K. Eduard Linsenmair

University of Wuerzburg | JMU · Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology (Zoology III)

Primates often consume either bark or cambium (inner bark) as a fallback food to complete their diet during periods of food scarcity. Wild chimpanzees exhibit great behavioral diversity across Africa, as studies of new populations frequently reveal. Since 2014, we have been using a combination of camera traps and indirect signs to study the ecology...

The West African chimpanzee is critically endangered (CR). From 1990 to 2007, Ivory Coast lost 90% of its population to habitat destruction and poaching. In order to effectively implement conservation measures, we need to determine the status of any remaining populations in the country. The chimpanzee population of Comoé National Park (CNP) was ass...

All over the world, pollinators are threatened by land‐use change involving degradation of seminatural habitats or conversion into agricultural land. Such disturbance often leads to lowered pollinator abundance and/or diversity, which might reduce crop yield in adjacent agricultural areas. For West Africa, changes in bee communities across disturba...

Trail network systems among ants have received a lot of scientific attention due to their various applications in problem solving of networks. Recent studies have shown that ants select the fastest available path when facing different velocities on different substrates, rather than the shortest distance. The progress of decision-making by these ant...

Open wounds are a major health risk in animals, with species prone to injuries likely developing means to reduce these risks. We therefore analysed the behavioural response towards open wounds on the social and individual level in the termite group-hunting ant Megaponera analis. During termite raids, some ants get injured by termite soldiers (bitin...

Mutualistic biotic interactions as among flowering plants and their animal pollinators are a key component of biodiversity. Pollination, especially by insects, is a key element in ecosystem functioning, and hence constitutes an ecosystem service of global importance. Not only sexual reproduction of plants is ensured, but also yields are stabilized...

Rescue behavior focused on injured individuals has rarely been observed in animals. These observations though are from very different taxa's: birds, mammals and social insects. Here we discuss likely antecedents to rescue behaviors in ants, like social carrying and alarm pheromones. We then compare similarities and preconditions necessary for rescu...

Division of labor is one of the main reasons for the success of social insects. Worker polymorphism, age polyethism and work division in more primitive ants, such as the ponerines, remain mostly unexplored. The group hunting, termite-specialist Megaponera analis conducts raids in column formations of 200–500 ants. Since these ants specialize on a d...

Collective decision making is one of the main mechanisms of organization in social insects. However, individual decision making can also play an important role, depending on the type of foraging behaviour. In the termite-hunting ant species Megaponera analis information about foraging sites is collected by only a handful of individual scouts that h...

The prime goal of this study was to analyse the impact of a gradient of habitat types on the seasonal change of the biogenic structures (fungus combs) biomasses within the Macrotermitinae subfamily, using increased TSBF monoliths. Four of the five main genera of fungus growers of the study area were collected with their respective fungus combs. Com...

Poster showing our results from 2014-2017 concerning rescue behaviour and wound treatment of injured individuals in the termite hunting ant Megaponera analis.

The specialization of ecological networks provides important insights into possible consequences of biodiversity loss for ecosystem functioning. However , mostly mutualistic and antagonistic interactions of living organisms have been studied, whereas detritivore networks and their successional changes are largely unexplored. We studied the interact...

Predators of highly defensive prey likely develop cost-reducing adaptations. The ant Megaponera analis is a specialized termite predator, solely raiding termites of the subfamily Macrotermitinae (in this study, mostly colonies of Pseudocanthotermes sp.) at their foraging sites. The evolutionary arms race between termites and ants led to various def...

Insect pollination constitutes an ecosystem service of global importance, providing significant economic benefits to human society. Growth of human population especially in developing countries increases the demand for food and income security in rapidly changing environments. By combining results from exclusion experiments, pollinator surveys and...

Until January 28, 2017 free access via https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1UBMFcA-IOOUX The present study provides evidence of the effectiveness of some termite species in restoring barren soil and in maintaining long-term soil productivity, thereby facilitating sustainable agriculture in sub-Saharan West Africa. Fungus-growers, in particular, move la...

Over a 6 month period during the dry season, from the end of October 2014 to the beginning of May 2015, we studied tool use behavior of previously unstudied and non-habituated savanna chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) living in the Comoé National Park, Ivory Coast (CI). We analyzed all the stick tools and leaf-sponges found that the chimpanzees u...

Modification of natural ecosystems has threatened biodiversity worldwide, with forests suffering especially. Strategies aimed at mitigating such loss in forests often include enrichment of deadwood, a critical resource for many decomposer species. However, it remains unclear how deadwood can best be enriched to most effectively promote the diversit...

Facultative ant–plant mutualisms are variable systems, shaped by a number of biotic and abiotic factors. Especially in tropical ecosystems, the generally assumed mutualistic benefits are often hard to prove. We studied the system Leea manillensis on the Philippine island Panay and its indirect defence mechanism against herbivory by producing extraf...

To highlight human impact on biodiversity in the Lamto region, termites were studied with regard to their use as bio-indicators of habitat change in the tropics. Using a standardized method, termites were sampled in the three most common habitat types, i.e., in semi-deciduous forest, savanna woodland, and annually burned savanna, all inside Lamto R...

Freshly cut beech deadwood was enriched in the canopy and on the ground in three cultural landscapes in Germany (Swabian Alb, Hainich-Dün, Schorfheide-Chorin) in order to analyse the diversity, distribution and interaction of wood-inhabiting fungi and beetles. After two years of wood decay 83 MOTUs (Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units) from 28 wo...

bstract. From 2004 to 2008, we conducted the first inventory of termites (Blattoidea: Termitoidae) and ants (Hymenoptera:Formicidae) in Burkina Faso (West Africa) where these important ecosystem engineers are the only active, quantitative-ly remarkable soil macrofauna during a long dry season. We combined two standard assessment protocols for tropi...

Land-use intensification is a key driver of biodiversity change. However, little is known about how italters relationships between the diversities of different tax on omicgroups, which are often correlated due to shared environmental drivers and trophic interactions.Using data from 150 grassland sites, we examined how land-use intensification (incr...

Primate seed dispersal in South African forests and its potential benefit to forest plants has not been extensively investigated. South African forests are inhabited by only one exclusively forest-dwelling, large-bodied, diurnal, frugivorous primate, the samango monkey (Cercopithecus mitis). Our study presents first insights into seed dispersal by...

Among saproxylic beetles, many early colonizers prefer particular host species. Ranking of preferred hosts of local saproxylic beetle communities is critical for effective dead‐wood management in forests, but is rarely done because experiments with numerous tree species are labour and cost intensive. We analysed the host preference of local saproxy...

Structural heterogeneity and plant composition of tropical rainforests are influenced by topography. By comparing butterfly richness and species composition of creek, slope, and ridge forest, we studied to what extent topography may also affect rainforest butterfly assemblages in Piedras Blancas National Park in the Pacific lowlands of southern Cos...

Anthropogenic habitat modifications, including conversion of forest to agricultural production cause losses of native species. In this study we examined the losses suffered by ant communities in relation to the intensity of management in cocoa plantations established in former tropical forest. An extensive sampling protocol consisting of pitfall tr...

Deadwood harbours a diverse community of saproxylic beetles but has become rare as a result of intensive forest management. The lack of this key-resource has yet largely unmeasured consequences for the distribution of saproxylic species, their overall abundance and guild composition. In order to investigate these effects we established a large fiel...

Land use is known to reduce the diversity of species and complexity of biotic interactions. In theory, interaction networks can be used to predict the sensitivity of species against co‐extinction, but this has rarely been applied to real ecosystems facing variable land‐use impacts. We investigated plant–pollinator networks on 119 grasslands that va...

Significance Land-use intensification is a major threat to biodiversity. So far, however, studies on biodiversity impacts of land-use intensity (LUI) have been limited to a single or few groups of organisms and have not considered temporal variation in LUI. Therefore, we examined total ecosystem biodiversity in grasslands varying in LUI with a newl...

Structural heterogeneity and plant composition of tropical rainforests are influenced by topography. By comparing butterfly richness and species composition of creek, slope, and ridge forest, we studied to what extent topography may also affect rainforest butterfly assemblages in Piedras Blancas National Park in the Pacific lowlands of southern Cos...

Objective: Picking fungal fruit bodies is a popular spare time occupation, as well as a source of income in many countries. In central and southern Côte d’Ivoire, fruit bodies of the genus Termitomyces are intensively harvested and sold by the local inhabitants. However, information on the dimensions of this trade and on other socio-economic aspect...

Termites are major decomposers in tropical regions and play an important role in soil processes. This study investigated the termite assemblage structure across a sequence of differing land-use systems. With a standardized method, data were collected on termites from the following habitats: semi-deciduous forest, teak plantation, cocoa plantation,...

There is a wealth of smaller-scale studies on the effects of forest management on plant diversity. However, studies comparing plant species diversity in forests with different management types and intensity, extending over different regions and forest stages, and including detailed information on site conditions are missing. We studied vascular pla...

In managed forests, the abundance and diversity of saproxylic insect species and beetles in particular has been argued to be primarily limited by the amount of dead wood while the importance of other factors for community composition of this functional group has been largely neglected. It has also been argued that management regimes that lead to in...

Reed frogs of the superspecies Hyperolius viridiflavus occur throughout the seasonally very dry and hot African savannas. Despite their small size (300-700 mg), estivating reed frogs do not avoid stressful conditions above ground by burrowing into the soil, but endure the inhospitable climate relatively unprotected, clinging to mostly dry grass ste...

Adaptations to aridity ofthe reedfrog Hyperolius viridiflavus nitidulus, living in different parts of the seasonally very dry and hot West African savanna, are investigated ...

Background Females have often been shown to exhibit preferences for certain male traits. However, little is known about behavioural rules females use when searching for mates in their natural habitat. We investigated mate sampling tactics and related costs in the territorial strawberry poison frog (Oophaga pumilio) possessing a lek-like mating syst...

The relationship of different types of grassland use with plant species richness and composition (functional groups of herbs, legumes, and grasses) has so far been studied at small regional scales or comprising only few components of land use. We comprehensively studied the relationship between abandonment, fertilization, mowing intensity, and graz...

For a total of 17 mo, we investigated the impact of a road constructed through pristine tropical lowland rain forest, on the composition and structure of the resident anuran community in the Ulu Temburong National Park (Brunei Darussalam). One year after road construction, eight new anuran species had immigrated into the impacted area. Encounter su...

Poster presentation. Seed dispersal by forest dwelling frugivorous primates in sub-tropical and tropical forests is important for maintaining floristic diversity by facilitating plant dispersal and forest regeneration. Cercopithecines in particular have been suggested to be amongst the most important seed dispersers in Afro-tropical forests. The ro...

Abstract To highlight human impact on biodiversity in the Lamto region, termites were studied with regard to their use as bio-indicators of habitat change in the tropics. Using a standardized method, termites were sampled in the three most common habitat types, i.e., in semi-deciduous forest, savanna woodland, and annually burned savanna, all insid...

In soil, Acidobacteria constitute on average 20% of all bacteria, are highly diverse, and are physiologically active in situ. However, their individual functions and interactions with higher taxa in soil are still unknown. Here, potential effects of land use, soil properties, plant diversity, and soil nanofauna on acidobacterial community compositi...

The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to hu...

We identified the extent to which ant diversity occurs despite conversion of forests into cocoa plantations by examining the communities across four age classes of plantations (classes I–IV with increasing age from 0–5 to 21–40 years) and in their original forests. An extensive sampling protocol consisting of pitfall trapping, leaf litter sampling,...

Land use is increasingly recognized as a major driver of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in many current research projects. In grasslands, land use is often classified by categorical descriptors such as pastures versus meadows or fertilized versus unfertilized sites. However, to account for the quantitative variation of multiple land-use typ...

The giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is generally considered a savannah inhabitant; little information exists on populations in forested areas as much as on most other aspects of its ecology. The aim of this study was to determine the ecological value of timber plantations to the species and its requirements of anthropogenically used and co...

Measuring and estimating biodiversity patterns is a fundamental task of the scientist working to support conservation and inform management decisions. Most biodiversity studies in temperate regions were often carried out over a very short period of time (e.g., a single season) and it is often-at least tacitly-assumed that these short-term findings...

In many species male reproductive success is limited by access to females. Territoriality is one behavioural strategy which helps to acquire females. In the present study, we investigated the correlation between territory size and (1) female availability and (2) rate of intrusion by conspecific males in strawberry poison frogs, Oophaga pumilio. Mal...

Humans have substantially altered the nitrogen cycle of ecosystems through the application of agricultural fertilizer. Fertilization may not only affect plant species diversity, but also insect dynamics by altering plant nitrogen supplies. We investigated the effect of experimental fertilization on the vegetation, with the ribwort plantain as the f...

We used canopy fogging to study the high (20–26m), intermediate (13–19m) and low (5–6m) strata in three European beech patches (Fagus sylvatica) in nine months (2005–2007) and estimate species richness and diversity of arboreal spiders. Eight species (10%) were previously unseen in European beech trees, and one of these is likely a new species. Mor...

Aim To investigate whether trait–habitat relations in biological communities converge across three global regions. The goal is to assess the role of habitat templets in shaping trait assemblages when different assembly mechanisms are operating and to test whether trait–habitat relations reflect a common evolutionary history or environmental trait f...

Females of the Strawberry Poison Frog (Oophaga pumilio) are known to be aggressive toward other females. However, the function of this behavior in females has not been identified. We hypothesized that females are territorial, occupying and defending specific areas in defense of food resources. To test this hypothesis, we calculated the position and...

The Macrotermitinae subfamily is characterized by its symbiosis with fungi of the genus Termitomyces. The most common and presumably primitive mode of reproduction for these fungi is to produce basidiocarps on the mounds of the host termite colony. The seasonal fructification pattern of the fungi seems to depend on the habitat type and termite ecol...

This study, the first on fish reproduction in the Pendjari River, investigated aspects of the reproductive biology of Schilbe intermedius. A total of 429 females and 239 males were collected from March 2007 to February 2008. Females were larger than males and the sex ratio was 1:1.8 in favour of females. Size at first maturity was estimated to be 1...

The relationship between resource availability and biodiversity of consumers has gained particular attention with the increasing loss of biodiversity. We evaluated resource availability on meadows of low intensity (low/unfertilised, mown once or twice per year) and meadows of high-intensity land use (high fertilisation, mown twice or thrice) before...