Die Rolle funktioneller Eigenschaften von Pflanzen und deren Variation für die Strukturierung und Produktivität von Pflanzengemeinschaften in halbnatürlichen und experimentell manipulierten Grasländern

• Antragstellerin: Privatdozentin Dr. Christiane Roscher
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Ökologie und Biodiversität der Pflanzen und Ökosysteme
• Förderung: Förderung von 2012 bis 2015
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 220338911

This project has the objective to address the apparent conflict between contrasting results on diversity-productivity relationships in observational and experimental biodiversity studies in temperate grasslands. Plant functional traits related to the acquisition and use of light and nutrients, which are the most critical resources for plant growth in temperate grasslands, species and community biomass production will be investigated (1) in semi-natural grasslands growing under different environmental conditions, (2) an species removal-enrichment experiment established at different sites of semi-natural grasslands and selected plots of a large grassland biodiversity experiment (Jena Experiment), and (3) compared to randomly-assembled experimentally established grassland of the Jena Experiment. The abundance, range and distribution of functional trait values will be analysed to evaluate to what extent trait composition differs between semi-natural grasslands under different environmental conditions and in different types of experimentally manipulated grasslands. Specifically, this project will address the role of intra- and interspecific trait variation for patterns of niche partitioning and complementarity among grassland species. Relationships between plant traits and community biomass production will be analysed to test competing hypotheses on diversity-productivity relationships and to assess whether there are fundamental differences between the mechanisms driving species interactions in semi-natural and different experimentally manipulated grasslands.

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen