| Research Interests | • Functional Ecology & Biodiversity • Remotely Sensed Pattern Analysis • Applied Forest Science • Spatial Statistics I am studying spatial patterns, shapes, and ‘higher-level’ structures to use this abstract information for reconstructing and predicting ecological processes. An explicit investigation of functional scale effects is fundamental in these analyses because the perception of habitat structure by, for example, the ‘plant’s-eye view’ is directly related to functional connectivity. Dynamic processes such as symmetric and asymmetric competition, intra- and inter-specific mortality, slowed and intensified demographics or the facilitation of high species diversity will finally lead to hierarchical structures, connectivity, and distribution patterns under given environmental scenarios. These scenarios include certain climatic effects, abiotic growth conditions (e.g. heterogeneity), disturbance regimes, or man-made influences (e.g. logging, planting patterns). One of my major goals is to disentangle these relative effects of prevailing environmental conditions from ecological processes, and ultimately, from quantifiable pattern formation. |
| Past Project | |||
 | "The effects of land-use and structural heterogeneity on biodiversity: A new assessment method using cost-effective remote sensing and fine-scale pattern analysis" NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Magazine, April 2010: Fliegende Förster THÜRINGER ALLGEMEINE, October 2008: Das fliegende Auge [PDF] | ||
| Description: This project is part of the "Biodiversity Exploratories" (funded by the German Research Foundation). Among others, we are investigating two central hypotheses: 1. The biodiversity of the forest floor can be correlated with a structural complexity index derived from aerial image analysis of canopy properties. 2. The correlation between biodiversity and scale-dependent indices derived from aerial image analysis is stronger than the correlation between biodiversity and terrestrial ‘scale-free’ indices. The spatial distribution and quantity of incoming solar radiation should affect species compositions of vascular plants in the forest understory because, in dependence on growth, reproduction, shade tolerance or interspecific competitive ability, different plant species perceive the quality of available light differently. Hence, the spatial complexity of gaps and tree crowns may function as a structural filter whose individual properties may shape dependent biodiversity. The goal of our first hypothesis is to use high-resolution aerial images taken by unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) to describe this filter with a spatial statistical index and to correlate it with the diversity of previously mapped plants of the understory. According to our second hypothesis, this correlation based on scale-dependent remote-sensing data should be stronger than the correlation with a conventional complexity index that is based on 'scale-free' terrestrial measurements. This hypothesis has its reasoning in the wide-spread knowledge about different modes of reproduction (clonal vs seeds) and dispersal distances of species, whose success should be directly dependent on the distribution pattern of available gaps. Information on unmanned air vehicle (in German): Andromeda [PDF] |
| Publications [with PDF] | |||
 | Getzin, S. , Worbes, M., Wiegand, T. & Wiegand, K. (2011) Size dominance regulates tree spacing more than competition within height classes in tropical Cameroon. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 27, 93-102. [PDF] | ||
 | Getzin, S. , Wiegand, T., Wiegand, K. & He, F. (2008) Heterogeneity influences spatial patterns and demographics in forest stands. Journal of Ecology, 96, 807-820. [link] | ||
 | Moustakas, A., Wiegand, K., Getzin, S. , Ward, D., Meyer, K.M., Guenther, M. & Mueller, K.-H. (2008) Spacing patterns of an Acacia tree in the Kalahari over a 61-year period: how clumped becomes regular and vice versa. Acta Oecologica, 33, 355-364. [PDF] | ||
 | Getzin, S. , Wiegand, K., Schumacher, J. & Gougeon, F.A. (2008) Scale-dependent competition at the stand level assessed from crown areas. Forest Ecology and Management, 255, 2478-2485. [PDF] | ||
 | Getzin, S. & Wiegand, K. (2007) Asymmetric tree growth at the stand level: Random crown patterns and the response to slope. Forest Ecology and Management, 242, 165-174. [PDF] | ||
 | Getzin, S. (2007) Structural Fire Effects in the World’s Savannas. A Synthesis for Biodiversity and Land-Use Managers. VDM Verlag, Saarbrücken. Book-ISBN: 978-3-8364-3664-9 | ||
 | Getzin, S. , Dean, C., He, F., Trofymow, J.A., Wiegand, K. & Wiegand, T. (2006) Spatial patterns and competition of tree species in a Douglas-fir chronosequence on Vancouver Island. Ecography, 29, 671-682. [PDF] | ||
 | Getzin, S. (2006) Analysis of hierarchical structures in forest stands using detailed spatial statistics. Ph.D. thesis [PDF] | ||
 | Getzin, S. (2005) The suitability of the degradation gradient method in arid Namibia. African Journal of Ecology, 43, 340-351. [PDF] | ||
 | Becker, T. & Getzin, S. (2000) The fairy circles of Kaokoland (North-West-Namibia) – origin, distribution, and characteristics. Basic and Applied Ecology, 1, 149-159. [PDF] | ||
Contact:
Dr. Stephan Getzin
Department of Ecosystem Modelling
Büsgen-Institut
Georg-August-University of Göttingen
Büsgenweg 4
37077 Göttingen, Germany
Fon: +49 (0)551 39-3414
Email: sgetzin*uni-goettingen.de
