André T.C. Dias

Research interests

My main interest is to understand how the interaction between plant and detritivore traits drives the turnover of soil organic matter in the context of climate change.

By using traits it is possible to make more general predictions about how species respond to environmental changes and how they affect ecosystem processes. This functional approach has been mainly applied to plants, the challenge now is to expand it to functionally important animals such as detritivores.

I am also interested in understanding how management practices and species traits and their interactions drive greenhouse gas emissions.

Selected Publications

Freschet, G.T., A.T.C. Dias, D.D. Ackerly, R. Aerts, P.M. van Bodegom, W.K. Cornwell, M. Dong, H. Kurokawa, G. Liu, V.G. Onipchenko, J.C. Ordonez, D.A. Peltzer, S.J. Richardson, I.I. Shidakov, N.A. Soudzilovskaia, J. Tao and J.H.C. Cornelissen (2011) Global to community scale differences in the prevalence of convergent over divergent leaf trait distrubutions in plan assemblages. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 20: 755-765.

Dias, A.T.C., J. van Ruijven, F. Berendse (2010) Plant species richness regulates soil respiration through changes in productivity. Oecologia, 163: 805-813.

Dias, A.T.C., B. Hoorens, R.S.P. van Logtestijn, J.E. Vermaat and R. Aerts (2010) Plant species composition can be used as a proxy to predict methane emissions in peatland ecosystems after land-use changes. Ecosystems, 13: 526-538.

Dias, A.T.C., de Mattos, E.A., Vieira, S.A., Azeredo, J.V. & Scarano, F.R. (2006) Aboveground biomass stock of native woodland on a Brazilian sandy coastal plain: Estimates based on the dominant tree species. Forest Ecology and Management, 226, 364-367.

Dias, A.T.C., Zaluar, H.L.T., Ganade, G. & Scarano, F.R. (2005) Canopy composition influencing plant patch dynamics in a Brazilian sandy coastal plain. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 21, 343-347.

Research project

Traits meet trophic interactions: predicting the effects of climate change on soil carbon cycling using functional traits 

Understanding and predicting the effects of climate changes on ecosystem processes is a big challenge to ecologists. Recent evidence has shown that the indirect effects of climate change on soil processes due to shifts in community composition can be much greater than direct environmental effects. Therefore, understanding how climate changes affect ecological communities and how the changed communities affect ecosystem processes is crucial to increase our predictability on ecosystem functioning and stability in the context of climate change. In this project, we propose that by identifying decomposer response traits to litter quality and environmental conditions and possible links between decomposer response and effect traits, we will increase our ability to predict how climate changes will affect community composition and subsequently, the carbon cycle. We chose terrestrial isopods as a model organism to study how the interaction between decomposer and litter functional diversity affects ecosystem processes rates and stability. We are using microcosm experiments in which we manipulate litter quality and water availability to record species responses, as well as their effects on ecosystems processes.

Participants: 
Matty Berg, Hans Cornelissen, Jacintha Ellers, Martin Zimmer, David A. Wardle and Jasper van Ruijven