Stephanie Kramer-Schadt

Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research · Department of Ecological Dynamics

Advancement in ecological methods predicting species distributions is a crucial precondition for deriving sound management actions. Maximum entropy (MaxEnt) models are a popular tool to predict species distributions, as they are considered able to cope well with sparse, irregularly sampled data and minor location errors. Although a fundamental assu...

Biological responses to climate change have been widely documented across taxa and regions, but it remains unclear whether species are maintaining a good match between phenotype and environment, i.e. whether observed trait changes are adaptive. Here we reviewed 10,090 abstracts and extracted data from 71 studies reported in 58 relevant publications...

Understanding host–pathogen dynamics requires realistic consideration of transmission events that, in the case of directly transmitted pathogens, result from contacts between susceptible and infected individuals. The corresponding contact rates are usually heterogeneous due to variation in individual movement patterns and the underlying landscape s...

1. Studying species interactions and niche segregation under human pressure provides important insights into species adaptation, community functioning and ecosystem stability. Due to their high plasticity in behaviour and diet, urban mesocarnivores are ideal species for studying community assembly in novel communities. 2. We analysed the spatial an...

The prevailing trend of increasing urbanisation and habitat fragmentation makes knowledge of species’ habitat requirements and distribution a crucial factor in conservation and urban planning. Species distribution models (SDMs) offer powerful toolboxes for discriminating the underlying environmental factors driving habitat suitability. Nevertheless...

In semi-arid environments characterized by erratic rainfall and scattered primary production, migratory movements are a key survival strategy of large herbivores to track resources over vast areas. Veterinary Cordon Fences (VCFs), intended to reduce wildlife-livestock disease transmission, fragment large parts of southern Africa and have limited th...

ContextBehavioral adjustments by large carnivores can be a key factor facilitating their coexistence with people in shared landscapes. Landscape composition might be a key factor determining how large carnivores can adapt to occurring alongside humans, yet broad-scale analyses investigating adjustments of habitat use across large gradients of human...

Context: Landscape composition and configuration, as well as seasonal landscape dynamics shape the behaviour, movement and energy expenditure in animals, i.e. foraging, hiding or fleeing, and ultimately survival. Especially in highly modified agricultural systems it is crucial to gain an understanding of how animal behaviour is influenced by landsc...

Tracking progress towards global biodiversity conservation targets requires appropriate allocation of research and monitoring efforts. We conducted a global review of camera trap research on mammals as a proxy for biodiversity research and monitoring over the last two decades. We assessed how 3395 research locations from 2324 studies tracked priori...

"10 Must Knows from Biodiversity Science”, ranging from climate stress for forests to the corona virus that has jumped from animals to humans, are now published for the first time. More than 45 experts from the German Leibniz Research Network Biodiversity and colleagues have compiled this inventory on the preservation of nature as the basis of huma...

Uns Autorinnen und Autoren geht es darum Wissen zu vermitteln. Wissen um Wandel, um politisches und gesellschaftliches Handeln für einen gesunden Planeten, den Erhalt und die nachhaltige Nutzung der Biodiversität zu unterstützen. Wissenschaft und Forschung zur Begleitung eines komplexen und systemaren Prozess wird angeboten. For us as contributors...

Understanding species‐environment relationships at large spatial scales is required for the prioritization of conservation areas and the preservation of landscape connectivity for large carnivores. This endeavour is challenging for jaguars (Panthera onca), given their elusiveness, and the local nature of most jaguar studies, precluding extrapolatio...

s Wind energy production is particularly rewarding along coastlines, yet coastlines are often important as migratory corridors for wildlife. This creates a conflict between energy production from renewable sources and conservation goals, which needs to be considered during environmental planning. To shed light on the spatial interactions of a high...

Understanding the trophic structure of carnivore communities leads to improved species management and conservation, particularly in highly threatened, yet scarcely studied habitats such as tropical montane forests. Using camera-trap data, we conducted an occupancy modeling study to reveal the patterns of ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) occupancy in the...

Habitat selection is a multi-scale process driven by trade-offs between benefits, such as resource abundance, and disadvantages, such as the avoidance of risk. The latter includes human disturbances, to which large carnivores, with their large spatial requirements, are especially sensitive. We investigated the ecological processes underlying multi-...

Persistence of viable populations may be uncertain for large carnivore species, especially for those established in human-dominated landscapes. Here, we studied the Eurasian lynx in Western Europe established in the Upper Rhine metapopulation (i.e., Jura, Vosges-Palatinian and Black Forest populations) and in the Alpine population. These population...

Following the reintroduction and natural expansion of various Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx populations, new challenges are being faced. The current lack of genetic exchange between small populations due to restricted dispersal caused by human activities (i.e. habitat fragmentation, persecution, vehicle collisions) puts them at risk of stochastic demogra...

Individual-based models (IBMs, also known as agent-based models) are mechanistic models in which demographic population trends emerge from processes at the individual level. IBMs are used instead of more aggregated approaches whenever one or more of the following aspects are deemed too relevant to be ignored: intraspecific trait variation, local in...

Social networks are considered to be ‘highly modular’ when individuals within one module are more connected to each other than they are to individuals in other modules. It is currently unclear how highly modular social networks influence the persistence of contagious pathogens that generate lifelong immunity in their hosts when between‐group intera...

Roads can have significant impacts on wildlife populations by impeding movement, restricting access to resources and causing wildlifevehicle collisions. In particular, wildlifevehicle collisions represent a substantial conservation and social problem, and although mitigation measures are available, an increased understanding of the temporal and spa...

Northern Bald Ibis (NBI) have disappeared from Europe already in Middle Age. Since 2003 a migratory population is reintroduced in Central Europe. We conducted demographic analyses of survival and reproduction of 384 NBI over a period of 12 years (2008-2019). These data also formed the basis for a population viability analysis (PVA) simulating the p...

Global change is shifting the timing of biological events, leading to temporal mis-matches between biological events and resource availability. These temporal mis-matches can threaten species' populations. Importantly, temporal mismatches not only exert strong pressures on the population dynamics of the focal species, but can also lead to substanti...

Previously unknown pathogens often emerge from primary ecosystems, but there is little knowledge on the mechanism behind. Most studies analyzing the influence of land-use change on pathogen emergence focus on a single host-pathogen system and often observe contrary effects. We studied virus diversity and prevalence patterns in natural and disturbed...

Animal movement, spanning all time and space scales in nature, is constrained by the individual's available energy to spend, creating a strong link between physiology and observed movement and distribution patterns. To progress, movement ecology needs an explicit focus on common mechanisms, such as energetics, linking behaviour to fitness consequen...

Aim We analysed the role of species interactions in wildlife community responses to urbanization. Specifically, we investigated non‐trophic associations within a bird community and the role of trophic interactions in the responses of bird species to the urbanization gradient. Location City‐state of Berlin, Central Europe. Methods Arthropod and bi...

The return of lynx to Central Europe, after more than a century of absence, began with a series of targeted recovery programmes. Although these measures have mostly been successful, these small lynx populations are still under great pressure today. In order to ensure the sustained survival of lynx in Central Europe and to allow natural dispersal, a...

Some carnivores are known to survive well in urban habitats, yet the underlying behavioral tactics are poorly understood. One likely explanation for the success in urban habitats might be that carnivores are generalist consumers. However, urban populations of carnivores could as well consist of specialist feeders. Here, we compared the isotopic spe...

Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) is a key topic in conservation and agricultural research. Decision makers need evidence-based information to design sustainable management plans and policy instruments. However, providing objective decision support can be challenging because realities and perceptions of human-wildlife interactions vary widely between a...

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Background: Many felid species are of high conservation concern, and with increasing human disturbance the situation is worsening. Small isolated populations are at risk of genetic impoverishment decreasing within-species biodiversity. Movement is known to be a key behavioural trait that shapes both demographic and genetic dynamics and affects pop...

Organismal movement is ubiquitous and facilitates important ecological mechanisms that drive community and meta-community composition and hence biodiversity. In most existing ecological theories and models in biodiversity research, movement is represented simplistically, ignoring the behavioural basis of movement and consequently the variation in b...

In social species where offspring are reared together in communal burrows or similar structures, young animals typically do not engage in between-group contact during their development, a behavioural trait we call offspring with restricted between-group contact (ORC). The impact of this trait on the persistence of contagious pathogens that generate...

Agricultural landscapes are spatially and temporally dynamic habitats that force wildlife to interact with different management practices, such as harvests and mowing events which cause sudden changes in resource availability. Animals may avoid agricultural management events and the changed habitat, to search for undisturbed areas or they might use...

Context Cities are a challenging habitat for obligate nocturnal mammals because of the ubiquitous use of artificial light at night (ALAN). How nocturnal animals move in an urban landscape, particularly in response to ALAN is largely unknown. Objectives We studied the movement responses, foraging and commuting, of common noctules (Nyctalus noctula)...

Urbanization affects key aspects of wildlife ecology. Dispersal in urban wildlife species may be impacted by geographical barriers but also by a species’ inherent behavioural variability. There are no functional connectivity analyses using continuous individual‐based sampling across an urban‐rural continuum that would allow a thorough assessment of...

Context Habitat loss and fragmentation threaten species not only through structural landscape changes and resource reduction, but also through modifications to species’ interactions. In particular, the observed consequences of landscape changes for predator–prey interactions often lack a clear pattern, indicating a range of complex behavioral adapt...

Organismal movement is ubiquitous and facilitates important ecological mechanisms that drive community and metacommunity composition and hence biodiversity. In most existing ecological theories and models in biodiversity research, movement is represented simplistically, ignoring the behavioural basis of movement and consequently the variation in be...

Environmental factors shape the spatial distribution and dynamics of populations. Understanding how these factors interact with movement behavior is critical for efficient conservation, in particular for migratory species. Adult female green sea turtles, Chelonia mydas, migrate between foraging and nesting sites that are generally separated by thou...

Current species distributions are shaped by present and past biotic and abiotic factors. Here, we assessed whether abiotic factors (habitat availability) in combination with past connectivity and a biotic factor (body mass) can explain the unique distribution pattern of Southeast Asian mammals, which are separated by the enigmatic biogeographic tra...

1.Understanding the drivers underlying disease dynamics is still a major challenge in disease ecology, especially in the case of long‐term disease persistence. Even though there is a strong consensus that density‐dependent factors play an important role for the spread of diseases, the main drivers are still discussed and, more importantly, might di...

Animals access resources such as food and shelter, and acquiring these resources has varying risks and benefits, depending on the suitability of the landscape. Some animals change their patterns of resource selection in space and time to optimize the trade‐off between risks and benefits. We examine the circadian variation in resource selection of s...

Aim Climate change alters the water cycle, potentially affecting the distribution of species. Using an ensemble of species distribution models (SDMs), we predicted changes in distribution of the Asian elephant in South Asia due to increasing climatic variability under warming climate and human pressures. Location India and Nepal. Methods We compi...

Ecosystems respond in various ways to disturbances. Quantifying ecological stability therefore requires inspecting multiple stability properties, such as resistance, recovery, persistence and invariability. Correlations among these properties can reduce the dimensionality of stability, simplifying the study of environmental effects on ecosystems. A...

Each year, large numbers of bats move across Europe between their summer and winter areas, yet even though many of them are endangered and legally protected, we are unaware about many aspects of their migratory behaviour. Here, taking Nyctalus noctula as a model species, we used stable hydrogen isotopic values in fur (d2Hf ) as an endogenous marker...

Green areas of cities encompass a large range of wildlife species. In recent years, research focused on understanding the environmental conditions that allow for any particular species to settle in an urban area, thereby covering different taxa from mammals to invertebrates. Usually such studies focus on one species or a group of very similar speci...

Predicting the impact of disease epidemics on wildlife populations is one of the twenty-first century’s main conservation challenges. The long-term demographic responses of wildlife populations to epidemics and the life history and social traits modulating these responses are generally unknown, particularly for K-selected social species. Here we de...

Large carnivores are wide-ranging species, highly mobile and live in human-dominated landscapes where habitat destruction and fragmentation are important threats. In parallel, the terrestrial transportation network is getting denser and acts as a barrier for the movement of these animals as well as it increases the risk of collisions. The Eurasian...

Large carnivores are wide-ranging species, highly mobile and live in human-dominated landscapes where habitat destruction and fragmentation are important threats. In parallel, the terrestrial transportation network is getting denser and acts as a barrier for the movement of these animals as well as it increases the risk of collisions. In this cont...

Context Understanding habitat selection can be challenging for species surviving in small populations, but is needed for landscape-scale conservation planning. Objectives We assessed how European bison (Bison bonasus) habitat selection, and particularly forest use, varies across subpopulations and spatial scales. Methods We gathered the most comp...

Context Movement is one of the key mechanisms for animals to deal with changes within their habitats. Therefore, resource variability can impact animals’ home range formation, especially in spatially and temporally highly dynamic landscapes, such as farmland. However, the movement response to resource variability might depend on the underlying land...

Urbanization rapidly changes landscape structure worldwide, thereby enlarging the human-wildlife interface. The emerging urban structures should have a key influence on the spread and distribution of wildlife diseases such as canine distemper, by shaping density, distribution and movements of wildlife. However, little is known about the role of urb...

Large carnivores, including Eurasian lynx, were extirpated in central Europe during the last century. Thanks to legal protection and reintroduction projects lynx populations have returned but still face major threats. The isolation of reintroduced populations has led to genetic drift and increased inbreeding risk. The persistence of these small pop...

All values for bias and precision.