Physiological Plant Ecology

Key research themes of the laboratory are the impact of biodiversity loss on ecosystem functions and services, and the physiological processes involved in plant responses to climatic stress. The research team uses novel techniques and approaches at scales going from the cell to the whole ecosystem in diverse environmental conditions in temperate, Mediterranean and tropical systems.

Research is conducted in controlled conditions (e.g. greenhouses and growth chambers), in manipulative field experiments (e.g. drought and temperature manipulation) and uses long-term national and international inventory platforms. This integrative approach has both theoretical and applied aims to address the parameterization of climate-vegetation models and guide new climate-smart management practices.

• Heat impacts on tree carbon and water relations
• Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship
• Tree mortality
• Atmospheric evaporative demand (VPD)
• Tree hydraulics
• Tree thermoregulation and microclimate

• ORCID Charlotte Grossiord, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9113-3671
• Stand structure of Central European forests matters more than climate for transpiration sensitivity to VPD
  Contributors: Christoph Bachofen; Rafael Poyatos; Víctor Flo; Jordi Martínez‐Vilalta; Maurizio Mencuccini; Víctor Granda; Charlotte Grossiord
  Journal of Applied Ecology, 2023-03-20, DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.14383
• Faster drought recovery in anisohydric beech compared to isohydric spruce
  Danielle E. M. Ulrich; Charlotte Grossiord
  Tree Physiology, 2023-01-23, DOI: 10.1093/treephys/tpad009
• Increasing temperature and vapour pressure deficit lead to hydraulic damages in the absence of soil drought
  Leonie C. Schönbeck; Philipp Schuler; Marco M. Lehmann; Eugénie Mas; Laura Mekarni; Alexandria L. Pivovaroff; Pascal Turberg; Charlotte Grossiord
  Plant, Cell & Environment, 2022-11, DOI: 10.1111/pce.14425
• Impact of warmer and drier conditions on tree photosynthetic properties and the role of species interactions
  Margaux Didion‐Gency; Arthur Gessler; Nina Buchmann; Jonas Gisler; Marcus Schaub; Charlotte Grossiord
  New Phytologist, 2022-10, DOI: 10.1111/nph.18384
• Warming may extend tree growing seasons and compensate for reduced carbon uptake during dry periods
  Contributors: Charlotte Grossiord; Christoph Bachofen; Jonas Gisler; Eugénie Mas; Yann Vitasse; Margaux Didion‐Gency
  Journal of Ecology, 2022-07, DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.13892
• …

• The role of vegetation in urban heat islands and air quality
• Trees as a nature-based solutions to mitigation floods in cities
• Micro-computer tomography approaches to measure tree hydraulics
• Air pollution impacts on plant functions