Recent evidence indicates that the elemental composition of organisms (i.e. the elementome) is a key driver of biodiversity and ecosystem function. As such, studying the elementome and its diversity has great potential for understanding current patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. STOIKOS will achieve an in-depth understanding of the interaction between elementomes and biodiversity in determining ecosystem functioning by introducing the concept of elemental diversity, and moving functional ecology from using functional traits to elementomes, an easy and universal way to compare all sort of organisms. To do this, STOIKOS will integrate data from observations, long-term monitoring sites, microcosm experiments and theoretical modelling to build the foundations of an elemental-based ecology.
Through a field campaign across Europe, STOIKOS will sample a wide range of organisms to build the STOIKOS database. This database will contain functional traits, elementomes and functioning of individual organisms, including plants, protists and animals. The STOIKOS database will detail measurements of functional traits and their elementomes (consisting of C and N concentration and their isotopes 13C and 15N, and P, K, Fe, Ca, Mg, Na, S, Cu, Zn, Mo, Co, and Hg). Additionally, the STOIKOS project will use microcosm experiments to collect high temporal resolution photosynthesis data from 20 bryophyte communities of contrasting species diversity. For each community, growth rates, functional traits, and their elementome will be determined.
STOIKOS will also coordinate with long-term and large-scale monitoring sites equipped with eddy covariance towers within FLUXNET and ICOS networks to compile a database containing elementomes, functional traits and biomass of the most abundant plant species across 20 forests and 10 shrublands in Europe. Biomass and elementome measurements will be analysed separately for leaves, branches, and main stems, and ecosystem elementomes will include the same measurements as for the STOIKOS database. Long-term data collected by the eddy covariance systems, including gross primary productivity and evapotranspiration, will be used to compute metrics of functional temporal complexity. Additionally, STOIKOS will synthesise forest inventory data to study how community-weighted elementomes and elemental diversity affect forest growth. Together, these large-scale monitoring and inventory data will allow us to elucidate and quantify the importance of the individual- and ecosystem-scale mechanisms that drive the relationship between elementomes, elemental diversity and ecosystem functioning.
Lastly, all the previously generated observational and experimental data will be synergistically combined through computer simulations and theoretical modelling to provide novel theoretical background on how elementomes and elemental diversity affect interactions amongst species. This will be the cornerstone for the future inclusion of elementomes and elemental diversity in global dynamic vegetation models to predict global changes in ecosystem functioning climate change.
