Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter
Biodiversity and ecosystem services in a landscape context
Tel + 49 (0)711 / 459-23628
thomas.hiller@uni-hohenheim.de
Research Interests
- Tropical Ecology
- Biodiversity
- Species Interactions
- Landuse Change
The loss and conversion of natural habitats pose a major threat to biodiversity worldwide. Especially the highly diverse tropics, where the majority of this loss occurs due to agricultural expansion, are heavily affected. Recent studies have discussed that biodiversity loss affects ecosystem functioning and can also promote disease and parasite infestation, which in turn affects ecosystem productivity. The phylogenetic and also functional diversity of bats and birds, as well as their contribution to important ecosystem functions such as seed dispersal, pollination, or insect predation, make them perfect model organisms for studying these relationships.
Currently, here at the University of Hohenheim, we are using automatic acoustic recorders to monitor bats and birds in different agricultural landscapes in Germany, Indonesia and South Africa. We are investigating how landscape composition and configuration shape bat and bird communities. While some species are strongly negatively affected by landscape simplification/fragmentation, there are other species that might even benefit from it. We also want to know which landscape elements positively influence which bird and bat species and how this can help to maintain ecosystem functions.
About me, I am an ecologist by training, and during my PhD at the University of Ulm and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama, I studied how biodiversity responds to anthropogenic land use change, including impacts on ecosystem health and local host-parasite networks. I am especially intrigued by bats and their ectoparasitic bat flies (Diptera: Streblidae, Nycteribiidae) and am particularly interested in how bat ecology and bat evolution have shaped the community of these obligate blood-feeding dipterans and how this affects host-parasite coevolution, species diversity and morphological adaptations to living on the host. In addition, my work on these bat flies has led to the rediscovery of tiny ectoparasitic fungi (Laboulbeniales) in collaboration with Ph.D. Danny Haelewaters.
Publications
Van Caenegem W, Blondelle A, Dumolein I, Santamaria B, Dick CW, Hiller T, Liu J, Quandt CA, Villarreal Saucedo RV, Verbeken A, Haelewaters D (2023) Five new species of Gloeandromyces (Fungi, Laboulbeniales) from tropical American bat flies (Diptera, Streblidae), revealed by morphology and phylogenetic reconstruction. Mycologia DOI: 10.1080/00275514.2023.2230114
Haelewaters D, Hiller T, Ceryngier P, Eschen R, Gorczak M, Houston M, Kisło K, Knapp M, Landeka N, Pfliegler WP, Zach P, Aime MC, Nedvěd O (2022) Do Biotic and Abiotic Factors Influence the Prevalence of a Common Parasite of the Invasive Alien Ladybird Harmonia axyridis? Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.773423
Cvecko P, Brändel SD, Hiller T, Rose A, Bechler JP, Page RA and Tschapka M (2022) New architecture of leaf-tents in American oil palms (Elaeis oleifera) used by Pacific tent-making bat (Uroderma convexum) in Panama. Mammalia DOI:10.1515/mammalia-2021-0058
Hiller T, Vollstädt MGR, Brändel SD, Page R, Tschapka M (2021) Bat-bat fly interactions in Central Panama: host traits relate to modularity in a highly specialised network. Insect Conservation and Diversity DOI: 10.1111/icad.12508
de Groot MD, Dumolein I, Hiller T, Sándor AD, Szentiványi T, Schilthuizen M, Aime MC, Verbeken A, Haelewaters D (2020) On the Fly: Tritrophic Associations of Bats, Bat Flies, and Fungi. Journal of Fungi DOI: 10.3390/jof6040361
Brändel SD, Hiller T, Halczok TK, Kerth G, Page RA, Tschapka M (2020) Consequences of fragmentation for Neotropical bats: The importance of the matrix. Biological Conservation DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108792
Haelewaters D, Hiller T, Kemp EA, van Wielink PS, Shapiro-Ilan DI, Aime MC, Nedvěd O, Pfister DH, Cottrell TE (2020) Morality f native and invasive ladybirds co-infected by ectoparasitic and entomopathogenic fungi. PeerJ DOI: 10.7717/peerj.10110
Hiller T, Brändel SD, Honner B, Page RA, Tschapka M (2020) Effect of habitat alteration on parasitization of bats by bat flies. Biotropica DOI: 10.1111/btp.12757
Hiller T & Haelewaters D (2019) A case of silent invasion: Citizen science confirms the presence of Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) in Central America. PLoS ONE DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220082
Hiller T, Rasche A, Brändel SD, König A, Jeworowski L, O`Mara MT, Cottontail V, Page RA, Glebe D, Drexler JF, Tschapka M (2018) Host biology and anthropogenic factors affect hepadnavirus infection in a Neotropical bat. EcoHealth DOI: 10.1007/s10393-018-1387-5
Estrada-Villegas S, Halczok TK, Tschapka M, Page RA, Brändel SD, Hiller T (2018) Bats and their Bat Flies: Community Composition and Host Specificity on a Pacific Island Archipelago. Acta Chiropterologica DOI: 10.3161/15081109ACC2018.20.1.012
Haelewaters D, Hiller T, Dick CW (2018) Bats, Bat Flies, and Fungi: A Case of Hyperparasitism. Trends in Parasitology DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2018.06.006
Haelewaters D, Hiller T, Gorczak M, Pfister DH (2018) Influence of Elytral Color Pattern, Size, and Sex of Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) on Parasite Prevalence and Intensity of Hesperomyces virescens (Ascomycota, Laboulbeniales). Insects DOI: 10.3390/insects9020067
Hiller T, Honner B, Page RA, Tschapka M (2018) Leg structure explains host site preference in bat flies (Diptera: Streblidae) parasitizing neotropical bats (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae). Parasitology 145: 1475-1482; DOI: 10.1017/s0031182018000318
Walker MJ, Dorrestein A, Camacho JJ, Meckler LA, Silas KA, Hiller T, Haelewaters D (2018) A tripartite survey of hyperparasitic fungi associated with ectoparasitic flies on bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) in a neotropical cloud forest in Panama. Parasite DOI: 10.1051/parasite/2018017
Haelewaters D, Pfliegler WP, Szentiványi T, Földvári M, Sándor AD, Barti L, Camacho JJ, Gort G, Estók P, Hiller T, Dick CW, Pfister DH (2017) Parasites of parasites of bats: Laboulbeniales (Fungi: Ascomycota) on bat flies (Diptera: Nycteribiidae) in central Europe. Parasites & Vectors DOI: 10.1186/s13071-017-2022-y
Rose A, Brändel SD, Cvecko P, Engler S, Hiller T, Knörnschild M, Tschapka M (2017) New records of hypopigmentation in two neotropical phyllostomid bat species with different roosting habits (Uroderma bilobatum, Glossophaga soricina). Mammalia DOI 10.1515/mammalia-2016-0086
