We tested how European beech seedlings from across Europe respond to manipulations of light and watering conditions during the growing season in Finland. Our recent paper in Trees: Structure & Function reports on differences among populations receiving combinations of drought, and sun or shade conditions, including gas exchange, water relations, and UV-abs compounds in the leaf epidermis.
Beech seedlings under drought (front) & well watered (back) treatments.
Wang F, Israel D, Ramírez-Valiente J-A, Sánchez-Gómez D, Aranda I, Aphalo PJ, Robson TM. (2021) Seedlings from marginal and core populations of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) respond differently to imposed drought and shade. Trees Structure and Function, 35, 53-67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-020-02011-9
The UNEP EEAP 2020 Update has just been published in Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences. This year the assessment includes a section & supplement on the implications of these environmental effects for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meltwater accumulating on Eagle Island, Antarctica
Changes in UV radiation and climate have the potential to alter habitat suitability for plant species in terrestrial ecosystems.
Species native to Antarctic are adapted to live under the extreme conditions, but continued changes in UV radiation and climate in this environment could exceed the limits of tolerances and survival of many native species of animal and plants.
Stratospheric ozone depletion affects the Antarctic climate with direct consequences for the environment of terrestrial Antarctic ecosystems.
Plant responses to UV radiation are contingent on other changing environmental conditions, and these effects collectively influence crop quality and production
Acclimation of plants to changes in UV radiation may depend on the adaptation of species to grow in more open or shaded environments and could lead to shifts in functional diversity as vegetative cover changes with climate change and land use.
The sensitivity of pollen to UV radiation and its preservation in the fossil record make it attractive for use in reconstructing UV radiation from the geological past.
Technological advances are allowing for the use of UV radiation to improve agricultural sustainability.
To find out more the open-access publication: Neale, et al. (2021) Environmental effects of stratospheric ozone depletion, UV radiation, and interactions with climate: UNEP Environmental Effects Assessment Panel, Update 2020. Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences, https://doi.org/10.1007/s43630-020-00001-x
Two PhD students in the CanSEE group will start their studies joining our Academy Project studying how climate change, altering cloudiness and atmospheric features, affects the light use of forest and crop canopies.
Santa Neimane and Twinkle Solanki recording diurnal patterns in leaf optical properties of alpine plants under UV filters
While, Baiba Matule will continue to develop her project studying how plant acclimate to short fast under-canopy sunflecks (AGFOREE doctoral programme)
Marta Pieristè successfully defended her PhD dissertation, “Light after Death: the importance of spectral composition in litter decomposition processes” on Tuesday 16th June 2020 at 10:30 a.m. EET Finland. You can relive the PhD defence using the following video link: Marta Pieristè PhD defence
In addition to the Thesis Summary, the dissertation is composed of three published papers and one manuscript below:
Pieristè† Neimane† et al. (2020) Ultraviolet radiation accelerates photodegradation under controlled conditions but slows the decomposition of leaf litter from forest stands in southern Finland.Plant Physiology and Biochemistry. PLAPHY5920 146, 42–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.PLAPHY.2019.11.005
Pieristè et al., (2019) Solar UV-A radiation and blue light enhance tree leaf litter decomposition in a temperate forest by accelerating photodegradation rate.Oecologia, 191(1), 191-203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-019-04478-x
Pieristè et al., (manuscript – embargoed) The crucial role of blue light as a driver of photodegradation in terrestrial ecosystems on the global scale: a meta-analysis.
Litter-boxes in the beech forest during the decomposition experiment in Rouen.
As a joint PhD between Normandie Universite Rouen and the University of Helsinki, Marta’s Examination was be conducted by:
Pre-examiners: Prof Christiane Gallet, University Savoie (France) and Dr Tarja Lehto, University of Eastern Finland (Finland).
Custos : Prof Kurt Fagerstedt, University of Helsinki (Finland).
President: Prof Matty Berg, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (The Netherlands).
To meet the requirements of the co-tutelle PhD, the defence commenced with a 50 minute presentation – followed by 20-30 minutes of questioning by each examiner in turn.
The 2019 Update on the 2018 Quadrennial Assessment by the UNEP Environmental Effects Panel assessing how climate change, ozone and UV-B radiation interact is now published in Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences.
Bernhard et al., (2020), Environmental effects of stratospheric ozone depletion, UV radiation and interactions with climate change: UNEP Environmental Effects Assessment Panel, update 2019. Photochemical & Photobiological SciencesDOI: 10.1039/d0pp90011g
The Panel met in Alexandria on the South Island of New Zealand in September-October 2019 to consider the latest research into these effects on climate, human health, terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem, materials, pollution, and biogeochemical cycling; as well as cross-cutting factors affecting all of these global concerns.
This year 2020, we will reconvene in September to consider what has been a very unusual year for ozone depletion and climate interactions in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
Sunset over Shoal Bay, New South Wales, Australia (Photo: Scott Byrne).
Craig Brelsford from the CanSEE group at the University of Helsinki will defend his PhD dissertation entitled, “Light quality affects leaf pigments and leaf phenology”, on Thursday June 4th, 2020 at 12 noon EET in Finland (11 a.m. CET in the rest of continental Europe).
Treharne et al., (2019) Arctic browning: Impacts of extreme climatic events on heathland ecosystem CO2 fluxes. Global Change Biology, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14500
We are grateful to a grant from HiLIFE Grand Challenges, Biological Resilience Seed Funding, allowing us to start work on the project: Surviving on the edge – trait syndromes that facilitate northerly species-range expansion.
This project will allow us to utilise a unique field-trial of Fagus sylvatica (European beech) at the University of Helsinki – far beyond the north-eastern limit of its range. Using such trials, we can compare the traits of populations in new potentially stressful environments, giving us the tools to forecast how they will respond to climate change and potentially exploit more northerly regions of Europe.
In addition to field data, the project will test how trait information can be inserted into species distribution models. We will bring together experts in the field from Helsinki and beyond, to discuss how best to develop such models to provide informed forecasts of future species distributions. Armed with this knowledge, we will consider how policy makers, foresters, and conservation bodies might utilise this information in their work.
Newly thinned Helsinki beech-provenance trial in May 2020; with four populations covering the European range limits.
In the latest paper published in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology together with our collaborators from Bordeaux we consider the effect of warming on the phenology of European beech.
The interactive relationship between leaf senescence and the mean temperature in September, October and November (Tm SON) for (a) the trial and (b) for the provenance.
Using ΔTrait Species Distribution Modelling of a large dataset from provenance trials, we established that not only earlier spring phenology but also delayed leaf senescence in northern populations allowed them to exploit warmer summer temperatures.
Beech is one of those forest trees that utilises a combination of temperature and day-length cues to prompt advancement of its annual growth cycle, meaning the climate warming and associated northerly range shifts have potentially complex outcomes for its phenology.
Homero Gárate-Escamilla, Craig C. Brelsford, Arndt Hampe, T. Matthew Robson, Marta Benito Garzón, (2020) Greater capacity to exploit warming temperatures in northern populations of European beech is partly driven by delayed leaf senescence, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Volume 284,
107908, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.107908.
During the 3rd week of October at the University of Helsinki we ran an international course which considered how plant responses to light are mediated by environmental factors and the implications of climate change for plants’ capacity to adjust to their light environment. The course, organised on behalf of the Doctoral Programme in Plant Sciences (DPPS), was attended by 13 visiting teachers and PhD students from all around Europe, in addition to the local participants from the University of Helsinki.
With the objective of understanding how plants scale their responses across levels of organisation, and respond to light over the appropriate time-scale for their environment, there were plenty of opportunities for students and teachers to develop inter-disciplinary knowledge and collaborations during the course.
We started the week considering photoreceptors and cell-cell signalling, and gradually scaled-up to look at the photosystem and chloroplast responses, physiological and biochemical mechanisms of photoprotection, the use of light in the timing of growth and flowering, and finally, plant traits, ecological and ecosystem levels. A breadth of expertise was provided by an outstanding team of research leaders both from Helsinki and around Europe, giving really engaging lectures and stimulating discussions among the group.
International teachers and students enjoying the forest at Lammi Biological Station
The international participants rounded off the week with a visit to Lammi Biological Station to experience the Finnish forest, lake and hospitality!
UNEP have put together a video explaining the work of the UNEP panels that assess ozone depletion, UV-B radiation and their interaction with climate change.
The UNEP Environmental Effects Assessment Panel in New Zealand
This year Janet Bornman, Paul Barnes, Carlos Ballaré, Sharon Robinson and myself were particularly tasked with understanding how plant-level effects on biodiversity and key ecological processes scale-up to the ecosystem level. We also focussed on crosscutting themes affecting not only terrestrial ecosystems, but mankind and the entire global environment.
A traditional Pōwhiri – Māori welcome – for the UNEP panel.
The capacity for us to address ozone depletion through the successful implementation of the Montreal Protocol, which limited the production of ozone depleting chemicals, can be seen as a flagship example of our capacity to address global environmental problems through concerted international action. In this respect, one of the panel’s responsibilities in future reports will be to provide quantitative comparisons of how our environment differs today from what it would have looked like without the Montreal Protocol.
The World Avoided – Projection of the UV index in March 2065 with (left) and without (right) the implementation of the Montreal Protocol – from Barnes et al., (2019) Nature Sustainability 2, 569–579 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0314-2
