MSc Marika Makkonen

Introduction

Marika is a PhD student working on ecosystem-level soil ecology in the Sub-arctic region. Her general aim is to investigate the effect of climate change on plant litter decomposition via above- and belowground functional trait diversity in the Sub-arctic. Marika completed her MSc in Environmental Sciences at the University of Kuopio (Finland) and the University of Bergen (Norway). She started her research work at the VU University of Amsterdam in May 2007 and will continue until 2011. A short description of her research project and its wider context will follow below.

Publications IEW

Project

Below- and aboveground biota, and the ecosystem processes they are associated with, are susceptible to the predicted changes in northern latitude moisture and temperature conditions. With my research I am assessing feedbacks among plant litter decomposition, functional trait diversity (both plant litter and soil organisms) and climate change in Abisko (Sweden).
My three specific research questions are:
 
How will climate change affect soil fauna functional trait diversity?
Soil fauna community studies under manipulated climatic condition don’t reveal clear patterns on how the community is affected. By looking at the functional trait diversity we hope to understand the differing responses at the functional group and species level.
 
What are important functional traits among soil fauna and plant litter in relation to moisture and how will these litter and fauna traits interact in plant litter decomposition processes?
Changes in moisture are hypothesised to be more important for arctic soil food web than changes in temperature. We want to assess functional traits in a moisture perspective, concentrating on microclimate along with responses and interactions in soil food webs. 
 
Is functional trait diversity a stabilising factor for ecosystem process rates under climate change?
The relationship between diversity and stability in ecosystem processes is a highly debated topic in ecology. The importance of diversity for ecosystem processes has been hypothesised to increase when the system is facing external perturbations. It has been hypothesised that the role of biodiversity in an ecosystem is to provide stability to ecosystem processes. Functional trait diversity might be important in maintaining ecosystem processes, e.g. litter decomposition processes, under these changing climatic conditions. However this lacks experimental verification. 
 
Prof Dr Rien Aerts
Matty Berg
Linnea

Context

My research work forms part of two bigger international projects. 
 
BioCycle
Biocycle is an ESF (European Science Foundation) project that is part of their EuroDIVERSITY programme. This project aims to advance the understanding of the biodiversity - ecosystem function relationship. We look into the interactive effects of plant litter diversity and decomposer arthropod diversity on carbon and nutrient cycling across a gradient of paired terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems running from the arctic to the tropics. Within the project we have five experimental sites (sub-arctic, boreal, temperate, Mediterranean and tropical). In all of these sites we are running parallel decomposition studies both in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. This project involves collaboration among various European institutes.

BioCycle

MultiArc
MultiArc provides training in multi-scale approaches to understand carbon dynamics in Arctic and upland systems. This EU Marie Curie funded project brings our department into collaboration with the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield (UK), Abisko Scientific Research Station and the University of Lund (Sweden). This project is built around 6 PhD students working with hydrology, plant physiology, plant litter decomposition, carbon effluxes and climate modelling.
 
MultiArc
Gregoire Freschet MSc
Dr Hans Cornelissen

Last update April 11, 2008