ECOGRAPHY 26: 652–660, 2003 The assembly of local communities: Plants and birds in non-reclaimed mining sites Martin Bra ¨ndle, Walter Durka, Harald Krug and Roland Brandl Bra ¨ndle, M., Durka, W., Krug, H. and Brandl, R. 2003. The assembly of local communities: plants and birds in non-reclaimed mining sites. – Ecography 26: 652–660. We correlated percentage of occurrence (local occupancy) of 1069 plant species and 155 bird species across 16 non-reclaimed mining sites in a brown coal district of eastern Germany to regional range size and life history traits. To control for possible confounding effects of phylogeny we used a cross-species as well as a phylogenetically controlled approach. Although life history traits showed significant correlations to local occupancy in univariate analyses, hierarchical partitioning suggested that these variables were only of minor importance to explain local occupancy across non-re- claimed mining sites. The most robust and consistent relationship, however, was found between local occupancy and regional range size. A greater proportion of bird species than plant species from the available species pool colonized the mining sites, possibly due to the active search for suitable habitats by birds. Thus, although the two groups have different ways of colonizing a habitat, the general importance of regional distribution is the same. Overall, the results of our study underline the importance of regional patterns to understand local community composition. M. Bra ¨ndle and R. Brandl, Dept of Animal Ecology, Uni. of Marburg, Karl on Frisch Str., D-35032 Marburg, Germany. – W. Durka (correspondence: walter.durka@ halle.ufz.de), UFZ Centre for Enironmental Research Leipzig -Halle Ltd., Dept of Community Ecology, Theodor -Lieser Str. 4, D-06120 Halle, Germany.– H. Krug, Naturfo ¨rderungsgesellschaft ‘‘O  kologische Station’’ Borna -Birkenhain e.V., Am Lerchenberg, D-04552 Borna -Birkenhain, Germany. For countries with mining activities, the restoration of ecosystems on mined areas is a financial issue. Hence restoration by spontaneous colonization and subse- quent succession is of considerable importance (Prach and Pyc ˇek 1994, Jochimsen 1996). Furthermore non-re- claimed mining sites are of interest to conservation biologists: 1) within mining sites a diverse array of substrates with special physicochemical properties and low levels of nutrients occur (Varela et al. 1993, Durka et al. 1997, Bra ¨ndle et al. 2000). Hence, non-reclaimed mining sites provide habitats for specialized and there- fore endangered species (e.g. Ratcliffe 1974, Bruns 1988, Bradshaw 1989, Durka et al. 1997, Geißler-Stro- bel et al. 1997, Bra ¨ndle et al. 2000). 2) Usually mining sites are fairly large. Thus, non-reclaimed mining sites provide the opportunity to protect ecological processes. For example, outside the Alps non-reclaimed mining sites are the only areas with primary succession (e.g. Prach et al. 1997, Prach and Pyc ˇek 1999). In fact, the communities of non-reclaimed mining sites are the re- sult of primary succession. With time, a complex spatial pattern of communities develops in correlation to the soil properties and disturbances. Thus, a crucial step in the assembly of the communities within non-reclaimed mining sites is colonization. Which traits characterize species that colonize non-reclaimed mining sites? Are colonizers only a random sample from the available pool of species (e.g. Whittaker et al. 1989, Rydin and Borgega ˚rd 1991, Blackburn and Gaston 2001)? The prediction of colonization patterns from life history traits has a long standing history in ecology and biogeography (e.g. the r- and K-concept, MacArthur Accepted 2 April 2003 Copyright © ECOGRAPHY 2003 ISSN 0906-7590 ECOGRAPHY 26:5 (2003) 652