SPIDERFUN: Land-use effects on the functional role of spiders in food webs and permanent grasslands.

The project will investigate how land-use and environmental heterogeneity affect the a) taxonomic and b) trait composition of spider communities, c) availability of prey, and d) the abundance of spider predators and thereby the diet composition of spider communities in permanent grasslands; all with the overall objective of understanding the associated changes in the functional role of spider species in grassland arthropod food webs.

Team: JunProf. Dr. Henrik Krehenwinkel (University of Trier), Prof. Dr. Klaus Birkhofer (BTU Cottbus), Dr. Danilo Harms (UHH).

Funding Body: German Research Council (DFG).