Project description
The role of fungi and nutrients in tropical mountain ecosystems
For proper growth, tropical plants require a careful balance of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, potassium, and magnesium. Fungi, particularly mycorrhizal fungi, are essential for the uptake of these elements from the soil. Although vegetation and nutrient availability in tropical mountains vary with elevation, little is known about the distribution of many essential elements and how fungi affect their availability. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the PHILANTROPIC-ELEMYCO project will investigate how supply of nutrients and presence of mycorrhizal fungi vary in the Philippines tropical mountains. The goal of this study is to uncover biogeochemical patterns that are essential to preserving tropical biodiversity and ecosystem function.
Objective
Tropical mountains are biodiversity hotspots where a zonation of biota occurs with environmental conditions as one ascends. Patterns of vegetation types are well documented, as is the decline of plant-available nitrogen (N) relative to phosphorus (P) with elevation. However, how absolute and relative availabilities of essential elements beyond the well-studied N, P and carbon (C) vary in such mountains remains poorly understood, despite evidence that base cations and micronutrients do indeed affect tropical forests’ and other ecosystems’ functioning. Potentially important but overlooked factors that may confound elevational patterns of elemental availabilities are the type, dominance and abundance of mycorrhizal fungi, which in turn are also affected by biogeochemical cycling, directly or through shifts in vegetation. Here, I address these knowledge gaps by investigating patterns of C, N, P, potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and micronutrients, and their association with mycorrhizae across three distinct Philippine tropical mountains. While fungal and particularly plant biodiversity in these areas are well documented, biogeochemical patterns remain largely unexplored. PHILANTROPIC-ELEMYCO will test the hypothesis that absolute and relative availabilities of these elements are associated with both elevation and mycorrhizae. Specifically, the project will (1) analyze concentrations and stoichiometry of species- and community-weighted leaf, litter and soil elements along elevational gradients, (2) assess the co-occurrence thereof with association type, abundance and diversity of mycorrhizae, and (3) conduct a systematic review comparing mycorrhiza-nutrient relationships among tropical regions. By uniquely integrating expertise and approaches from tropical forest ecology, biogeochemistry, botany, mycology and molecular biology, I aim to contribute to an improved understanding of plant-soil-mycorrhiza-stoichiometry patterns in tropical mountains.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry alkali metals
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry alkaline earth metals
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology mycology
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
08193 BELLATERRA
Spain
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