SP01: Plant physiology

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Climate change will increase the occurrence of extreme events that trigger both species evolution and selective removal of not well-acclimated species. Plant biomass production is a key response indicator of plant community performance under unfavorable conditions. However, in biodiversity research, biomass is usually measured once or twice throughout the growing season, which may hide seasonal plant responses during and after extreme events. As physiological processes are closely related to plant biomass production, a comprehensive and continuous assessment of plant physiological performance can improve our understanding of immediate responses to and recovery after extreme events and, consequently, carbon assimilation of the plant community. Near-surface remote sensing technology offers a unique opportunity to assess these dynamic changes and the community condition in dense time series. We hence aim to use this opportunity to understand through the application of remote sensing techniques (1) the physiological response of plants to extreme climate events at multiple levels - from plant organs to communities -, and (2) whether increasing plant diversity may lower the consequences of such extremes. For that, an assessment of fundamental physiological plant traits such as leaf water content, leaf chlorophyll content, surface temperature, and leaf angles are required, because these data can provide a holistic understanding of plant responses to drought at different time scales (including resistance to and recovery from the event). Our SP01 in FOR5000 intends to (1) assess plant community responses to drought based on hydrological and structural-functional traits, (2) test plant community resistance and recovery in different dimensions of community stability, and (3) demonstrate how plant functional traits retrieved from proximal sensing can elucidate the role of biodiversity role in plant community resistance to and recovery after extreme events. Data acquisition for these analyses will be conducted in the Main Jena Experiment, the ResCUE Experiment at the Ecotrons, and the greenhouse TraitCoMic Experiment. Facing the negative impacts of real-world and simulated extreme climate events, we analyze how biodiversity can safeguard the functioning of ecosystems at a very fine spatial and temporal resolution. We specifically aim to address in collaboration with the other SPs for the first-time short-term plant physiological responses to stressful conditions at the community level using remote sensing techniques.