FUNMEET; SYNTHESIZING TEN YEARS OF CLIMATE CHANGE EXPERIMENTS ON PLANT ECOLOGY, ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING AND EVOLUTION

A new field-based experimental methodological approach has been developed to study climate change impacts on various ecological, functional, and evolutionary aspects of plants, microbes and ecosystems (SeedClim and FunCaB). Results to date show that changes in both temperature and precipitation affect plant composition, growth, biomass, resource allocation, and recruitment; and species-specific responses may alter competitive interactions and plant community composition, favouring lowland and generalist species in a warmer and wetter world. These interactive effects of temperature and precipitation may help understand the often inconsistent responses in studies focusing on warming effects alone. Over the past ten years, SeedClim and FunCaB have attracted new collaborators and inspired development of new research projects that make use of the SeedClim climate grid to study climate change impacts on microbial communities, carbon and nutrient dynamics and plant evolution. FunMeet will bring together researchers, postdocs and students related to the SeedClim and FunCaB and other spin-off project to discuss and synthesizing the vast amount of data produced in the last ten years on the SeedClim climate grid. During the workshop we will analyse data to explore interrelationships between different projects, develop joint publications, and plan for future collaborative research. The PhD and MSc students will benefit further by developing research networks, collaborations and links with each other and with experienced researchers in the wider FunCaB consortium.