Functional traits and plasticity of Plant Functional Types (PFT) in experimental grasslands

本项目将重点研究植物的功能多样性及其对碳、养分和水循环的影响。将研究植物生态生理、群落生态与生态系统过程的相互作用，以及生物圈和土壤圈之间的过渡过程。本研究的目的如下：(1)量化植物生物多样性变化对实验草地群落地上生物量净碳、氮和阳离子固存以及气态土壤CO2和NO损失等生态生理和生物地球化学过程的影响；(2)探讨产生植物生物多样性效应的潜在生态生理机制；(3)检验不同植物物种在一个功能群内的冗余度。(4)比较单个植物物种对草地群落对不同环境条件的生态生理响应；(5)确定这些生态系统过程的年际变化与植物多样性的关系。

This project research will focus on plant functional diversity and its implications for carbon, nutrient and water cycling by varying plant species richness. Interactions of plant ecophysiology, but also community ecology with ecosystem processes, and processes at the transition between the biosphere and the pedosphere will be studied. This study has the following objectives: (1) to quantify the effect of changing plant biodiversity on ecophysiological and biogeochemical processes, such as net carbon, nitrogen and cation sequestration in above-ground plant biomass as well as gaseous soil CO2 and NO losses in experimental grassland communities, (2) to investigate the underlying ecophysiological mechanisms that produce plant biodiversity effects, (3)to test the redundancy of different plant species within a functional group, (4) to compare ecophysiological responses of individual plant species to responses of grassland communities to varying environmental conditions, and (5) to determine the relationship between inter-annual variability of those ecosystem processes and plant biodiversity.