Assessing richness differences between blue and green systems by quantifying biodiversity turnover along global gradients
Martin Gossner
Catherine Grahm
Martina Hobi
Ian Ramsey McFadden
Loïc Pellissier
Thomas Wohlgemuth
Ole Seehausen
Florian Altermatt
Blake Matthews
Nicolas Gruber
Meike Vogt
2020 - 2021
Cooperazione![](/fileadmin/_processed_/d/c/csm_WSL_EAWAG_01_acb4cb9eb7.png)
This project contributes to the Blue-Green Biodiversity Research Initiative – an Eawag-WSL collaboration focusing on Biodiversity at the interface of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
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In this project, we will analyze how biodiversity is structured along geographical and environmental gradients in three systems (terrestrial, freshwater, marine). We ask to what degree the three systems differ with regard to (1) species turnover (replacement vs. nestedness), (2) niche packing and niche overlap, and (3) accessible gradient lengths within systems. We further ask (4) to what degree these rates and patterns vary along the analyzed gradients within the three systems. The resulting knowledge will explain to what degree species richness is accumulated similarly or differently along these gradients and within the three systems, and where specific accumulation boosts or gaps exist. This will allow us to interpret the observed differences in the structuring of the global biodiversity between the three systems in the light of evolutionary and macroecological drivers.