What is a functional composition of a plant community?
Plant communities consist of individuals and species that occur together. Each individual and species of the community can be quantified based on its functional traits, such as height or leaf area. So, the functional composition of a plant community refers to the variety and abundance of plant species based on their functional traits, rather than just their taxonomic identity (their species names). Functional traits influence how plants grow, survive, and reproduce, and how they interact with their environment, such as nutrients.
What are the main results of the study?
We compared the functional composition of plant communities between two sites in Svalbard. One site was heavily influenced by the nutrient input from a seabird colony that was nesting above the site. We assessed 13 different functional traits and found that plants closest to the colony, were taller and had higher resource-acquisitive trait values, such as larger and thicker leaves and higher leaf nutrient contents. At the site close to the colony, we found different species with different functional traits, and overall, we found a lot of within species variation based on their functional traits.
How does this study relate to biodiversity change?
Seabird populations are globally declining, and this has been a very rapid and dramatic decline in the Arctic. Declining bird populations affect the marine-derived nutrient input that birds bring from the sea to land. This in turn influences the vegetation at and nearby seabird colonies, and if bird populations continue declining, so will their nutrient inputs. Arctic plants are already showing responses to increasing warming, and one of the key indicators of this are their functional traits, such as plant height. As the climate changes in the Arctic, this will have consequences to plants not only directly through warming, but also through the declining nutrient input from seabirds.
The study has been peer reviewed and it is published as an open access article, which is available in the link below.
Author of the blog post: Julia Kemppinen
What is microclimate?
Microclimate refers to the local climatic conditions that matter to all organisms from humans to other animals and plants. For instance, in heat waves and storms, animals seek for shade or shelter to accommodate their microclimate preferences. Even in less dramatic settings such as in an office space, the local temperature and moisture conditions really do affect how the office plants and humans live and survive. This is why microclimates are important to measure and there are many ways to do so.
What are the main results of the study?
This article is a review of the most useful ways to measure microclimates. The article explains why, what, how, when, and where to measure microclimates and it also summarises what to consider when analysing and publishing microclimate data. These matters are important to evaluate, because there is no one-solution-fits-all when it comes to measuring microclimates. Microclimates should be always measured considering the specific study object, the study area, and the study question. For instance, an elephant in the savanna and a tiny plant in the tundra are both dependent on the local temperature conditions around them. But the same measurement techniques and scales do not necessarily work on both study objects because the ecology of an elephant and a plant is very different and because the savanna and the tundra are such different ecosystems.
How does this study relate to biodiversity change?
Biodiversity refers to the diversity of all living things, including for instance genetic variability and the diversity of species and ecosystems. All this biodiversity on Earth is affected by climate change, and measuring microclimates is an important tool in research for understanding how exactly things are responding to climate change. Because after all, all living things are affected by their surrounding conditions, including their microclimates. So, as the overall climate changes, it also changes the microclimates in which all organisms live.
The study has been peer reviewed and it is published as an open access article, which is available in the link below.
Author of the blog post: Julia Kemppinen