Abstract
The diversity of the animal community was studied for two North German beech forests with different humus types (mull and mor). The number of species was high: 1918 in the mull-structured beech forest (915 without Diptera and Hymenoptera), 694 in the mor-structured beech forest (with the Diptera and Hymenoptera not analysed). Ecological mechanisms causing diversity relate to life-form characteristics of the species in a taxon, the regional species pool, and habitat features.
Small body size and short life-cycles of the species are a prerequisite for high diversity in a taxon. Among the five trophic guilds differentiated for the analysis, predators and parasitoids clearly dominated, the ranking for the other guilds was phytophages > saprophages > microphytophages. For comparable groups species numbers in the forest (the local species pool) were positively correlated with regional species diversity (taking Central Europe as the regional species pool). Phytophages occur in the forest, however, their proportion in the species pool is low, whereas a high percentage of Central European parasitoids is represented in the local pool.
A set of hypotheses is discussed that might explain high diversity of a taxon in the local community. For the two forests in question the higher species diversity in the mull-structured site could be explained by the more heterogeneous environment, the less extreme abiotic factors, disturbance caused by the bioturbating macrofauna in the littersoil system, and more intense biotic interactions.
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Schaefer, M. (1999). The Diversity of the Fauna of Two Beech Forests: Some Thoughts About Possible Mechanisms Causing the Observed Patterns. In: Kratochwil, A. (eds) Biodiversity in ecosystems: principles and case studies of different complexity levels. Tasks for vegetation science, vol 34. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4677-7_3
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