The importance of functional traits and phenotypic plasticity to the functioning of forests

我的长期目标是确定多样性影响森林生态系统的机制、它们的功能及其提供的服务。我的重点是可塑性、规模和营养水平在将植物相互作用从竞争转变为促进方面所起的作用。在接下来的五年里，我打算通过以下方式推动生物多样性--生态系统功能和植物功能生态学领域的发展： A.确定功能性状在聚集规则和世界森林树种分布中的作用 B.了解生物多样性表型可塑性对森林功能影响的重要性 C.建立考虑多样性效应、可塑性和林分发展的森林动态模型 我现在可以使用的资金只涵盖了我的研究计划中更多的应用和技术方面。如果我想要成功地分离出解释森林多样性影响的关键因素，并支持研究生，所要求的DG资金是必要的。 我将使用全球国家森林资源清查数据库来调查：i)物种和功能特征是如何沿环境梯度在全球分布的；ii)使用功能性方法在全球范围内检验多样性生产力假说。为了做到这一点，我将使用一个新的、全面的世界树木功能特征数据库。 在实验尺度上，我会问，生物多样性生态系统的功能效应有多少是由于物种功能特征的值(表型可塑性)随其邻居的反应而变化的。这一点很重要，因为尽管我们知道特征对环境的反应是可塑性的，但对邻居组成的反应以及它如何影响社区层面的运作，我们知道的要少得多。现有的、精心设计的多样性实验将用于测试这些机制，包括丰富度和功能多样性的正交梯度。这些将允许正式检验表型可塑性驱动这种关系的假设，而不是特征的内在差异。我将使用配备多光谱相机的无人机以及地面测量(叶片光谱反射率、荧光和与胁迫相关的指数)来测量树木特征及其可塑性。 最后，在这项研究计划接近尾声时，我将汇集从树木实验中获得的积累的证据，每个证据往往突出了多样性影响森林林分动态的单一机制，以建立一个更全面的森林动态模型。 这项工作的影响和应用在于确定关键因素，以帮助管理森林，以实现最大效益和可持续性。这项研究计划也将有助于推动BEF科学的进一步发展，特别是森林动力学。

My long-term objective is to identify the mechanisms through which diversity affects forest ecosystems, their function, and the services they provide. My focus is on the roles that plasticity, scale, and trophic levels play in shifting plant interactions from competition to facilitation. Over the next five years, it is my intention to further the fields of biodiversity - ecosystem functioning and plant functional ecology through: A. determining the role of functional traits in assembly rules and the distribution of tree species in the world's forests B. understanding the importance of phenotypic plasticity in biodiversity effects on forest functioning C. building a model of forest dynamics that accounts for diversity effects, plasticity and stand development The funds now available to me only cover the more applied and technical aspects of my research program. The requested DG funds are necessary if I am going to be successful at isolating the key factors explaining diversity effects in forest, as well as to support graduate students. I will use a global database of national forest inventory for investigating i) how species and functional traits are distributed globally along environmental gradients, and ii) testing the diversity productivity hypothesis at global scales using a functional approach. To do this I will use a new and comprehensive database of functional traits for the world trees. At the experimental scale, I will ask how much of the biodiversity ecosystem functioning effect is due to changes in the values of functional traits of species (phenotypic plasticity) in response to their neighbourhood. This is important because although we know traits are plastic in response to the environment, much less is known in response to neighborhood composition, and how it may affect community level functioning. Existing, carefully designed diversity experiments will be used to test for those mechanisms, including orthogonal gradients of richness and functional diversity. Those will allow for formally testing the hypothesis that phenotypic plasticity drives that relationship, rather than intrinsic differences in traits. I will use drones equipped with multi-spectral cameras, as well as ground measurements (leaf spectral reflectance, fluorescence, and indices related to stress) to measure tree traits and their plasticity. Finally, towards the end of this research program I will bring together the accumulating evidence obtained from tree experiments, each often highlighting a single mechanism by which diversity affects forest stand dynamics, to build a more comprehensive model of forest dynamics. The impact and applications of this work are in identifying key factors to help manage forests for delivering maximum benefits and sustainability. This research program will also be instrumental in pushing further BEF science in general and forest dynamics in particular.