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DDC: 570 × Publisher: Oxford [u.a.] : Wiley-Blackwell ×

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    Simulating functional diversity of European natural forests along climatic gradients
    (Oxford [u.a.] : Wiley-Blackwell, 2020) Thonicke, Kirsten; Billing, Maik; von Bloh, Werner; Sakschewski, Boris; Niinemets, Ülo; Peñuelas, Josep; Cornelissen, J. Hans C.; Onoda, Yusuke; van Bodegom, Peter; Schaepman, Michael E.; Schneider, Fabian D.; Walz, Ariane
    Aim: We analyse how functional diversity (FD) varies across European natural forests to understand the effects of environmental and competitive filtering on plant trait distribution. Location: Forest ecosystems in Europe from 11°W to 36°E and 29.5°N to 62°N. Taxon: Pinaceae, Fagaceae and Betulaceae, Oleaceae, Tiliaceae, Aceraceae, Leguminosae (unspecific). Methods: We adopted the existing Dynamic Global Vegetation Model Lund-Potsdam-Jena managed Land of flexible individual traits (LPJmL-FIT) for Europe by eliminating both bioclimatic limits of plant functional types (PFTs) and replacing prescribed values of functional traits for PFTs with emergent values under influence of environmental filtering and competition. We quantified functional richness (FR), functional divergence (FDv) and functional evenness (FE) in representative selected sites and at Pan-European scale resulting from simulated functional and structural trait combinations of individual trees. While FR quantifies the amount of occupied trait space, FDv and FE describe the distribution and abundance of trait combinations, respectively, in a multidimensional trait space. Results: Lund-Potsdam-Jena managed Land of flexible individual traits reproduces spatial PFTs and local trait distributions and agrees well with observed productivity, biomass and tree height of European natural forests. The observed site-specific trait distributions and spatial gradients of traits of the leaf- and stem-resource economics spectra coincide with environmental filtering and the competition for light and water in environments with strong abiotic stress. Where deciduous and needle-leaved trees co-occur, for example, in boreal and mountainous forests, the potential niche space is wide (high FR), and extreme ends in the niche space are occupied (high FDv). We find high FDv in Mediterranean forests where drought increasingly limits tree growth, thus niche differentiation becomes more important. FDv decreases in temperate forests where a cold climate increasingly limits growth efficiency of broad-leaved summer green trees, thus reducing the importance of competitive exclusion. Highest FE was simulated in wet Atlantic and southern Europe which indicated relatively even niche occupation and thus high resource-use efficiency. Main Conclusions: We find FD resulting from both environmental and competitive filtering. Pan-European FR, FDv and FE demonstrate the influence of climate gradients and intra- and inter-PFT competition. The indices underline a generally high FD of natural forests in Europe. Co-existence of functionally diverse trees across PFTs emerges from alternative (life-history) strategies, disturbance and tree demography. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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    The more the merrier: effects of macromolecular crowding on the structure and dynamics of biological membranes
    (Oxford [u.a.] : Wiley-Blackwell, 2020) Löwe, Maryna; Kalacheva, Milara; Boersma, Arnold J.; Kedrov, Alexej
    Proteins are essential and abundant components of cellular membranes. Being densely packed within the limited surface area, proteins fulfil essential tasks for life, which include transport, signalling and maintenance of cellular homeostasis. The high protein density promotes nonspecific interactions, which affect the dynamics of the membrane-associated processes, but also contribute to higher levels of membrane organization. Here, we provide a comprehensive summary of the most recent findings of diverse effects resulting from high protein densities in both living membranes and reconstituted systems and display why the crowding phenomenon should be considered and assessed when studying cellular pathways. Biochemical, biophysical and computational studies reveal effects of crowding on the translational mobility of proteins and lipids, oligomerization and clustering of integral membrane proteins, and also folding and aggregation of proteins at the lipid membrane interface. The effects of crowding pervade to larger length scales, where interfacial and transmembrane crowding shapes the lipid membrane. Finally, we discuss the design and development of fluorescence-based sensors for macromolecular crowding and the perspectives to use those in application to cellular membranes and suggest some emerging topics in studying crowding at biological interfaces. © 2020 The Authors. The FEBS Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Federation of European Biochemical Societies
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    The function-dominance correlation drives the direction and strength of biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships
    (Oxford [u.a.] : Wiley-Blackwell, 2021) Crawford, Michael S.; Barry, Kathryn E.; Clark, Adam T.; Farrior, Caroline E.; Hines, Jes; Ladouceur, Emma; Lichstein, Jeremy W.; Maréchaux, Isabelle; May, Felix; Mori, Akira S.; Reineking, Björn; Turnbull, Lindsay A.; Wirth, Christian; Rüger, Nadja
    Community composition is a primary determinant of how biodiversity change influences ecosystem functioning and, therefore, the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF). We examine the consequences of community composition across six structurally realistic plant community models. We find that a positive correlation between species' functioning in monoculture versus their dominance in mixture with regard to a specific function (the "function-dominance correlation") generates a positive relationship between realised diversity and ecosystem functioning across species richness treatments. However, because realised diversity declines when few species dominate, a positive function-dominance correlation generates a negative relationship between realised diversity and ecosystem functioning within species richness treatments. Removing seed inflow strengthens the link between the function-dominance correlation and BEF relationships across species richness treatments but weakens it within them. These results suggest that changes in species' identities in a local species pool may more strongly affect ecosystem functioning than changes in species richness.