April 15th, 15.45, Dr. Stephan Hättenschwiler
April 15th
Dr. Stephan Hättenschwiler
Center of Functional Ecology and Evolution
CEFE-CNRS
1919, route de Mende
F-34293 Montpellier cedex 5
France
Selection on the dead? Afterlife effects on ecosystem functioning in an evolutionary context
Abstract
Decomposing organic matter influences the soil environment to a large extent, with important feedback effects on the performance of living plants and associated organisms. It has been proposed, that genetically based plant traits might be selected for their afterlife effects on ecosystem processes, rather than for their function in living plant tissues. This presentation aims at giving a brief overview on some of this evidence and at critically assessing the hypothesis of selection driven afterlife effects. Using mainly data from a species rich tropical rainforest I will focus on plant litter decomposition as a fundamentally important ecosystem process, the role of specific plant traits as drivers of decomposition and nutrient cycling, and on how biodiversity and trophic interactions add complexity in the assessment of whether or not “selection on the dead” might be an important evolutionary process.
CV
Research Interests:
The consequences of global environmental change and changing biodiversity for ecosystem functioning have been the general focus of my scientific activity. My main interests include the consequences of rising atmospheric CO2 concentration on plant physiology, growth, interactions among plant species and across trophic levels, and how this influences community structure and ecosystem functioning. As a second major topic I am studying how changing biological diversity affect decomposition and nutrient cycling as major ecosystem processes.
- Since 2007 Leader of the research group “BioFlux” at CEFE
- Since 2005 Co-responsible for the master’s program “Evolutionary Biology and Ecology” at the University of Montpellier II
- Since 2004 Editor for Oecologia
- Since 2003 Permanent CNRS research position at the Center of Functional Ecology and Evolution (CEFE) in Montpellier, France
- 2001 – 2003 Assistant Professor at the Department of Integrative Biology, University of Basel, Switzerland
- 1999 – 2000 Postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, U.S.A., in Peter Vitousek’s lab
- 1996 – 1998 Postdoctoral research assistant at the Institute of Botany, University of Basel, Switzerland, in Christian Körner’s lab
- 1993 – 1996 PhD in Botany at the University of Basel, Switzerland, in Christian Körner’s lab
