Lieneke Verheijen MSc

I am Lieneke Verheijen and I started my PhD-project at Systems Ecology in the summer of 2010. A month earlier I finished my MSc Ecology here at VU University. During the two research internships of this master, I specialized in ecological modelling, i.e. trait-based modelling of vegetation and optimization techniques to predict fluxes from vegetation. I will apply the knowledge thus obtained to my research project.

Research Project

Although there is convincing evidence that climate is changing and earth systems are affected, the impact and direction of change are still not known precisely. To reduce this uncertainty, scientists have developed global climate models that simulate fluxes of H2O and CO2 between atmosphere, ocean and land. Vegetation plays a pivotal role in modifying the interactions between soil and atmosphere via processes like photosynthesis and respiration.

Models that simulate vegetation dynamics are called dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs). In many of these vegetation models, the large range of possible plant responses to environmental change is represented by a limited number of fixed classes, called Plant Functional Types (PFTs). However, given the variability in plant characteristics within vegetation, such representation might hamper obtaining realistic predictions. Therefore, more sophisticated vegetation models may be useful.
 
The goal of the project is to increase the ecological realism of DGVMs by using plant traits instead of PFTs to represent vegetation responses. Traits are characteristics of plants that represent plant functioning. Plant traits can vary with their environment, which enables the modelling of continuous plant responses and plant adaptation to climate change. This makes the use of plant traits a promising tool in more realistic vegetation modelling.

The recent development of extensive datasets containing data about species and their trait values across the globe enables a trait-based modelling approach. Part of my research project will be the incorporation of variable plant traits into existing PFT-based DGVMs to increase the ecological realism of these models. Another part will focus on the construction of a new and complete plant trait-based vegetation model, which should predict global vegetation types and carbon fluxes based on empirical relations between traits and climatic conditions.

Supervisors

Dr. Peter van Bodegom
Prof. Dr. Rien Aerts