Work package no 8: Population and plant biological studies

The studies aim at assessing the effects of changes in resource availability (light, nutrients, CO₂, water) and mechanical impacts (grazing, mowing) on the form and functioning of plant species and their populations. The methods to be applied are from the field of ecophysiology and population biology. The following parameters will be investigated for dominant species as well as species that are found to play a central role in the dynamics of canopies after changes in land-use:

• Horizontal structure of populations of key-stone species with different morphological and phenological strategies, population densities and abundance.

• Dynamics of plant architecture and leaf gas exchange in connection with light availability in the relevant canopy layers.

• Biomass and nutrient allocation to plant organs.

• Carbon and nitrogen isotope (¹⁵N) analyses are intended to determine nitrogen sources and nitrogen allocation of the plant species.

• Phenological observations of vegetative and generative plant development.

• Experimental Testing: The response in growth, allocation and survivorship of keystone species to different regimes of resources (nutrients, light) availability and disturbance will be tested experimentally. Adaptational strategies and threshold levels of species extinction will be determined.

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