, limiting similarity) and landscape level (mass effect) factors in the assembly of communities and detecting relationship between traits and processes. In a previous project such methods were successfully applied in the analysis of terrestrial plant communities. In the recent project we will apply them for other type of communities for searching general trends.
5.4 Organization of living assemblages/communities of freshwater ecosystems
Impact of the lake size and habitat diversity on the diversity of planktonic and benthic algae is studied. The importance of adjacent habitats in maintaining macroinvertebrate diversity of permanent freshwater marshy ecosystems is being investigated. Relative roles of environmental and spatial factors in determining macroinvertebrate metacommunity structure in riverine systems is being modelling.
Muhl, Rika MW, DL Roelke, T Zohary, M Moustaka‐Gouni, U Sommer, G Borics, U Gaedke, FG Withrow & J Bhattacharyya (2018) Resisting annihilation: relationships between functional trait dissimilarity, assemblage competitive power and allelopath. Ecology Letters 21(9): 1390-1400
Várbíró G, J Padisák, Z Nagy-László, A Abonyi, I Stanković, M Gligora Udovič, V B-Béres & G Borics (2018) How length of light exposure shapes the development of riverine algal biomass in temperate rivers? . Hydrobiologia 809: 53–63.
B-Béres, V. et al. ... (2017) Ecological background of diatom functional groups: Comparability of classification systems. Ecological Indicators 82:183-188
5.5 Organization of the benthic diatom communities of small astatic wetlands
We study the main drivers determining the composition and diversity of the benthic diatom
communities in small astatic ponds.
Angéla Földi, Éva Ács, István Grigorszky, Luc Ector, Carlos Eduardo Wetzel, Gábor Várbíró, Keve Tihamér Kiss, Péter Dobosy, Zsuzsa Trábert, Andrea K.Borsodi, Mónika Duleba (2018) Unexpected consequences of bombing. Community level response of epiphytic diatoms to environmental stress in a saline bomb crater pond area. PLoS ONE 13(10): e0205343
Ács, É. et al. ... (2017) Nitzschia austriaca Hustedt: a characteristic diatom of Hungarian inland saline waters including a morphological comparison with the type material. Phytotaxa 308(1):054-065
Ács, É. et al. ... (2017) Biogeography and morphology of a poorly known S e l l a p h o r a species. FOTTEA, Olomouc 17(1):57-64
Vad, F. Cs. ... A. Föld, A. Tóth, B. Tóth, ... A. Móra ... É. Ács (2017) Wartime scars or reservoirs of biodiversity? The value of bomb crater ponds in aquatic conservation. Biological Conservation 209:253-262
