Tag Archives: functional traits
New publication – Acclimation of Fine Root Systems to Soil Warming: Comparison of an Experimental Setup and a Natural Soil Temperature Gradient
Text by Kaarin Parts Global warming is predicted to impact high-latitude and high-altitude forests severely, jeopardizing their overall functioning and carbon storage, both of which depend on the warming response of tree fine root systems. This paper investigates the effect … Continue reading
EcolChange seminar – Riin Tamme about global patterns in plant traits
Seminar of Department of Botany and Centre of Excellence EcolChange Speaker: Riin Tamme is researcher in the team of macroecology at the Department of Botany. Title of the talk: Global patterns in plant traits Time: Thursday, 19. April 2017 at 15.15 Place: … Continue reading
New publication – Mapping local and global variability in plant trait distributions
Text by Lauri Laanisto Seems like macroecology has finally arrived to a crossroads where it might split so fundamentally, that two or more new disciplines will emerge. Finding global patterns, that would explain the world in one graph, like JH … Continue reading
New publication – Ancient environmental DNA reveals shifts in dominant mutualisms during the late Quaternary
Text by Martin Zobel, Mari Moora & John Davison Using ancient DNA, it is possible to study the species and communities that inhabited past landscapes. However, finding more or less intact ancient DNA is challenging because DNA degrades quickly. One … Continue reading
New paper published – Niche differentiation and expansion of plant species are associated with mycorrhizal symbiosis
Text by Maret Gerz Mycorrhizal symbiosis affects the realized niches of plant species Mechanisms of coexistence has fascinated ecologists for a long time and one of the proposed ways is minimizing competition by niche differentiation. According to this, to coexist, … Continue reading
New paper published – Physiological and structural tradeoffs underlying the leaf economics spectrum
Text and graph by Tiina Tosens In the world-wide leaf economics spectrum (Wright et al. 2004, Nature) variability of three key traits: photosynthesis rate, leaf nitrogen content, and leaf dry mass per area of 2500 species (from study sites with … Continue reading
New publications describing a new method to predict species establishment and invasion
Text by Jon Bennett [This is a repost from Meelis Pärtel´s Macroecology Workgroup blog] Understanding which species are going to establish within a given community (i.e. invasion) is one of the most fundamental pursuits in ecology. In today’s era of … Continue reading
New publication – Predicting species establishment using absent species and functional neighborhoods
Text by Meelis Pärtel and Jonathan Bennett Understanding which species establish in which habitats is fundamental to community ecology and to more applied pursuits, such as the restoration of degraded sites and the prevention of invasion by exotic species. Jonathan … Continue reading
EcolChange seminar – Carlos Carmona on trait probability densities
Seminar of the Centre of Excellence EcolChange Carlos P. Carmona is researcher at the macroecology workgroup of the Department of Botany, University of Tartu. Trait probability densities: probabilistic hypervolumes in ecology and beyond Time: Thursday, 9nd. March 2017 at 15.15 … Continue reading
New paper published – Trait assembly in grasslands depends on habitat history and spatial scale
Text and pic by Liina Saar Recently published paper by Liina Saar, Meelis Pärtel and Aveliina Helm together with Francesco de Bello from Czechia (University of South Bohemia) in Oecologia revealed that grasslands with regular and long management history are … Continue reading
