Biodiversity effects on the performance of terrestrial plant and phytoplankton communities Ph.D. Thesis Andrea Schmidtke 2009 ________________________________________________________________ University of Potsdam Institute for Biochemistry and Biology Department of Ecology & Ecosystem Modeling Institut für Biochemie und Biologie Arbeitsgruppe Ökologie und Ökosystemmodellierung ____________________________________________________________________ Biodiversity effects on the performance of terrestrial plant and phytoplankton communities Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades „doctor rerum naturalium“ (Dr. rer. nat.) in der Wissenschaftsdisziplin „Ökologie“ eingereicht an der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Potsdam von Andrea Schmidtke Potsdam, den 30. Juli 2009 Published online at the Institutional Repository of the University of Potsdam: URL http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2009/3893/ URN urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-38936 http://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-38936 Contents _______________________________ General Introduction ………….………………………………………………………. 1 Chapter I ……………………………………..………………………………………….. 7 “The effect of community diversity on the individual plant performance” 1.1.