Linkages between plants, microbes and ecosystem processes
Event details
| Date | 21.03.2011 |
| Hour | 16:15 |
| Speaker | Prof. Richard D. BARDGETT; Soil and Ecosystem Ecology Laboratory, Lancaster University |
| Location |
GR B3 30
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Our understanding of how organisms, and their interactions with each other and their abiotic environment, govern the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems has advanced rapidly over the last two decades. This has been driven by a number of issues, the most significant being the need to better understand the consequences for ecosystems and the Earth-system of the dramatic changes in biological communities that have resulted from human activity. An important development in this area has been a growing recognition that terrestrial ecosystems consist of both aboveground and belowground subsystems, and that feedbacks between these subsystems play a crucial role in regulating community structure and ecosystem functioning. As a consequence, it is now widely recognised that biotic interactions between aboveground and belowground communities play a fundamental role in regulating the response of terrestrial ecosystems and the Earth-system to human-induced global change. In this talk, I will present findings from our recent studies which explore different routes by which linkages between aboveground and belowground communities regulate the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems. I will also consider how an understanding of such linkages can be applied to the issue of ecosystem services, and especially the sequestration of carbon in soil.
Links
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Contact
- Prof. Alexandre Buttler, ECOS/WSL