FOR 2730:  Environmental changes in biodiversity hotspot ecosystems of South Ecuador: RESPonse and feedback effECTs (RESPECT)

• Subject Area: Biology
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 386807763

Climate and land-use change modify and reorganize biodiversity with feedback effects to the atmosphere. Understanding and projecting the consequences of biodiversity change for ecosystem functioning of natural and replacement ecosystems is challenging in biodiversity hotspots. To address this challenge RESPECT integrates a trait-based approach (Response-Effect-Framework, REF) and land surface models (LSM) to project ecosystem resistance to environmental change. We established extensive research infrastructure and a joint core plot system in the tropical mountain rainforest (MRF), tropical dry forest (MDF) and their replacement systems. We have measured hydro-climatological dynamics and multiple ecosystem properties as well as collected trait and community data that have been used within an expanded REF approach highlighting species richness as main driver of ecosystem functioning across the gradient. We substantially developed and tested a biodiversity-informed LSM by implementing leaf traits and biotic processes (herbivory, mycorrhiza-mediated nutrient uptake). Moreover, we generated area-wide remote sensing and model products for our target functions (TFs, biomass production, water fluxes) and developed an approach to translate our climate-change optimized land-use portfolios into spatially explicit scenarios. Based on novel insights and developments, we restructure RESPECT into four syntheses projects that consolidate expertise, data and results to address our central hypotheses on ecosystem resistance to environmental change that go beyond the achievements of the previous phases. We will (Syn-A1) use climate, flux and sensing data as well as climate change and optimized land-use scenarios for modelling ecosystem resistance, (Syn-A2) integrate further abiotic and trait data into the biodiversity-informed LSM for area-wide scenario analyses of ecosystem resistance to environmental change, (Syn-B1) analyse the effects of land-use, hydroclimate and soil properties on tree growth and forest dynamics for improving predictions to environmental change, and (Syn-B2) quantify community-level trait variation of plants and animals and their associated ecosystem functions across environmental gradients using REF for assessing ecosystem resistance to environmental change. The four synthesis projects are closely linked, synergistically using the extended data to understand the relationships between abiotic drivers, functional diversity, biotic processes and the two TFs across ecosystems, to project how tropical ecosystems will respond to environmental change and to develop options for sustainable ecosystem management.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• International Connection: Ecuador

Projects

• Biodiversity impacts on ecosystem functioning under climate change - lessons from a biodiversified land surface model (Applicants Breuer, Lutz ;  Hickler, Thomas ;  Windhorst, David )
• Changes of water and carbon fluxes in mountain wet and dry forests under environmental changes - observations, area-wide remote sensing and LSMAtmo (Applicants Bendix, Jörg ;  Trachte, Katja )
• Community-level trait variation of plants and animals and their associated ecosystem functions across environmental gradients (Applicants Farwig, Nina ;  Neuschulz, Eike Lena ;  Schleuning, Matthias )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Bendix, Jörg )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Farwig, Nina )
• Current and future drivers of tree growth and forest dynamics: environment vs. tree functional strategies in tropical Andean forests (Applicants Bräuning, Achim ;  Homeier, Jürgen ;  Wilcke, Wolfgang )
• From field scale eco-hydrological process understanding to landscape scale water fluxes (Applicants Breuer, Lutz ;  Windhorst, David )
• How abiotic drivers and trait diversity shape herbivory and other biotic processes with consequences for ecosystem functions across mountain ecosystems (Applicants Brandl, Roland ;  Farwig, Nina )
• Innovative scenarios of land-use change - simulating shifts in land allocation under climate change at landscape and ecosystem scales (Applicant Knoke, Thomas )
• Linking tree above- and belowground traits across gradients of elevation and climate in highly diverse tropical montane forests (Applicants Homeier, Jürgen ;  Leuschner, Christoph )
• Nutrient supply as driver of biomass production and associated ecosystem water fluxes along a land-use and climate gradient (Applicant Wilcke, Wolfgang )
• Observations, Remote Sensing, plot based modelling and socio-economic scenarios (Applicants Bendix, Jörg ;  Knoke, Thomas ;  Trachte, Katja )
• Plant functional trait diversity, biotic interactions and ecosystem processes in nutrient- versus water-limited tropical mountain forests (Applicant Hickler, Thomas )
• Trait-dependent effects of abiotic and biotic filters on plant regeneration in mountain dry forest and mountain rain forest (Applicants Neuschulz, Eike Lena ;  Schleuning, Matthias )
• Tree physiological and structural properties as response and effect traits of biotic-atmospheric interactions in natural and anthropogenic eco-systems in South Ecuador (Applicant Bräuning, Achim )

• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Nina Farwig