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Project properties |
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| Title | Plant responses to environmental change: why are some plants more responsive than others? |
| Group | Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation Group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 36 |
| Supervisor(s) | Dr Philippine Vergeer |
| Examiner(s) | Dr Philippine Vergeer |
| Contact info | philippine.vergeer@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2023/01/01 |
| End date | 2023/12/31 |
| Description | Losses in biodiversity are driven by various processes of which changes in habitat fragmentation and environmental quality are the most prominent. Plant need to respond to these changes, through either evolutionary adaptation or phenotypic plasticity. Due to the unprecedented rate of environmental change, responses through phenotypic plasticity become increasingly important. Phenotypic plasticity for example can be strongly affected by negative effects of habitat fragmentation such as genetic erosion and inbreeding effects. In previous studies on inbreeding and phenotypic plasticity, a large environmental role on the expression of inbreeding depression was observed as well as on phenotypic plasticity. This observed interaction will have major consequences for a plants response to environmental change. Until now however this interaction has been largely ignored and there is only limited data on the interaction between phenotypic plasticity and inbreeding. In this project, you will investigate plasticity responses in relation to genetic erosion, inbreeding and possibly other factors. |
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