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SUMMARY:ENAC Seminar Series by Dr. Ch. Grossiord\, Dr. A. Bjorkman & Prof.
  J. Alexander
DTSTART:20190109T090000
DTEND:20190109T121500
DTSTAMP:20260917T054017Z
UID:be7430d7c4f4cf90519a9f97a498f20dc7cbdf85317102a883450bb5
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Ch. Grossiord\, Dr. A. Bjorkman & Prof. J. Alexander\n9:00
  – 10:00 – Dr. Charlotte Grossiord\nAmbizione Fellow\, Swiss Federal R
 esearch Institute WSL\n\nTerrestrial ecosystems in a changing climate\n\nG
 reat concern has emerged in recent years over large-scale climate-induced 
 reductions in plant growth and survival. In particular\, the increased fre
 quency of droughts occurring at warmer temperatures (also called hotter dr
 oughts or global-change-type droughts) has been linked to massive plant mo
 rtality in ecosystems around the globe. Yet\, our predictions on how a war
 ming and drying climate will affect plant communities are still challenged
  by important lacks in mechanistic understanding of species community dyna
 mics. Particularly recognized processes that could influence plant respons
 es to climate change\, but that are often not accounted for\, are how plan
 ts acclimate to long-term shifts in climate\, and how the interactions amo
 ng species could influence plant responses to extreme events. In this talk
 \, I will be presenting recent findings from 1) an experimental manipulati
 on of precipitation and temperature in a semiarid woodland highlighting th
 e acclimation potential of plants to warming and drought\, and 2) a global
  study in European forests demonstrating that species diversity has strong
  potential to help us understand how and why forest ecosystems respond to 
 drought.\n \n10:15 – 11:15 – Dr. Anne Bjorkman\nPostdoctoral Scholar\
 , Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F)\, Germany\n
 \nRecent species and functional diversity dynamics across the tundra biome
 \n\nThe rate of climate warming in the Arctic is double that of any other 
 region on earth. This rapid temperature change has the potential to drive 
 substantial shifts in the composition and functioning of tundra ecosystems
 . In this talk I will discuss our current understanding of these changes a
 nd their consequences\, focusing in particular on plant phenology\, biodiv
 ersity\, and functional composition. I will discuss and compare results fr
 om long-term monitoring and experimental studies at dozens of sites spread
  across the tundra biome\, and explore the implications of these findings 
 for predicting future changes in tundra ecosystem function\, including pot
 ential feedbacks to global carbon cycling and climate change.\n \n11:15 
 – 12:15 – Prof. Jake Alexander\nAssistant Professor\, University of La
 usanne\n\nReshuffling the ecological deck: the consequences of novel inter
 actions for plant communities and distributions\n\nSpecies' distributions 
 are being reshuffled across the globe at an unprecedented rate\, occurring
  through the spread of non-native species and range shifts of native speci
 es responding to climate and other environmental changes. This redistribut
 ion of species’ ranges is changing the structure and composition of ecol
 ogical communities\, for example causing species to interact that were pre
 viously isolated from one another. Biological invasions show us that the i
 mpacts of these “novel interactions” can sometimes be dramatic. Howeve
 r\, the impacts of novel interactions following climate change are poorly 
 understood. In our lab\, we study the ecological consequences of species
 ’ redistribution\, and in particular seek a mechanistic understanding of
  impacts of novel interactions and our ability to predict these impacts\, 
 rooted in community ecology theory. We work primarily in montane plant com
 munities\, where experimental manipulations conducted across elevation gra
 dients allow us to disentangle impacts of changing biotic interactions fol
 lowing climate change induced range shifts. I will highlight some of our r
 esearch that asks whether we can predict the outcome of changing plant-pla
 nt interactions\, how evolution might influence these outcomes\, and how c
 hanging plant-soil interactions influence plant species’ coexistence and
  ecosystem processes. This work shows how an integration of community ecol
 ogy and macroecological perspectives will be essential to arrive at a more
  mechanistic understanding of community structure and species’ ranges\, 
 and how these respond to environmental changes.
LOCATION:CM 1 4 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==CM%201%204
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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