Responses of plant performance and functional diversity along a climate and land-use gradient in Mongolia

Project: Research

Project participants

  • von Wehrden, Henrik (Project manager, academic)
  • Wesche, Karsten (Project manager, academic)
  • Römermann, Christine (Project manager, academic)
  • Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz

Description

Understanding responses of ecosystem processes to climate and land use change is a key challenge in ecology under both theoretical and applied aspects. So far it is not fully understood, however, how climate and land-use jointly affect ecosystem processes and services such as biomass production. The few available multi-site comparisons use species and functional trait diversity as predictors of ecosystem processes, but focus either on climate or land-use gradients. Here we propose to quantify the joint effect of land-use and climate on ecosystem processes and services. We chose the rangelands of Mongolia as study system, where precipitation gradients cover a wide range of environmental conditions. Work will be conducted at 15 localities from deserts to forest steppes, with local grazing gradients running perpendicular. We will analyse more than twenty selected focal plant species representing dominant and characteristic taxa, and measure their response to climate and land-use. The focus will be on a range of performance traits relevant for biomass productivity as the key ecosystem service in the region. This will be supplemented by a community level approach, where diversity, plant community composition and diversity of selected key traits is studied to capture responses of entire communities. We will use environmental variables and proxies for grazing as predictors for responses of both individual traits to be analysed in a Bayesian framework, as well as community responses such as species and functional diversity to be analysed with multivariate statistics. Both approaches will be combined in a synthetic modelling approach. This leads to an improved understanding of ecosystem responses with on-going global change, and represents a basis for management recommendations with respect to land-use intensity under different climate conditions in semi-arid to arid landscapes.
StatusFinished
Period01.05.1431.08.19

    Sustainable Development Goals

Research outputs

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Modellieren in der Sekundarstufe
  2. The more severe the merrier: Severity of error consequences stimulates learning from error
  3. Plants, Androids and Operators
  4. A matter of connection
  5. The First 50 Contributions to the Data Observer Series - An Overview
  6. Support from the Internet for Individuals with Mental Disorders
  7. Second-order SMC with disturbance compensation for robust tracking control in PMSM applications
  8. Expanding the pie or spoiling the cake? How the number of negotiation issues affects integrative bargaining
  9. From simulation to real-world robotic mobile fulfillment systems
  10. Discourses for deep transformation
  11. Editorial overview
  12. Crack propagation in as-extruded and heat-treated mg-dy-nd-zn-zr alloy explained by the effect of lpso structures and their micro-and nanohardness
  13. Conditions of One-Way and Two-Way Approaches in Strategic Start-Up Communication
  14. Situated Institutions: The Role of Place, Space and Embeddedness in Institutional Dynamics
  15. Mobilizing Memes
  16. Is the Y/F Index Suitable for Population Genetic Studies?
  17. Modulation of T-effector function by imatinib at the level of cytokine secretion
  18. Relative wage positions and quit behavior
  19. How to measure the substantive representation of traditionally excluded groups in comparative research
  20. Similarity of molecular descriptors: The equivalence of Zagreb indices and walk counts
  21. High temperature deformation mechanisms and processing map for hot working of cast-homogenized Mg-3Sn-2Ca alloy
  22. Structural ambidexterity, transition processes, and integration trade‐offs: a longitudinal study of failed exploration
  23. Introduction
  24. Criticality and Values in Digital Transformation Research: Insights from a Workshop
  25. Endemic predators, invasive prey and native diversity
  26. Impacts of offshore wind farms on sediment structure and the water column during construction, and changes in bottom topography during the operation phase
  27. Techno-economic assessment of non-sterile batch and continuous production of lactic acid from food waste
  28. To Row Together or Paddle One's Own Canoe? Simulating Strategies to Spur Digital Platform Growth
  29. Influence of One Hour versus Two Hours of Daily Static Stretching for Six Weeks Using a Calf-Muscle-Stretching Orthosis on Maximal Strength
  30. Technical Note—The Joint Impact of F-Divergences and Reference Models on the Contents of Uncertainty Sets