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Species range shifts, aboveground-belowground community reassembly and consequences for ecosystem functioning

Objectif

Climate warming promotes intra-continental range shifts of plants, animals and microbes from lower to higher latitudes and altitudes. Plants may shift their ranges independent of their co-evolved aboveground and belowground biota, however little is known about how these communities re-assemble in the new range and how that process influences community dynamics and ecosystem functioning. Thus far, predictions on species occurrences have been based exclusively on how niche conditions shift to higher latitudes and altitudes. Here, I will make the next step towards predicting how terrestrial systems respond to climate warming by evaluating interactions between plants, aboveground and belowground multi-trophic communities in the original and new ranges. My overall aim is to determine how aboveground and belowground multi-trophic level communities become disjointed and concomitantly re-assembled during plant range shifts. I will determine consequences for community dynamics and ecosystem functioning in the new range. My overall hypothesis is that due to time-lags in range shifts between plants, and their aboveground and belowground biota, novel communities may develop in the new range that will alter functioning of ecosystems, their stability and resilience. I will study range shifting plant species and determine: 1) aboveground-belowground multi-trophic community composition, 2) specificity of soil-borne pathogens and root-feeding nematodes, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and decomposer organisms, 3) bottom-up and top-down control of these biota by soil communities, and 4) dynamics, stability and resilience of original and novel communities and ecosystem functions under current and future climate conditions. My results will be the first to show how the disjunction and reassembly of aboveground-belowground communities influences plant performance, community dynamics and ecosystem functioning. This will develop a new perspective on climate warming-induced range shifts.

Appel à propositions

ERC-2012-ADG_20120314
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Régime de financement

ERC-AG - ERC Advanced Grant

Institution d’accueil

KONINKLIJKE NEDERLANDSE AKADEMIE VAN WETENSCHAPPEN - KNAW
Contribution de l’UE
€ 1 960 000,00
Adresse
KLOVENIERSBURGWAL 29 HET TRIPPENHUIS
1011 JV AMSTERDAM
Pays-Bas

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Région
West-Nederland Noord-Holland Groot-Amsterdam
Type d’activité
Research Organisations
Contact administratif
Erwin Van De Ridder (Mr.)
Chercheur principal
Wilhelmus Henricus Van Der Putten (Prof.)
Liens
Coût total
Aucune donnée

Bénéficiaires (1)