Influence of a future climate and interspecific interactions on the stress response of plants.

It is currently unknown how plants will be affected by stress factors in a future climate with more atmospheric CO2 and higher air temperatures. This is important to know for agriculture because stress adversely affects crop growth and yield, but it is equally important for the conservation of biodiversity. For example, reduced stress resistance of plants in a future climate might lead to loss of sensitive species.Some global change factors have been shown to modify plant stress resistance in some species. However, the uncertainty is greater in more realistic, multi-species communities because interactions between the species are likely to alter the species-specific stress responses. Therefore, in the proposed research we want to disentangle abiotic factors (climate-warming and elevated CO2) and biotic factors (plant-plant interactions) that determine the stress response of a plant. An important question is whether neighbouring species modify the intrinsic stress response of a plant by changing the available resources. To solve these questions we will grow grassland communities (monocultures and mixtures) under different climate scenarios in sunlit, computer-controlled growth chambers.

Keywords:PLANT STRESS, ECOLOGY

Disciplines:General biology, Plant biology

Project type:Collaboration project