Dr. Oliver Gailing, Prof. Dr. Reiner Finkeldey


Intraspecific genetic diversity of keystone species along gradients of plant species diversity in temperate and tropical forests

Our focus will be on keystone species in temperate and tropical forest ecosystems with specific, comparable life-history traits, i.e. Fagus sylvatica and Shorea leprosula.
We will study levels of genetic diversity at anonymous markers (AFLPs), putatively neutral microsatellites, and at selected genes (partial sequences) for both species along a gradient of (tree) species diversity.
In a first experiment the extreme populations of the gradient (total: at least five populations) will be investigated for each species. Each population pair consists of one population occuring in high abundance and size (“dominating” in an ecosystem with low species diversity) and the other occuring in low density and/or population size (“rare” in an ecosystem with high species diversity). Intermediate populations will be analysed in order to observe a gradient of increasing species diversity. The populations from a single pair or gradient will be selected to be reproductively isolated from each other. Furthermore, we will analyse whether genetic diversity within a population of foundation species and species diversity are positively correlated with species diversity in the dependent community.