title: Multitrophic diversity in a biodiverse forest is highly nonlinear across spatial scales.
abstract: Subtropical and tropical forests are biodiversity hotspots, and untangling the spatial scaling of their diversity is fundamental for understanding global species richness and conserving biodiversity essential to human well-being. However, scale-dependent diversity distributions among coexisting taxa remain poorly understood for heterogeneous environments in biodiverse regions. We show that diversity relations among 43 taxa-including plants, arthropods and microorganisms-in a mountainous subtropical forest are highly nonlinear across spatial scales. Taxon-specific differences in β-diversity cause under- or overestimation of overall diversity by up to 50% when using surrogate taxa such as plants. Similar relationships may apply to half of all (sub)tropical forests-including major biodiversity hotspots-where high environmental heterogeneity causes high biodiversity and species turnover. Our study highlights that our general understanding of biodiversity patterns has to be improved-and that much larger areas will be required than in better-studied lowland forests-to reliably estimate biodiversity distributions and devise conservation strategies for the world's biodiverse regions.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorst Straße 1, D-21335 Lüneburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schuldt
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil Ecology, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Theodor-Lieser-Straße 4, D-06120 Halle (Saale), Germany.|German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Tesfaye
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wubet
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil Ecology, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Theodor-Lieser-Straße 4, D-06120 Halle (Saale), Germany.|German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Buscot
authors.affiliation: Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacher Straße 4, D-79106 Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Staab
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorst Straße 1, D-21335 Lüneburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Thorsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Assmann
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, University of Halle, Am Kirchtor 1, D-06108 Halle, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Böhnke-Kammerlander
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, St Machar Drive 23, AB24 3UU Aberdeen, UK.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Both
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Institute for Ecosystem Research, University of Kiel, Olshausenstrasse 75, 24118 Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Erfmeier
authors.affiliation: Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacher Straße 4, D-79106 Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexandra-Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Keping
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, University of Leipzig, Johannisallee 21-23, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Katherina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pietsch
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorst Straße 1, D-21335 Lüneburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schultze
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, University of Leipzig, Johannisallee 21-23, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wirth
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology, Zhejiang Normal University, Yinbing Road 688, Jinhua 321004, China.
authors.forename: Jiayong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecology, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Scharnhorst Straße 1, D-21335 Lüneburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Pascale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zumstein
authors.affiliation: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.|Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, University of Halle, Am Kirchtor 1, D-06108 Halle, Germany.
authors.forename: Helge
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bruelheide
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001181:Arthropods / Q000145:classification*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification; D044822:Biodiversity; D020387:Food Chain; D065928:Forests; D005658:Fungi / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D010944:Plants / Q000145:classification*