Objective
The proposed project is aimed at assessing long-term physiological responses of herbaceous plant species from diverse functional groups and environments to changes in climate that have occurred during the last centuries in Switzerland. Leaf oxygen and carbon isotopic compositions will be analyzed for a large number of specimens from the unique herbaria hold at the University of Basel, which cover 600’000 specimens collected mostly in Switzerland since the 17th century.
Plant physiological responses to climate change could influence global carbon and water cycles and could ultimately drive changes in plant communities’ distribution and biodiversity. Plant physiological responses may be species specific and their magnitude was found to decrease with time, indicating possible long-term processes of acclimation and adaptation in plants and urging the need to assess the long-term responses of plants to climate change.
The isotopic analysis of archive plant material offers the exceptional opportunity to reconstruct the physiological activity of plants over long time periods. The carbon isotopic composition of plants is a good proxy of leaf-level intrinsic water use efficiency and leaf oxygen isotopic composition can provide a time-integrated indication of leaf stomatal conductance during the growing season.
Previous studies with similar objectives largely focused on the isotopic analyses of tree rings. Contrastingly, the isotopic analysis of herbarium samples allows to assess the long-term physiological response to climate change of a large range of different plant species from different environments.
As caution was raised recently about the interpretation of the isotopic composition of plant material under certain circumstances, selected target species will be grown in climate controlled growth chambers in order to calibrate the physiological interpretation of variations in leaf isotopic composition with changes in climate and plant physiology.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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.
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 earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology dendroclimatology
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- medical and health sciences basic medicine physiology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
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.
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.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
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.
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.
Coordinator
4051 Basel
Switzerland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.