The "Book of Abstracts" containing information about the organisers, the program, conference venue, and abstracts can be downloaded here:

Book of Abstracts (909.1 KB)

Tuesday, March 4th: Integrating mechanisms into macroecology


08:00 am: Registration opens

09:00 am - 09:30 am: Welcome and introduction


09:30 am - 10:30 am: Session I - Evolutionary processes (chair: C. Hof)

Fritz, S.A. et al.: Diversity-environment relationships through time: 20 million years of mammalian diversity dynamics, climatic conditions and biome shifts in the Northern Hemisphere

Dalsgaard, B. et al.: Climate, range-size distribution and specialization in plant-hummingbird networks across the New World

Khaliq, I. et al.: Thermal tolerances of endotherms are phylogenetically conserved, but only in the tropics

Wrap-up discussion Session I


10:30 am - 11:00 am: Coffee break


11:00 am - 12:45 pm: Session II - Dispersal and colonization as divers of distribution patterns (chair: H. Kreft)

Keith, S.A. & Connolly, S.R.: The role of macroecological processes in the generation and maintenance of Indo-Pacific coral biogeographic provinces

Irl, S.D.H. et al.: Global pattern of treeline elevation on islands

de Carvalho Ximenes, A. & Dahdouh-Guebas, F.: Global spatial dependence of the bioclimatic and environmental variables on the mangrove system

Kisel, Y. et al.: Untangling the drivers of island colonization in flowering plants

Tonkin, J.D. et al.: Dispersal constraints drive colonisation of restored river reaches by benthic invertebrates

Meyer, C. et al.: Setting priorities for overcoming knowledge gaps in species distributions

Wrap-up discussion Session II


12:45 pm - 02:00 pm: Lunch


02:00 pm - 03:45 pm: Session III - Methods (chairs: I. Kühn & M. Liess)

Schleuning, M. & Kissling, D.: Bridging scales: ideas for a better integration of the macroecology and community ecology of species interactions

Zurell, D.: Predicting to novel environments: about extrapolating species-environment relationships and demography

Stein, A. et al.: Environmental heterogeneity: a heterogeneous topic and a universal driver of species richness

Beckmann, M., Václavík, T. et al.: glUV: A global UV-B radiation dataset for macroecological studies

Nobis, M.P. & Normand, S.: KISSMig - a simple R-tool to consider limited migration in modeling species distributions

Engler, J.O. et al.: Combining species distribution models with population genetic data: Good for landscape genetics but also good for macroecology?

Wrap-up discussion Session III


03:45 am - 04:15 am: Coffee break


04:15 pm - 05:30 pm: Session IV - Human-driven processes (chairs: S. Fritz & M. Winter)

Liess, M.: Macroecological prediction of low-dose pesticide effects based on ecotoxicological mechanisms

Knapp, S. & Klotz, S.: Changes in the phylogenetic composition of a Central European urban flora over three centuries

Bowler, D. et al.: A collaborative project to assess the impacts of climate change on population trends    

Lischke, H.: Macroecological studies with spatio-temporal population dynamical models - the example of tree species migration in the Alps under climate change

Wrap-up discussion Session IV


06:30 pm: Conference Dinner at "Zum Mohr" (Burgstraße 72, 06114 Halle)

If you want to use public transport to get to the conference dinner, follow the same route as shown in "How to get from the conference venue to "Zum Mohr" on foot". At the corner of "Burgstraße" and "Mühlweg", tram nr. 8 stops at the stop called "Diakoniewerk". Take tram nr. 8 running in the direction of Trotha and get off two stops later (at "Burg Giebichenstein"). A short-distance ticket is sufficient for this travel.

Wednesday, March 5th: Integrating mechanisms into macroecology


09:00 am - 10:45 pm: Session V - Neutral vs. trait-based processes (chair: E. Welk)

Keyel, A.C. et al.: Integrating mechanisms into macroecology using a trait-based, spatially explicit meta-community model

May, F. et al.: Neutral theory and spatial patterns in tropical forests - moving beyond abundance distribution

Schrodt, F. et al.: Functional diversity - ecosystem property relationships across Europe

Pompe, S. et al.: Using ecological and life-history characteristics for projecting species response to climate change

Schweiger, A. et al.: Optimal-sized prey availability shapes global distribution patterns of the Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos

Sarmento Cabral et al.: Process-based niche models for macroecology

Wrap-up discussion Session V


10:45 am - 11:30 am: Short announcement of the 7th biennial conference of the International Biogeography Society, Coffee break and poster session


11:30 am - 11:45 am: Introduction of working groups on "Integrating mechanisms into macroecology"

11:45 am - 12:45 pm: Working groups


12:45 pm - 02:00 pm: Lunch


02:00 pm - 03:30 pm: Working groups


03:30 am - 04:00 am: Coffee break


04:00 pm - 04:45 pm: Working groups - time for wrap-up

04:45 pm - 05:30 pm: Working group presentations


06:00 pm: Wokshop Dinner with time for more discussion at "Harz Mensa"

Thursday, March 6th: Macroecology meets IPBES

Satellite workshop of the 8th annual meeting of the GfÖ Macroecology Specialist Group in Halle (Germany), 6 March 2014, 9:00-17:00

Biodiversity loss has been identified as one of the most urgent problems our planet and humanity is facing. With the formation of the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the United Nations have acknowledged this challenge at an institutional level. The exchange of knowledge and wisdom between science and policy is crucial for the success of IPBES, in order to halt the global loss of biodiversity. In our workshop, we aim to explore how ecological science can contribute to the process of developing IPBES as a successful science-policy platform. In particular, the potential contributions of macroecology with its strengths in global modelling and scenario development will be highlighted. Presentations and discussions will cover a broad range of topics, such as overviews on the IPBES process or on global initiatives of bridging the science-policy interface, state-of-the-art approaches of modelling global biodiversity and assessing ecosystem services, and the potential challenges between theory and application, i.e. conservation needs and efforts.


Preliminary programme:

  • Introduction: Setting the stage (Katrin Böhning-Gaese, BiK-F, Frankfurt; confirmed)
  • Introduction: The IPBES process (Elisabeth Marquard, NeFo/UFZ, Leipzig; confirmed)
  • Global biodiversity scenarios (Henrique Pereira, iDiv, Leipzig; confirmed)
  • Global modelling I: Biodiversity (Christian Hof, BiK-F, Frankfurt; confirmed)
  • Global modelling II: Ecosystem models (Thomas Hickler,  BiK-F, Frankfurt; confirmed)
  • Global modelling III (Tim Newbold, Mike Hartfoot, UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge; confirmed)
  • Ecosystem services (Felix Eigenbrod, University of Southampton; confirmed)
  • Conservation (Neil Burgess, WCMC, Cambridge; confirmed)