Conservation, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning

• Applicant: Privatdozent Andreas Hemp, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems ; Forestry
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 428658210

In the framework of Kili-SES SP6 addresses land-use, management and conservation as driving factors of biodiversity. In Kili-SES-1, we identified land cover changes due to population growth as key factors on the lower slopes of Kilimanjaro. The question remains whether the recent forest and bush fires in the upper regions indicate changing climatic conditions. We will investigate the origin and consequences of these fires as potentially detrimental NCPs at the landscape scale. We aim to investigate the associated ecological changes in the National Park, focusing on biodiversity and water balance (collaborating with SP1) and determine whether such fires have increased in recent decades. As beneficial NCPs are highly dependent on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, in this phase we will ask how people can enhance biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and, consequently, human well-being. Specifically, we will investigate (collaborating with SP1 and 2) the ecological potential for transformation by examining the impact of planting native trees, complementing the corresponding studies of SP3-5. We will focus on riverine forests as important corridors for biodiversity and traditional agroforestry systems as an important sustainable and diverse type of land use. While in Kili-SES-1 we looked at Kilimanjaro as an isolated system, we now want to broaden our perspective and include the surrounding landscape context. Kilimanjaro was in the past connected to the other mountains through forest corridors that served as migration corridors and influenced biodiversity, vital for resilience to environmental change. We will analyse ecological connectivity and telecoupling in terms of conservation policy. Using organisms for which we have extensive data (plants, arthropods, small mammals) as bio-indicators, we will model and reconstruct the past biodiversity of Kilimanjaro in the absence of human impact to investigate the uneven distribution of endemic species, one of the most interesting and controversial biogeographical questions in East Africa. Kilimanjaro and the surrounding mountains vary in size and protection (national parks, nature and forest reserves), with increasingly fragmented protected areas. By upscaling and modelling biodiversity using hyperspectral imagery as a novel approach (collaborating with SP7), we aim to compare the resulting biodiversity levels and threats, taking into account the impact of the inclusion of the Kilimanjaro and Meru forest belts into national parks in 2006, which may have shifted illegal activities into the surrounding mountains. In addition to these new topics, we will continue to collect long-term climate and dendrometry data, together with comprehensive monitoring of vascular plants, lichens and mosses (to be complemented by fungi). This will allow us to achieve a level and quality of ecological data indispensable for the RU and unique for a tropical mountain range.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 5064: The role of nature for human well-being in the Kilimanjaro Social-Ecological System (Kili-SES)
• International Connection: Switzerland, Tanzania
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Jörg Bendix; Netra Bhandari
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Markus Fischer; Dr. Neduvoto Mollel; Angela Nyaki