Development of a Plant Functional Group Classification to Support the Application of State-and-Transition

• Applicant: Dr. Anne Zemmrich
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems
• Term: from 2010 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 168592478

In the adoption of the non-equilibrium paradigm within ecology a conceptual framework of state-and-transition models, thresholds and resilience for vegetation dynamics was developed. It was proposed as an alternative procedure especially for rangeland assessment to cover the entire spectrum of possible vegetation dynamics including discontinuous and non-reversible vegetation change, the importance of highly variable climate and natural disturbances, and multidirectional vegetation responses to natural and anthropogenic impacts. Conceptual state-and-transition models describe alternative vegetation states for individual ecological sites which are separated by thresholds and transition probabilities between these states. Plant functional types represent non-phylogenetic classifications grouping plant species according their response to environmental factors including disturbance. Requested research aims to categorize plant species from rangeland ecosystems of the West of the USA into meaningful plant functional types and to examine their integration into state-and-transition models as a tool for prediction and governance vegetation dynamics. Therefore a meta-analysis shall be conducted to classify rangeland species into functional types according their response to disturbance, and to provide an overview on the impact of these functional response types on ecosystem properties. The validity of the results will be tested against long-term data within state-and-transition models. Finally, derived plant functional types will be integrated in quantitative state-and-transition models.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor Dr. David D. Briske