Global ETD Search
Search theses and dissertations gathered from participating repositories worldwide. Every result links back to the library that holds it. No account is needed.
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Showing 1 to 19 of 19 for “"plant functional types"”.
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CO₂ responsiveness of different plant functional types
… continue to rise in the future. Whilst growth of plants is typically enhanced under elevated CO₂ concentrations, the degree of the response varies from species. In this study 4 species were exposed to 6 different CO₂ levels across a range from sub ambient to super ambient conceliltrations.
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Microbial responses to plant functional types and historical resources additions in the shortgrass steppe
… in rangelands is an appealing way to increase plant biomass and quality, but little is known about the long-term effects of these additions on soil microbial activity and nutrient cycling. In addition, microbial activity may be affected by plant functional types (PFT) through influence on the …
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Functional analysis and modelling of vegetation: plant functional types in a mesocosmos experiment and a mechanistic model
The focus of this thesis lies on the functional analysis and modelling of vegetation. A statistical method for the optimisation of plant functional types is developed in the first part. The fourth corner method by Pierre Legendre et al. was adapted to the task of grouping of plant functional types. …
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Drivers of landscape evolution in northern ecosystems: Shrub expansion, vegetation-fire interaction, and permafrost degradation
… ecosystem carbon and energy dynamics, such as plant community composition and permafrost stability may shift in response to novel climate regimes. In the tundra of northern and northwestern Alaska, some of the most profound terrestrial responses to recent climate and environmental change have …
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Plant Species and Functional Diversity along Altitudinal Gradients, Southwest Ethiopian Highlands
… of diversity. This thesis, therefore, applies plant functional types (hereafter PFTs) approach to study the response of vegetation to environmental factors in the southwest Ethiopian highlands. It focuses on the classification of the vegetation into a few main plant functional response …
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Understanding scale impacts of heterogeneity and topography on water and energy fluxes in mountain meadows using a fully-integrated hydrologic model
… from LiDAR data taken at 0.5m resolution, and plant functional types were assigned based on remote sensing data flown for the area. A suite of ParFlow simulations were run to evaluate the impact of a systematic loss of information on integrated hydrologic response. The importance of …
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The role of rooting strategies on the eco-hydrology of semi-arid regions
… rooting profiles as a function of only the plant functional type of interest with no consideration for the soil texture or rainfall regime of the region being modeled. Additionally, these models do not incorporate the ability of vegetation to dynamically alter their rooting strategies in …
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Patterns of plant species richness and diversity across two habitat types in the Upper Karoo, South Africa
… this study was to relate fine-scale patterns of plant diversity and community structure to broader-scale vegetation mapping in the Karoo regions. It also investigated the role of several environmental and climatic variables as drivers of species richness, relative cover, and growth form diversity …
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Impacts of meteorology-driven seed dispersal on plant migration : implications for future vegetation structure under changing climates
… generally consider seed dispersal mechanisms and plant migration processes, which may influence the impacts of vegetation structural changes on the climate system (i.e., change in albedo, runoff, and terrestrial carbon sequestration capacity). For the first time, this study incorporates …
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The Impact of Global Climate Change on Tropical Forest Biodiversity in Amazonia
… a methodology for projecting a set of Amazonian plant species’ ranges from limited data, and estimating their response to climate change scenarios. Species are classified into plant functional types (PFTs), which share traits such as growth form and reproductive strategy. Species' current …
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A functional analysis of the response of the Southern Kalahari dune vegetation to land-use intensity
… an understanding of the mechanisms of plant responses to those pressures. Overgrazing and desertification are examples of the stressors that affect plant community composition, on both large and small scales. In order to investigate the plant community response to these stressors it has …
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Assessing the condition of the Flow Country peatlands to support their future protection: Monitoring blanket bog functioning during drought and mapping post-wildfire recovery
… for blanket bogs, a globally rare peatland types particularly abundant in Scotland, where they hold up nearly a quarter of the UK’s soil carbon.<br/>This thesis combines the use of ground-based empirical data and UAV-derived cover type estimates to assess the effects of climate extremes on …
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Investigating mechanisms maintaining plant species diversity in fire prone Mediterranean-type vegetation using spatially-explicit simulation models
… South-Western Australia are global hot spots for plant species diversity. To ensure management programs act to maintain these highly diverse plant communities, it is necessary to get a profound understanding of the crucial mechanisms of coexistence. In the current literature several mechanisms are …
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Influence of climate, fire and phosphorus in the dynamics of vegetation in the Amazon-Cerrado border simulated with INLAND model
… The INLAND characterizes the vegetation through plant functional types, which combined differently give rise to biomes. The nutritional limitation is established through a linear function of the total phosphorus content in the soil and the maximum carboxylation capacity of Rubisco enzyme (Vmax). …
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Productivity, physiology, community dynamics, and ecological impacts of a grassland agro-ecosystem: integrating field studies and ecosystem modeling
… parameterization. I found that the effects of plant physiological traits on photosynthetic capacity and parameters varied among species and plant functional types. These results suggest that one broad-scale relationship is not sufficient to characterize ecosystem conditions and changes at …
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Testing the potential of priority effects to sustainably increase community function in semi-natural grasslands
… factors are of importance in structuring (plant-) communities many studies found evidence for stochastic events (e.g. disturbance and the subsequent recolonization of a habitat) being the major driver during community assembly. One specific aspect of stochastic events which particularly …
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Bridging ecophysiological trade-offs and population dynamics - How competition and climate shape community structure
… is the primary selective factor for whether a plant species is successful or not. Under favorable climatic conditions more species can thrive than under unfavorable conditions. Furthermore, it is competitive interactions that strongly affect the relative abundances of plant species within …
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The modeled effects of fire on carbon balance and vegetation abundance in Alaskan tundra
… graminoid vegetation favors the spread of this functional type in early succession, late succession appears to favor shrub vegetation at abundances greater than those observed before fire. Possible reasons for this latter observation include changes in albedo, soil insulation, and soil moisture …