Experimental Plant Ecology

Biodiversity – the variety of individuals, populations, species, and ecosystems and the natural processes occurring in them – is the basis of life and a main focus of the research at our institute. The landscape changes of the last decades have resulted in many plant species occurring in smaller and more isolated populations than in the past. Yet even in conditions of relatively intact habitat quality, such populations can be at risk from various factors: environmental fluctuations, genetic impoverishment and ensuing inbreeding problems, changes in biological interactions (such as insufficient pollination or increased susceptibility to herbivores and pathogenes). At the same time, landscape changes and human activities have led to the increase of exotic species which affect the native species and ecosystems. Our research focuses on these various aspects causing a loss of biodiversity. Furthermore, we investigate the consequences of biodiversity loss for populations and ecosystems. In particular, we ask how reductions in genetic diversity affect the viability of populations and how reductions in species diversity can make ecosystems less resilient to environmental impacts.

• The assembly of a plant network in alpine vegetation
  Losapio, G; de la Cruz, M; Escudero, A; Schmid, B; Schob, C
  JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE 29(6): 999-1006, DOI: 10.1111/jvs.12681, NOV 2018
• Contribution of epigenetic variation to adaptation in Arabidopsis
  Schmid, MW; Heichinger, C; Schmid, DC; Guthorl, D; Gagliardini, V; Bruggmann, R; Aluri, S; Aquino, C; Schmid, B; Turnbull, LA; Grossniklaus, U
  NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 9 10.1038/s41467-018-06932-5 OCT 25 2018
• Impacts of species richness on productivity in a large-scale subtropical forest experiment
  Huang, Y; Chen, Y; Castro-Izaguirre, N; Baruffol, M; Brezzi, M; Lang, AN; Li, Y; Haerdtle, W; Oheimb, G; Yang, X; Liu, X; Pei, K; Both, S; Yang, B; Eichenberg, D; Assmann, T; Bauhus, J; Behrens, T; Buscot, F; Chen, XY; Chesters, D; Ding, BY; Durka, W; Erfmeier, A; Fang, J; Fischer, M; Guo, LD; Guo, D; Gutknecht, JLM; He, JS; He, CL; Hector, A; Hoenig, L; Hu, RY; Klein, AM; Kuehn, P; Liang, Y; Li, S; Michalski, S; Scherer-Lorenzen, M; Schmidt, K; Scholten, T; Schuldt, A; Shi, X; Tan, MZ; Tang, Z; Trogisch, S; Wang, Z; Welk, E; Wirth, C; Wubet, T; Xiang, W; Yu, M; Yu, XD; Zhang, J; Zhang, S; Zhang, N; Zhou, HZ; Zhu, CD; Zhu, L; Bruelheide, H; Ma, K; Niklaus, PA; Schmid, B
  SCIENCE, 362 (6410):80-+; SI 10.1126/science.aat6405 OCT 5 2018
• Genetic differentiation, phenotypic plasticity and adaptation in a hybridizing pair of a more common and a less common Carex species
  Schmidt, L; Schmid, B; Oja, T; Fischer, M
  ALPINE BOTANY, 128 (2):149-167; 10.1007/s00035-018-0211-8 OCT 2018
• Functional groups differ in trait means, but not in trait plasticity to species richness in local grassland communities
  Roscher, C; Schumacher, J; Lipowsky, A; Gubsch, M; Weigelt, A; Schmid, B; Buchmann, N; Schulze, ED
  ECOLOGY, 99 (10):2295-2307; 10.1002/ecy.2447 OCT 2018
• Global leaf nitrogen and phosphorus stoichiometry and their scaling exponent
  Tian, D; Yan, ZB; Niklas, KJ; Han, WX; Kattge, J; Reich, PB; Luo, YK; Chen, YH; Tang, ZY; Hu, HF; Wright, IJ; Schmid, B; Fang, JY
  NATIONAL SCIENCE REVIEW Volume: 5 Issue: 5 Pages: 728-739 DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwx142 Published: SEP 2018
• Surrounding species diversity improves subtropical seedlings' carbon dynamics
  Salmon, YZ; Li, XF; Yang, B; Ma, KP; Siegwolf, RTW; Schmid, B
  ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, 8 (14):7055-7067; 10.1002/ece3.4225 JUL 2018
• Tree species richness increases ecosystem carbon storage in subtropical forests
  Liu, XJ; Trogisch, S; He, JS; Niklaus, PA; Bruelheide, H; Tang, ZY; Erfmeier, A; Scherer-Lorenzen, M; Pietsch, KA; Yang, B; Kuhn, P; Scholten, T; Huang, YY; Wang, C; Staab, M; Leppert, KN; Wirth, C; Schmid, B; Ma, KP
  PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 285 (1885):10.1098/rspb.2018.1240 AUG 29 2018
• Interspecific trait differences rather than intraspecific trait variation increase the extent and filling of community trait space with increasing plant diversity in experimental grasslands
  Roscher, C; Schumacher, J; Gubsch, M; Lipowsky, A; Weigelt, A; Buchmann, N; Schulze, ED; Schmid, B
  PERSPECTIVES IN PLANT ECOLOGY EVOLUTION AND SYSTEMATICS, 33 42-50; 10.1016/j.ppees.2018.05.001 AUG 2018
• Soil microbes promote complementarity effects among co-existing trees through soil nitrogen partitioning
  Luo, S; Schmid, B; De Deyn, GB; Yu, SX
  FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY, 32 (7):1879-1889; 10.1111/1365-2435.13109 JUL 2018
• Trait means, trait plasticity and trait differences to other species jointly explain species performances in grasslands of varying diversity
  Roscher, C; Gubsch, M; Lipowsky, A; Schumacher, J; Weigelt, A; Buchmann, N; Schulze, ED; Schmid, B
  OIKOS, 127 (6):855-865; 10.1111/oik.04815 JUN 2018
• The Nagoya Protocol could backfire on the Global South
  Deplazes-Zemp, A; Abiven, S; Schaber, P; Schaepman, M; Schaepman-Strub, G; Schmid, B; Shimizu, KK; Altermatt, F
  NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION, 2 (6):917-919; 10.1038/s41559-018-0561-z JUN 2018
• Quantifying effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning across times and places
  Isbell, F; Cowles, J; Dee, LE; Loreau, M; Reich, PB; Gonzalez, A; Hector, A; Schmid, B
  ECOLOGY LETTERS, 21 (6):763-778; 10.1111/ele.12928 JUN 2018
• Origin context of trait data matters for predictions of community performance in a grassland biodiversity experiment
  Roscher, C; Schumacher, J; Gubsch, M; Lipowsky, A; Weigelt, A; Buchmann, N; Schmid, B; Schulze, ED
  ECOLOGY, 99 (5):1214-1226; https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2216 MAY 2018
• Biodiversity-multifunctionality relationships depend on identity and number of measured functions 
  Meyer, Sebastian T.; Ptacnik, Robert; Hillebrand, Helmut; et al. 
  Source: NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION, 2 (1): 44-49; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0391-4 JAN 2018
• Shifting relative importance of climatic constraints on land surface phenology 
  Garonna, Irene; de Jong, Rogier; Stockli, Reto; et al. 
  ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 13 (2): FEB 2018 Article (Details)

• Community assembly processes 
• Effects of forest biodiversity on ecosystem carbon flux
• Ecological genetics
• Plant–soil feedbacks
• Invasion biology
• Ecology of endangered plant species

• Biodiversity–ecosystem services
• Trophic interactions between plants and other organisms (including mycorrhiza, pathogens, herbivores, pollinators)
• Ecology of Arabidopsis and wheat in collaboration with geneticists
• Perception and valuation of biodiversity