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Project properties |
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| Title | How do liana functional traits shape liana niches? |
| Group | Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 36 |
| Supervisor(s) | FEM group: Prof.Dr.Ir. L (Lourens) Poorter OR Dr.Ir. FJ (Frank) Sterck
Other organisation: Yajun Chen and Jiaolin Zhang (Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences) |
| Examiner(s) | Prof. Dr.ir. G.M.J. Mohren |
| Contact info | Lourens.poorter@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2019/02/01 |
| End date | |
| Description | Lianas are important component of forest ecosystems, compete with trees, and have a large negative impact on tree diversity and performance, and carbon storage sequestration of the forest.
However, little is known about how liana species regenerate and perform, and how this is driven by their traits and the environment. We hypothesized that Liana species with more acquisitive trait values (e.g., high SLA to capture light and wide vessel diameter to transport water) will occupy niches consisting of higher light, water and nutrient levels. For the 30 most abundant lianas species we will measure at least 15 key functional traits that are important for the carbon, water and nutrient balance of the plant. Lab work will be carried out in Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The data will be used to relate to available data set to evaluate how liana functional traits shape liana niches (i.e. light, water and nutrients). Climate change effects /Biodiversity and functional diversity/ Population and forest dynamics/ Ecophysiology/ Modelling/Asia/tropical zone |
| Used skills | Field work and statistics |
| Requirements | FEM-30306 Forest Ecology and Forest Management; REG-31806 Ecological Methods I |