Tradeoffs between phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation influence the ecophysiology of the moss, Sphagnum magellanicum.

Bryophytes are a diverse plant group and are functionally different from vascular plants. Yet, their peculiarities are rarely considered in the theoretical frameworks for plants. Currently, we lack information about the magnitude and the importance of intraspecific variability in the ecophysiology of bryophytes and how these might translate to local adaptation-a prerequisite for adaptive evolution.

The Sphagnome Project: enabling ecological and evolutionary insights through a genus-level sequencing project.

Considerable progress has been made in ecological and evolutionary genetics with studies demonstrating how genes underlying plant and microbial traits can influence adaptation and even 'extend' to influence community structure and ecosystem level processes. Progress in this area is limited to model systems with deep genetic and genomic resources that often have negligible ecological impact or interest. Thus, important linkages between genetic adaptations and their consequences at organismal and ecological scales are often lacking.

Assessing environmental attributes and effects of climate change on Sphagnum peatland distributions in North America using single- and multi-species models.

The fate of Northern peatlands under climate change is important because of their contribution to global carbon (C) storage. Peatlands are maintained via greater plant productivity (especially of Sphagnum species) than decomposition, and the processes involved are strongly mediated by climate. Although some studies predict that warming will relax constraints on decomposition, leading to decreased C sequestration, others predict increases in productivity and thus increases in C sequestration.