Leonor Álvarez-Cansino: Projects

Completed Projects

• The role of nutrients for the variability of drought effects on community composition and productivity across land use gradients in grasslands: a trait-based approach (DFG, BETol 2)
  

  Land use and precipitation are important drivers for shaping community diversity, and ecosystem function in grasslands worldwide, and are two of the main global change drivers. The main aim of this project is to improve our capability of predicting consequences of global change for grasslands through assessing the combined effects of nutrients and drought at the trait and whole plant performance level and integrating them with drought effects on community composition and productivity across land-use gradients in grasslands.

  A project within the Biodiversity Exploratories, DFG Priority Programme 1374

  [Details]
  
  
• Drought and grazing impacts in semi-arid rangelands: Testing a novel trait-based conceptual framework (DFG, Israel)
  

  Drought and land use are among the most important global change drivers, particularly for dryland ecosystems. Species and communities in dry areas are assumed to be resistant to both grazing and drought (Generalized Grazing model). However, the generality of this model has been called into question in semiarid rangelands dominated by winter annuals, which exhibit a substantially different strategy to cope with drought than perennials. To test a novel trait-based framework that can resolve the apparent inconsistencies, we use a steep rainfall gradient in the Eastern Mediterranean as a model system, and explicitly link traits, whole plant performance, long-term community responses, and distribution patterns.

  [Details]