Lecture series in Ecology and Environmental Research SS 2023

A trait-based conceptual framework for annual plants responses to drought and grazing in semi-arid rangelands

Semi-arid rangelands are dryland ecosystems that provide important ecosystem services and are predicted to be highly vulnerable to drought and land use increase as main drivers of global change. Although annual plants are the dominant life form in many semi-arid rangelands, most of the knowledge on drylands vegetation responses to global change is based on perennial plant species. To improve projections of global change impacts on community composition and ecosystem function of dryland ecosystems, we need to gain a greater understanding of the mechanisms underlying drought and grazing responses in winter annuals. In this talk, I will summarise our recent results on a novel functional trait framework for winter annuals from semi-arid rangelands, providing data on their key strategies for drought and grazing resistance, how they relate to community-level responses to grazing and drought in the short and long term, and to their distribution over a steep rainfall gradient in the eastern Mediterranean.

**Adjunct BayCEER member, invited by BayCEER member Bettina Engelbrecht

• BayCEER Colloquium Prof. Leonor Álvarez-Cansino