Descrizione del progetto
La risposta degli ecosistemi al riscaldamento globale
Il riscaldamento globale minaccia la capacità degli ecosistemi terrestri di rispondere all’incremento delle temperature. Diversi scenari di previsione cercano di valutare il modo in cui gli ecosistemi terrestri reagiranno e il momento in cui raggiungeremo o supereremo soglie e punti critici. Tuttavia, la maggior parte degli studi non riesce a svelare con successo le risposte non lineari delle piante e degli organismi del suolo all’aumento del riscaldamento. Diverse risposte possono rendere disorganizzate le interazioni che intercorrono tra specie coesistenti e ad evoluzione congiunta. Il progetto THRESHOLD, finanziato dall’UE, applicherà un approccio interdisciplinare innovativo per comprendere meglio in che modo le risposte non lineari alla temperatura superino i diversi strati di organizzazione ecologica. La creazione di una rete globale di siti ecotonali foresta-tundra e foresta-paesaggio alpino contribuirà a valutare la misura in cui le reazioni al riscaldamento globale delle sostanze nutritive e del carbonio negli ecosistemi verranno spinte verso soglie e punti critici e come sia possibile prevederle.
Obiettivo
Terrestrial ecosystems are important in providing key services to humankind, but under global warming the provisioning of such ecosystem services is at risk. However, there is little consensus on how the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems will change under projected scenarios of global warming, or when we will reach or surpass thresholds and tipping points. This is largely because most studies have failed to unravel ecosystem responses to increasing temperatures in terms of the underlying non-linear responses of plants, soil organisms, and their communities. Since plants and their associated soil organisms (i.e. pathogens, mutualists, and decomposers) can vary in their responses to temperature change, global warming may disrupt or decouple interactions among coexisting and co-evolved species. This may have unforeseen consequences for key ecosystem functions, such as carbon and nutrient cycling.
THRESHOLD will use a novel cross-disciplinary approach to advance our fundamental knowledge of how non-linear temperature responses transcend different levels of ecological organization. Specifically, this project aims to:
1) Establish a global network of forest-tundra and forest-alpine ecotone sites, to assess how responses of ecosystem carbon and nutrient cycling to global warming will be pushed across thresholds and tipping points.
2) Perform mesocosm experiments under different temperatures, to estimate how ecosystem process responses to global warming can be predicted from the reordering of plant and soil communities, as well as from the functional traits that they possess and express.
3) Reveal how community responses to warming and extreme temperatures can be predicted from the physiological responses of their component species.
To achieve these aims, this work will utilize a powerful approach that harnesses an array of cutting-edge tools, and it will advance our conceptual understanding in an area of urgent importance for ecology and society.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantIstituzione ospitante
750 07 Uppsala
Svezia