General Statement

Our research addresses questions like:

• Why is a grassland with 60 species more productive than one with 2 species? link to Project page
• Are the species-rich temperate forests of North America also functionally more diverse than their species-poor European counterparts? link to Project page
• How do fire adaptation strategies of boreal trees influence fire regimes at the biome-scale?link to Project page
• What is the species signature in deadwood decomposition rates?
• How fast can plant populations respond to climate change? link to Project page
• What is the basis of regeneration failure and associated carbon losses in boreal forests? link to Project page

Traditional biogeochemistry does not provide an answer to these questions, because it viewed the vegetation as an assembly of matter pools which are arranged in homogeneous functional layers. In contrast, Organismic Biogeochemistry recognises the whole organism as the basic functional unit and focuses on the effect of species identity and diversity on biogeochemical cycles. It links population biology, ecosystem ecology and biogeography. Species are characterised by their unique combination of demographic and functional traits, which are the basis for quantifying functional diversity of species mixtures and for grouping species into plant functional types.

We approach the above questions with a combination of ecological modelling, field observations, analysis of forest inventories and review of published data. Models that combine physiological and demographic processes are used to translate functional diversity into patterns of ecosystem functioning. The functional diversity of temperate and boreal forest ecosystems as well as grasslands is inventoried by assimilating data from various sources: own field campaigns in the temperate and boreal zone, analysis of regional forest inventories and experimental data and meta-analysis of the literature.