Effects of woody species diversity and composition on individual plant growth and demography

Project: Research

Project participants

Description

Competition for light is broadly recognised as a key factor determining plant growth. In woody species, crown, branch and leaf level traits all contribute to light harvesting efficiency, and thus growth. Although there are genetic and mechanical constraints to the expression of these traits in individual trees and shrubs, individuals have the ability to show plastic responses within certain thresholds as a reaction to local abiotic and biotic conditions. As a result, crown functional traits (CFT) show inter- and intraspecific variability.In particular, crown dimensions and architecture of individual trees and shrubs are known to respond sensitively to local neighbourhood interactions. However, to explain the spatial development of crowns in detail, information on single branches is needed, since the process of crown expansion depends on the spatial development of branches and branch demography.In the third stage this subproject will continue to address the influence of species richness on aboveground plant growth and branch demography at the individual and local neighbourhood level to test the hypothesis that the diversity effect at the plot level is the overall result of the diversity effects at the local neighbourhood level.Specific objectives are (i) to analyse the impact of tree and shrub species richness (regarding both the plot and local diversity level) on individual tree and shrub growth and mortality within and among species, (ii) to quantify local neighbour interactions in terms of growth rates and branch demography and to test whether diversity reduces competition, and (iii) to investigate how inter- and intraspecific variability of CFTs is affected by species richness. Repeated measurements of architectural traits (stem, crown, branches) of individual trees and shrubs and their local neighbours by both, conventional methods and 3D terrestrial laser scanning, will be continued in the Main Experiment (including the trees of the BEFmod experiment, set up on subplots on all VIPs) and the Comparative Study Plots. A wide range of variables will be measured or calculated, such as stem diameter, tree height, stem slenderness, crown base height, crown length, crown diameter, crown projection area, relative growth rate and crown efficiency (mean annual biomass growth per unit of crown projection area).These variables are then related to species richness (explanatory variable) and local site conditions (as covariables; including all variables determined by the ecoscape approach). In addition, jointly with SP3 this subproject will use the whole suite of traits, which have been measured by SP2 and in particular by SP3, for synthesis work. Important data provided by SP3 will be the analyses of the plasticity of key traits as a response to diversity levels, and the calculation of community weighted means as well as of functional and phylogenetic diversity patterns.
StatusFinished
Period19.02.1412.04.19

Research outputs

Recently viewed

Activities

  1. Cultural Ecosystem – promising approach for analyzing culture or ‘just another black box concept’?
  2. Entrepreneurship in context: The role of innovation in developing, growing, an developed economies
  3. Naturalisieren, Ontologisieren, Ökologisieren. Zu Naturvorstellungen in Technik- und Medientheorie.
  4. ZEP - Zeitschrift für internationale Bildungsforschung und Entwicklungspädagogik (Fachzeitschrift)
  5. ZEP - Zeitschrift für internationale Bildungsforschung und Entwicklungspädagogik (Fachzeitschrift)
  6. "Fees must fall" - South African Student Protests in the Context of (informal) Citizenship Education."
  7. Impulsvortrag & Diskussion: Sustainable Finance. Ein strategischer unternehmerischer Erfolgsfaktor.
  8. Autonomous Mobilization: Navigating Transient Solidarity for Lasting Impact in Anti-War Movements
  9. How stereotypes affect grading and tutorial feedback: Shifting evaluations or shifting standards?
  10. DFG-Forschungsinitiative Heterogenität der Universitäten Hamburg und Lüneburg 2011 (Veranstaltung)
  11. 42nd Joint Sessions of Workshops of the European Consortium for Political Research - ECPRJS 2014
  12. Verteilungsverhalten von current-use Herbiziden zwischen Pflanzenoberflächen und wässriger Phase
  13. C- and Si-analogous compounds – comparison of their behaviour in a test for ready biodegradability
  14. Saubere Autos. Umweltversprechen des autonomen Fahrens und Emissionsforschungen seit den 1950ern
  15. Determinants and Measurement of Entrepreneurial Self-efficacy – Evidence for Female Entrepreneurs
  16. Tagung der Internationalen Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften in Wien ,,Milieu-Biologie'' - 2010

Publications

  1. "Beide Künstler sind begeistert für ein und dasselbe hohe Ziel." - Karl May und Sascha Schneider
  2. Performing GDR in Poetry ? The Literary Significance of "East German" Poetry in Unified Germany
  3. Un nietzschianesimo senza riserve. La volontà di potenza nel dispositivo del potere pastorale
  4. Der historische Pygmalioneffekt der Lehrergenerationen im Bildungswachstum von 1884 bis 1993
  5. Entrepreneurs and Freelancers: Are They Time and Income Multidimensional Poor? - The German Case
  6. Zur Validität eines Mathematiktests für die Auswahl von Bewerber*innen auf ein Lehramtsstudium
  7. Special Issue on Impact Investing – Critical Examinations of Motivations, Processes and Results
  8. Effects of an Educational Scenario Exercise on Participants' Competencies of Systemic Thinking
  9. Draußen? Zur Dialektik von Enteignung und Aneignung und zu deren aktuellen Erscheinungsformen
  10. Microeconomic Consequences of Exemptions from Value Added Taxation – The Case of Deutsche Post
  11. Global food security, biodiversity conservation and the future of agricultural intensification
  12. Giving is a question of time: response times and contributions to an environmental public good
  13. R. Michael Allen, Justification and the Gospel: Understanding the Contexts and the Controversies
  14. Multidimensional and intersectional cultural grievances over gender, sexuality and immigration
  15. Intraspecific trait variation patterns along a precipitation gradient in Mongolian rangelands
  16. Concentration of ciprofloxacin in Brazilian hospital effluent and preliminary risk assessment
  17. A pénzügyi szektorban működő vállalatokkal szembeni pénzbírságok: a kérdéses felső határok kumulálása
  18. Responsive Organisationsforschung : Methodologien und institutionelle Rahmungen von Übergängen
  19. Das Sozialmanagement stärken: Qualitätskriterien und Nutzwertanalyse im Corporate Volunteering
  20. Wenn-Dann Pläne und mentale Kontrastierung als Strategien zur Förderung der Selbstregulation
  21. Recurring patterns and blueprints of industrial symbioses as structural units for an it tool
  22. Remarks on: Roberto Esposito, Termini della Politica. Comunità, Immunità, Biopolitica (Milano, 2007)