Team > Dr. rer. nat. Sebastian Steibl

Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
Chair Animal Ecology I

Dr. rer nat. Sebastian Steibl, bis 2021/03

PhD Project: Atoll islands as ecosystem replicates - Organization of biodiversity and environmental impact of different human land uses

Our planet faces an ever-increasing number of environmental problems caused by the growth of human population and its land demands. One ecosystem that suffers substantially from population growth are coasts: Between 50% and 75% of the world’s population live close to coasts, thereby intensifying the anthropogenic impacts on this fragile environment and the need to better understand the consequences of ecosystem degradation. Most research thereby compare urban coastal areas with undisturbed reference systems using only single exemplified species. This approach is commonly conducted, because different human activities, which exist within the urban environment, are difficult to disentangle due to their spatial proximity. Furthermore, due to a high complexity of the analysed ecosystem, investigations based on single species are easier to realise than a holistic approach based on ecosystem-scale investigations.
In my PhD project I present a new approach to investigate anthropogenic stressors on ecosystem-level: by investigating small islands, which are either used for touristic purposes or by the local population, two different forms of anthropogenic disturbance can be analysed and compared spatially clearly separated. Furthermore, these disturbances can be analysed on a more holistic ecosystem-level, because key processes and interactions on these small islands are less complex and easier to cover in field samplings.
In my PhD, I am investigating whether two forms of anthropogenic disturbance have different effects (I) on the physical parameters of the habitat and the spatial distribution of organisms, (II) the food web of the ecosystem and (III) the resource availability and therefore competition between different species.
This project aims to generate a better and more holistic understanding on how ongoing human degradation of coasts influences crucial processes within coastal ecosystem.

The Phd project was funded by the “Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes“ scholarship.

Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
Chair Animal Ecology I

Research Interests: Animal Ecology, Coral Reef Ecology, Biodiversity

Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
Chair Animal Ecology I

Publications

2022

Sebastian Steibl, Gerhard Gebauer, Christian Laforsch: Impacts on food web properties of island invertebrate communities vary between different human land uses. In: Science of the Total Environment, 831 (2022). - .
doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154838

2021

Sebastian Steibl:Atoll islands as ecosystem replicates : Organization of biodiversity and environmental impact of different human land uses. - Bayreuth: 2021. - 180 S.
(Dissertation, 2021, Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuther Graduiertenschule für Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften - BayNAT)
doi:10.15495/EPub_UBT_00005928

Sebastian Steibl, Robert Sigl, Sanja Blaha, Sophia Drescher, Gerhard Gebauer, Elif Gürkal, Frederic Hüftlein, Anna Satzger, Michael Schwarzer, Dimitri Seidenath, Jana Welfenbach, Raphael S. Zinser, Christian Laforsch: Allochthonous resources are less important for faunal communities on highly productive, small tropical islands. In: Ecology and Evolution, 11 (2021). - S. 13128-13138.
doi:10.1002/ece3.8035

Sebastian Steibl, Christian Laforsch: Compartmentalized organization of ecological niche occupation in insular invertebrate communities. In: Ecology and Evolution, 11 (2021). - S. 471-480.
doi:10.1002/ece3.7067

Sebastian Steibl, Robert Sigl, Paul E. Bräumer, Victoria Clauß, Simon Goddemeier, Stephan Hamisch, Darleen Lücker, Lisa Reiprich, Lucas Stegmann, Nora Voigt, Christian Laforsch: Diversity patterns and community structure of the ground-associated macrofauna along the beach-inland transition zone of small tropical islands. In: Diversity, 13 (2021). - .
doi:10.3390/d13080377

Sebastian Steibl, Christian Laforsch: The importance of the Maldives as a wintering ground for migratory birds of the Central Asian flyway. In: Journal of Asian Ornithology, 37 (2021). - S. 80-87.

Sebastian Steibl, Jonas Franke, Christian Laforsch: Tourism and urban development as drivers for invertebrate diversity loss on tropical islands. In: Royal Society Open Science, 8 (2021). - .
doi:10.1098/rsos.210411

2020

Sebastian Steibl, Francesco Ballarin, Anton A. Nadolny, Christian Laforsch: First record of a wolf spider, Draposa lyrivulva (Bösenberg & Strand 1906) (Araneae: Lycosidae), from the Maldivian Islands, Indian Ocean. In: Acta Arachnologica, 69 (2020). - S. 115-119.
doi:10.2476/asjaa.69.115

Sebastian Steibl, Jörg Spelda, Christian Laforsch: First record of the spirobolid Eucarlia hoffmani Golovatch & Korsós, 1992 (Diplopoda: Spirobolida: Pachybolidae) from the Maldives, Indian Ocean. In: Schubartiana, 9 (2020). - S. 7-11.

Sebastian Steibl, Christian Laforsch: Shell resource partitioning as a mechanism of coexistence in two co-occurring terrestrial hermit crab species. In: BMC Ecology, 20 (2020). - .
doi:10.1186/s12898-019-0268-2

2019

Sebastian Steibl, Christian Laforsch: Daytime activity and habitat preferences of two sympatric hermit crab species (Decapoda: Anomura: Coenobita). In: Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 231 (2019). - .
doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2019.106482

Sebastian Steibl, Christian Laforsch: Disentangling the environmental impact of different human disturbances : a case study on islands. In: Scientific Reports, 9 (2019). - .
doi:10.1038/s41598-019-49555-6

2017

Hannes Imhof, Robert Sigl, Emilia Brauer, Sabine Feyl, Philipp Giesemann, Stefan Klink, Kathrin Leupolz, Martin G. J. Löder, Lena Löschel, Jan Missun, Sarah Muszynski, Anja Ramsperger, Isabella Schrank, Susan Speck, Sebastian Steibl, Benjamin Trotter, Isabel Winter, Christian Laforsch: Spatial and temporal variation of macro-, meso- and microplastic abundance on a remote coral island of the Maldives, Indian Ocean. In: Marine Pollution Bulletin, 116 (2017). - S. 340-347.
doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.01.010

2016

Robert Sigl, Sebastian Steibl, Christian Laforsch: The role of vision for navigation in the crown-of-thorns seastar, Acanthaster planci. In: Scientific Reports, 6 (2016). - .
doi:10.1038/srep30834

Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
Chair Animal Ecology I

Dr. rer. nat. Sebastian Steibl

E-mail: sebastian.steibl@uni-bayreuth.de