Prof. Dr. Rien Aerts

I am director of the Dept. of Ecological Science and head of the section Systems Ecology. Besides my management and teaching tasks I do research in the field of effects of global change factors (atmospheric nitrogen deposition, elevated CO₂ concentrations, warming, changes in hydrology) on ecosystem biogeochemistry and species diversity, mainly in high-latitude ecosystems.

I do this by combining activities in international research networks (ITEX, BioCycle, CLIMMANI, INCREASE), in national networks ( Darwin Center for Biogeosciences), in various PhD projects of our dept., and in small, but long-term (>10 yrs) personal and hands-on research activities in Swedish Lapland (Abisko).

Research projects (selection)

Global change and the biogeochemistry of northern peatlands. In this project, which involves cooperation with many colleagues from the dept and with foreign colleagues (International Tundra Experiment, ITEX) , we try to unravel how global change (warming, precipitation) affects the biogeochemistry of northern peatlands and how this feeds back on the atmosphere. The focal point of these activities is Abisko in northern Sweden.

With Hans Cornelissen, Peter van Bodegom, Matty Berg, Ellen Dorrepaal, Frida Keuper, Marika Makkonen, Gregoire Freschet, James Weedon, George Kowalchuk, Richard van Logtestijn, Jurgen van Hal.

BioCycle. This ESF funded project brings together both terrestrial and aquatic ecologists to study how resource and consumer diversity affects litter decomposition processes from the sub-arctic to the tropics. http://biocycle.cefe.cnrs.fr/

With Matty Berg, Marika Makkonen, Jurgen van Hal, Richard van Logtestijn

Crawling up and breaking down. This project aims to unravel how the northern range expansion of soil macro-fauna to the sub-arctic affects litter decomposition processes.

With Matty Berg, Jurgen van Hal, Richard van Logtestijn

Traits and carbon cycling in a low CO₂ world. This project, supported by the Darwin Center for Biogeosciences (http://www.darwincenter.nl/DarwinCenter.aspx), intends to unravel how plant traits that have evolved in a low CO₂ world have affected carbon cycling processes in the past and how potential constraints on these trait spectra affect present-day carbon cycling processes.

With Andries Temme, Will Cornwell, Hans Cornelissen, Ulrike Wagner

Optimization of hydrology in brook valleys. This Knowledge for Climate Program aims to investigate how we should configure the spatial arrangement of landscape elements in stream valleys to optimize biodiversity under various scenarios of water storage and climate change.

With Yasmijn van der Knaap, Peter van Bodegom, Flip Witte, Marc Bierkens, Remco van Ek

Links

ITEX                         

BioCycle                    

CLIMMANI             

INCREASE              

DarwinCenter   

Five selected publications

Lang, S.I., Cornelissen, J.H.C., Shaver, G.R., Ahrens, M., Callaghan, T.V., Molau, U., ter Braak, C.J.F., Hölzer, A., Aerts, R. (2012) Consistent negative arctic warming effects on lichen diversity and mixed effects on bryophyte diversity on two continents. Global Change Biology (in press)

Weedon, J.T., Kowalchuk, G.A., Aerts, R., van Hal, J., van Logtestijn, R., Tas, N., Röling, W.F.M., van Bodegom, P.M. (2012) Summer warming accelerates sub-arctic peatland nitrogen cycling without changing enzyme pools or microbial community structure. Global Change Biology (in press).

Van Bodegom, P., Douma, J.C., Witte, J.P., Ordoñez, J.C., Bartholomeus, R.P., Aerts, R. (2011) Going beyond limitations of plant functional types when predicting global ecosystem–atmosphere fluxes: exploring the merits of traits-based approaches. Global Ecology and Biogeography (in press)

Aerts, R. (2010) Nitrogen-dependent recovery of sub-arctic tundra vegetation after simulation of extreme winter warming damage to Empetrum hermaphroditum. Global Change Biology 16:1071-1081.  doi 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.01999.x

Dorrepaal, E., Toet, S., van Logtestijn, R.S.P., Swart, E., van de Weg, M.J., Callaghan, T.V., Aerts, R. (2009) Carbon respiration from subsurface peat accelerated by climate warming in the subarctic. Nature 460:616-619.

Full list of publications Rien Aerts

Full list of publications of the section Systems ecology including PDFs