Publications by authors named "Solveig F Bucher"

Tree phenology is a major component of the global carbon and water cycle, serving as a fingerprint of climate change, and exhibiting significant variability both within and between species. In the emerging field of drone monitoring, it remains unclear whether this phenological variability can be effectively captured across numerous tree species. Additionally, the drivers behind interspecific variations in the phenology of deciduous trees are poorly understood, although they may be linked to plant functional traits.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Land surface phenology (LSP) is vital for understanding climate change impacts on ecosystems, yet the influence of biotic factors on LSP variation within local landscapes is still not well-studied.
  • - This research focused on four National Ecological Observatory Network sites to analyze how biotic factors, particularly functional traits of plants, affect the timing of seasonal changes (start and end of season) in LSP.
  • - Results showed that while plant functional types (PFTs) alone only accounted for a small percentage of variability in seasonal timing, incorporating functional traits significantly improved predictions, indicating that traits related to competition and productivity are key to understanding LSP variation.
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Whereas temporal variability of plant phenology in response to climate change has already been well studied, the spatial variability of phenology is not well understood. Given that phenological shifts may affect biotic interactions, there is a need to investigate how the variability in environmental factors relates to the spatial variability in herbaceous species' phenology by at the same time considering their functional traits to predict their general and species-specific responses to future climate change. In this project, we analysed phenology records of 148 herbaceous species, which were observed for a single year by the PhenObs network in 15 botanical gardens.

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Artificial light at night (ALAN) affects many areas of the world and is increasing globally. To date, there has been limited and inconsistent evidence regarding the consequences of ALAN for plant communities, as well as for the fitness of their constituent species. ALAN could be beneficial for plants as they need light as energy source, but they also need darkness for regeneration and growth.

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Artificial light at night (ALAN) is increasing worldwide, but its effects on the soil system have not yet been investigated. We tested the influence of experimental manipulation of ALAN on two taxa of soil communities (microorganisms and soil nematodes) and three aspects of soil functioning (soil basal respiration, soil microbial biomass and carbon use efficiency) over four and a half months in a highly controlled Ecotron facility. We show that during peak plant biomass, increasing ALAN reduced plant biomass and was also associated with decreased soil water content.

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Human activities cause substantial changes in biodiversity. Despite ongoing concern about the implications of invertebrate decline, few empirical studies have examined the ecosystem consequences of invertebrate biomass loss. Here, we test the responses of six ecosystem services informed by 30 above- and belowground ecosystem variables to three levels of aboveground (i.

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Article Synopsis
  • Scientists studied how plants use resources at the leaf level and wanted to see if similar patterns happen at the ecosystem level, which is a bigger area with lots of plants and animals.
  • They checked if three well-known theories about plant traits matched what happens in communities of plants and their ecosystems by analyzing data from many places.
  • They found that the patterns hold true at the ecosystem level, which could help create better models to predict how climate change affects nature.
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Ecosystem functions are heavily dependent on the functional composition of the plant community, i.e., the functional traits of plants forming the community.

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Phenology has emerged as key indicator of the biological impacts of climate change, yet the role of functional traits constraining variation in herbaceous species' phenology has received little attention. Botanical gardens are ideal places in which to investigate large numbers of species growing under common climate conditions. We ask whether interspecific variation in plant phenology is influenced by differences in functional traits.

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Land-use changes have huge impacts on natural vegetation, especially megaprojects, as the vegetation layer is destroyed in the course of construction works affecting the plant community composition and functionality. This large-scale disturbance might be a gateway for the establishment of invasive plant species, which can outcompete the natural flora. In contrast, species occurring in the area before the construction are not able to re-establish.

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Article Synopsis
  • Climate and land-use changes are causing a decline in invertebrate biomass, which in turn alters invertebrate communities and affects plant species abundance and flowering times.
  • In a controlled study using 24 experimental units, researchers tested the impact of varying invertebrate densities on an artificial grassland with 12 plant species, finding significant shifts in plant abundance and flowering phenology related to invertebrate presence.
  • The study highlights the need to consider biotic factors, like invertebrate abundance, alongside abiotic factors in understanding ecosystem dynamics, as declines could harm both plant and animal biodiversity and undermine essential ecosystem services.
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Anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition and resulting differences in ecosystem N and phosphorus (P) ratios are expected to impact photosynthetic capacity, that is, maximum gross primary productivity (GPP ). However, the interplay between N and P availability with other critical resources on seasonal dynamics of ecosystem productivity remains largely unknown. In a Mediterranean tree-grass ecosystem, we established three landscape-level (24 ha) nutrient addition treatments: N addition (NT), N and P addition (NPT), and a control site (CT).

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Article Synopsis
  • Plant traits, which include various characteristics like morphology and physiology, play a crucial role in how plants interact with their environment and impact ecosystems, making them essential for research in areas like ecology, biodiversity, and environmental management.
  • The TRY database, established in 2007, has become a vital resource for global plant trait data, promoting open access and enabling researchers to identify and fill data gaps for better ecological modeling.
  • Although the TRY database provides extensive data, there are significant areas lacking consistent measurements, particularly for continuous traits that vary among individuals in their environments, presenting a major challenge that requires collaboration and coordinated efforts to address.
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Phenological responses to changing temperatures are known as "fingerprints of climate change," yet these reactions are highly species specific. To assess whether different plant characteristics are related to these species-specific responses in flowering phenology, we observed the first flowering day (FFD) of ten herbaceous species along two elevational gradients, representing temperature gradients. On the same populations, we measured traits being associated with (1) plant performance (specific leaf area), (2) leaf biochemistry (leaf C, N, P, K, and Mg content), and (3) water-use efficiency (stomatal pore area index and stable carbon isotopes concentration).

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