Drs. Simone I. Lang
t: +31 (0)20 5987047
e: simone.lang@ecology.falw.vu.nl
Introduction
Simone Lang is a German geo-ecologist and currently working on her PhD thesis. Being interested in the little things in life she is now studying the microcosm world of mosses and lichens in the Arctic.
Publications
Research project
Global Change and the Biodiversity of Cryptogams in Northern Biomes
Climate change at high latitudes is predicted to be greater and more rapid than in any other region on Earth. Cryptogams (lichens and bryophytes) represent the main group of organisms in these areas. Yet very little is known about the response of cryptogams to climate change.
The main aims of my project (funded by the Dutch Science Foundation, NWO) are to detect and quantify general trends in the response of taxonomic and functional diversity of terrestric bryophytes and lichens to climate warming in sub-arctic and arctic biomes; and to devise an a posteriori functional classification of (sub-)arctic cryptogams. For this project we combined field evidence from two complementary approaches: (1) Sampling cryptogam diversity and associated environmental factors in diverse ongoing (mostly 5-15 years) field manipulation warming experiments in Sweden and Alaska (standardized environmental factors, good replication, but rather short temporal scales and experimental artefacts). (2) Sampling was also done along natural climatic gradients (large spatial and temporal scales, but difficult to separate environmental factors).
Changing plant communities may also change nutrient cycling processes. From vascular plants it is well-known that nutrients from senescing plant material are transferred within the plant, this process being even more important in nutrient-poor environments such as predominate in the Arctic. Do cryptogams resorb nutrients and to what extent? Can we identify different cryptogam types with respect to nutrient resorption? To tackle these questions a wide variety of cryptogams is studied.
The shifts in plant community composition induced by a warming climate may also lead to different decomposition patterns when cryptogam communities are changing, and thereby cryptogam litter quality. Decomposition of higher plants has been worked on in great detail. Yet what do we know about cryptogam litter decomposition? Various studies have been carried out covering only a few species at a time. In this study we attempt to screen a wide variety of cryptogam species for litter decomposability in a standardized way, subsequently developing a new functional classification based on litter traits and consequent decomposition patterns.
Links
Dr Hans Cornelissen
Prof Dr Rien Aerts
Abisko Research Station
Toolik Field Station
