Ting-Wen ChenGeorg-August-Universität Göttingen | GAUG · Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach-Institute for Zoology and Anthropology
Ting-Wen Chen
Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.)
Evolution and ecology of soil animal functional traits
About
26
Publications
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Introduction
Hi! I am an ecologist who always wonders why there is incredible biodiversity in soil (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9449-3034). My current research focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying species coexistence and community compositions through integrations of research approaches from community ecology and evolutionary biology.
Current research topics:
(1) Soil biodiversity & species coexistence,
(2) Evolution and ecology of functional traits &
(3) Multidimensional trophic niches.
Publications
Publications (26)
Functional traits determine the occurrence of species along environmental gradients and their coexistence with other species. Understanding how traits evolved among coexisting species helps to infer community assembly processes. We propose fatty acid composition in consumer tissue as a functional trait related to both food resources and physiologic...
High intraspecific genetic variance in Collembola indicates that cryptic species are widespread and this chal- lenges the delimitation of morphologically defined species. Lepidocyrtus lanuginosus (Gmelin, 1788) is a widely distributed habitat generalist with high genetic variance between populations from different locations in Europe. In this study...
Trophic niche differentiation may explain coexistence and shape functional roles of species. In complex natural food webs, however, trophic niche parameters depicted by single and isolated methods may simplify the multidimensional nature of consumer trophic niches, which includes feeding processes such as food choice, ingestion, digestion, assimila...
Aim: Both ecological and evolutionary processes shape biological communities along elevational gradients. Compared to above-ground taxa, elevational patterns and processes of below-ground animals are little studied. Here, we investigated how environmental gradients across elevation may affect species divergence in the past and act as filters of con...
Temperature plays a key role in the development and population maintenance of arthropods, especially for those living in cold environments. In the temperate zone, one of the most common soil-dwelling arthropods is Collembola. Instead of tracking warm and thermal temperature ranges, some Collembola species are psychrotrophic, i.e., they are well-ada...
Altitudinal changes in the diversity of plants and animals have been well documented; however, soil animals received little attention in this context and it is unclear whether their diversity follows general altitudinal distribution patterns. Changbai Mountain is one of few well-conserved mountain regions comprising natural ecosystems on the Eurasi...
Soil organisms drive major ecosystem functions by mineralising carbon and releasing nutrients during decomposition processes, which supports plant growth, aboveground biodiversity and, ultimately, human nutrition. Soil ecologists often operate with functional groups to infer the effects of individual taxa on ecosystem functions and services. Simult...
Soil life supports the functioning and biodiversity of terrestrial ecosystems. Springtails (Collembola) are among the most abundant soil animals regulating soil fertility and flow of energy through above- and belowground food webs. However, the global distribution of springtail diversity and density, and how these relate to energy fluxes remains un...
The conversion of natural ecosystems to agricultural land is one of the most important drivers of biodiversity decline worldwide, particularly in the tropics. Species loss is typically trait‐associated, leading to filtering of disturbance‐resistant species during community assembly, which affects ecosystem functioning and evolutionary potential of...
The trophic niche of an organism is tightly related to its role in the ecosystem and to interactions with other species. Thousands of species of soil animals feed on detritus and co-exist with apparently low specialisation in food resource use. Trophic niche differentiation may explain species coexistence in such a cryptic environment. However, mos...
The feeding ecology of soil animals is seldom investigated in the winter when the soil is covered with a layer of snow. Collembola (springtails) are winter-active arthropods that appear on the snow surface, especially on sunny days, and remain active in microhabitats under the snow. Since winter-active Collembola must be consuming food, we assessed...
DNA sequence data and phylogenies are useful tools for species delimitation, especially in taxa comprising cryptic species. The Lepidocyrtus lanuginosus species group (Collembola: Entomobryidae) comprises three morphospecies and distinct cryptic species. We applied three DNA-based methods to delimit species boundaries in the L. lanuginosus species...
DNA sequence data and phylogenies are useful tools for species delimitation, especially in taxa comprising cryptic species. The Lepidocyrtus lanuginosus species group (Collembola: Entomobryidae) comprises three morphospecies and distinct cryptic species. We applied three DNA-based methods to delimit species boundaries in the L. lanuginosus species...
Population genomic analysis can be an important tool in understanding local adaptation.
Identification of potential adaptive loci in such analyses is usually based on the survey of a large
genomic dataset in combination with environmental variables. Phenotypic data are less commonly
incorporated into such studies, although combining a genome scan a...
Invasive species is an important cause for loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystems. However, researches on invasive species often ignore the belowground invasive species, for example, the earthworms. In recent years, an invasive earthworm, Pontoscolex corethrurus, originated from South America has been found and widely distributed in Tai...
The intestine of a Formosan millipede species, Trigoniulus corallinus, was noted to be heavily infected with gregarine parasites. Millipedes used in this study were randomly collected from Shoushan, Kaohsiung from April 1999 to October 2002. Among 63 millipedes examined, our results showed that the total prevalence rate for cephaline gregarines was...
Projects
Project (1)
Global synthesis in the field of soil biodiversity is requested currently by both scientific community and authorities. Moving in this direction is necessary to bring more attention to Collembola and other soil animal groups which will foster recognition of the field and provide support for contemporary and future generations of soil zoologists.
Initiative is run by many people working on voluntary basis. The RG participants are not extensive, the full list of collaborators is >130 people.
Main goals of the project are:
- Describe collembolan communities around the globe.
- Test, how Collembola diversity and abundance is affected by climate and vegetation across ecoregions
- Recognise problems in compatibility of existing data and identify gaps of knowledge
- Show a rigor evidence that Collembola are the most abundant “insects” on Earth :)
