Holger Kreft - Selected Publications#

1. Zemp D, Guerrero-Ramírez NR, Brambach F, …, Kreft H (2023) Tree islands enhance biodiversity and functioning in oil palm landscapes. Nature 618:316-321. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06086-5

This paper represents a synthesis of EFForTS-BEE, a unique biodiversity enrichment experiment in an oil palm landscape of Sumatra, Indonesia. The study demonstrates that tree-based restoration enhances multidiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality without compromising plantation-scale oil palm yields. These findings open up new avenues for more wildlife-friendly management options in tropical oil palm landscapes. The paper is led by four postdocs of Kreft’s lab and shows his ability to promote early-career researchers and lead large international collaborative projects.

2. Barajas Barbosa MP, Craven D, Weigelt P., …, Kreft H (2023) Assembly of functional diversity in an oceanic island flora. Nature 619:545-550. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06305-z

This paper led by Kreft’s PhD student reports on the first quantification of the functional trait space of an entire oceanic island flora based on extensive and well-replicated field- and laboratory measurements.

3. Taylor A, Weigelt P, Denelle P, Cai L, Kreft H (2023) The contribution of plant life and growth forms to global gradients of vascular plant diversity. New Phytologist 240:1548–1560.

A ground-breaking study that for the first time maps the global distribution of life and growth forms for c. 300,000 species of vascular plants. This research highlights variation in the importance of different plant forms to diversity gradients world-wide, shedding light on the ecological and evolutionary pressures constraining plant–trait distributions.

4. Denelle, P., W. Weigelt, and H. Kreft. 2023. GIFT – an R package to access the Global Inventory of Floras and Traits. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 14 2738-2748.

This paper describes an R package with which researchers worldwide can access the GIFT database. Shows Kreft’s commitment to and leading role in pushing FAIR and Open Science principles in his field.

5. Martin DA, Andrianisaina F, Fulgence TR, …, Kreft H (2022) Land-use trajectories for sustainable land system transformations: Identifying leverage points in a global biodiversity hotspot. PNAS 119:e2107747119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2107747119

Collaborative synthesis paper led by a PhD student of Holger Kreft presenting a novel approach to identify leverage points along land-use trajectories. Co-occurring leverage points provide provides quantitative evidence that conservation and restoration are simultaneously necessary to avert a collapse of multi-functional mosaic landscapes Demonstrates also his ability to lead big international research teams and successfully supervise students.

6. Weigelt P, König C, Kreft H (2020) GIFT – A Global Inventory of Floras and Traits for macroecology and biogeography. Journal of Biogeography 47:16-43.

Highly cited paper (more than 130 times cited) on the structure of the GIFT database that Kreft and his team have built up over the past 12 years. GIFT is one of the largest global databases of plant distributions and has facilitated breakthroughs in our understanding of global plant diversity.

7. König C, Weigelt P, Schrader J, …, Kreft H (2019) Biodiversity data integration-the significance of data resolution and domain. PLoS Biol 17:e3000183. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000183

Conceptual paper on best integrating biodiversity data from heterogeneous sources including case studies (~110 citations). A paper led by a PhD student of Holger Kreft.

8. Taylor A, Weigelt P, König C, …, Kreft H (2019) Island disharmony revisited using orchids as a model group. New Phytol 223:597–606. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15776

A review paper led by Kreft’s postdoc represents a major advancement of the concept of island disharmony.

9. Meyer C, Weigelt P, Kreft H (2016) Multidimensional biases, gaps and uncertainties in global plant occurrence information. Ecol Lett 19:992–1006. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12624

Highly cited, influential study (more than 420 citations) on the global biases, gaps, and uncertainties in plant biodiversity information in public repositories.

10. Weigelt P, Steinbauer MJ, Cabral JS, Kreft H (2016) Late Quaternary climate change shapes island biodiversity. Nature 532:99–102. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17443

Seminal study (more than 220 citations) led by a former Ph.D. student on the role of Quaternary sea-level rise and associated changes in island area and connectivity on plant diversity and endemism.