Farwig, N.; Bendix, J. & Beck, E. (2017): <b>Introduction to the Special Issue “Functional monitoring in megadiverse tropical ecosystems”</b>. <i>Ecological indicators</i> <b>1</b>(1), 1-3.
Resource Description
Title:
Introduction to the Special Issue “Functional monitoring in megadiverse tropical ecosystems”
FOR816dw ID:
1554
Publication Date:
2017-03-06
License and Usage Rights:
PAK 823-825 data user agreement. (www.tropicalmountainforest.org/dataagreementp3.do)
email:
bendix <at> staff.uni-marburg.de
Faculty of Geography
Deutschhausstraße 10
Philipps University of Marburg
Laboratory for Climatology and Remote Sensing
35032 Marburg
Germany
Individual:
Erwin Beck
Contact:
email:
erwin.beck <at> uni-bayreuth.de
Universitätsstr. 30
Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Geoscience
University of Bayreuth
95440 Bayreuth
Germany
Abstract:
Land-use and climate change are major threats to biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Most of the current biodiversity monitoring systems are based on periodic records of the populations of a set of threatened or popular ‘flagship’ indicator species. In contrast to the abundance-based monitoring of species, also specific indicators of processes and functional interactions in an ecosystem may become targets of a more functional monitoring which can unveil early responses of an ecosystem to environmental changes at different spatial and temporal scales. The contributions of this Special Issue present such functional indicators for assessing and predicting responses to environmental changes of ecosystem functions in a hotspot of tropical biodiversity.
Keywords:
| Ecuador | ecosystem services | Biodiversity | ecosystem functions | global change effects | functional monitoring systems |
