Kerstin Pierick

Forest biodiversity benefits from warmer microclimate, but only in colder regions

The study shows that warmer microclimates in forest gaps boost biodiversity in colder regions but not in warmer ones, suggesting climate-specific forest management strategies.

Forest vertical and horizontal temperature similarity drives arthropod communities in a managed temperate forest

The paper examines how vertical and horizontal temperature differences in a managed forest influence arthropod communities using temperature loggers and metabarcoding.

The Invisible Heterogeneity of a Forest -- Beta Diversity of Volatiles

The paper quantifies how forest structural changes affect volatile organic compound beta-diversity and finds deadwood, not canopy openness, drives this increase.

Microclimatic heterogeneity is associated with forest structural complexity and biodiversity

The paper quantifies microclimatic heterogeneity in forests and links it to biodiversity, showing that canopy structure and gaps influence temperature variation and species diversity.

Old growth attributes by chain saw: how between-patch heterogeneity changes the metacommunities of beetles in temperate forests

The paper experiments with structural heterogeneity in forests to determine its impact on beetle metacommunities, finding increased species diversity and support for mass-effect and species-sorting processes.

Enhanced forest heterogeneity drives stronger functional than taxonomic shifts in soil nematodes

The paper manipulates forest structural complexity to study its effects on soil nematode diversity, finding functional diversity responds more strongly than taxonomic diversity to structural changes.

Dung beetles do not profit from enhanced spatial heterogeneity in production forests: a large-scale forest manipulation experiment

This study examines the effects of forest structural heterogeneity on dung beetle diversity and ecosystem function in Central Europe, finding no benefit to dung beetle diversity or dung removal rates in more heterogeneous forests.

Inconsistent short-term effects of enhanced structural complexity on soil microbial properties across German forests

This study examines how enhancing structural complexity in German forests affects soil microbial properties, finding site-specific effects influenced by soil moisture and understorey vegetation.

Unique belowground ecological strategies of subtropical and tropical plant species expand the root trait space

The paper assesses root trait diversity in subtropical and tropical species, finding they contribute significantly to global root functional space and show niche-driven trait variation in subtropical but not tropical species.