Fernando Valladares: Global change drivers in Mediterranean ecosystems: interactions and responses

Fernando Valladares, CSIC - Spain (valladares@ccma.csic.es)
 

Résumé

Terrestrial ecosystems in the Mediterranean basin are exposed to a challenging cocktail of environmental changes. Droughts are expected to increased, which interacts with changes in land use and habitat quality in a still poorly understood way. Although there is evidence for significant within-population evolutionary potential for functionally important traits in several Mediterranean species, little is known about whether this variation drives measurable evolutionary change. Habitat fragmentation exacerbates the negative impacts of climate change because it limits both the expression of plasticity and the evolutionary potential of key organisms. When population differentiation is accounted for and dispersal is restricted, forecasts of species range shifts under climate change are even more pessimistic than those using the conventional assumption of homogeneously high plasticity across a species’ range. Greater levels of integration among empirical, modeling and theoretical research are urgently needed

Recent publications:

• Valladares F, Matesanz S, Guilhaumon F, Araújo MB, Balaguer L, Benito-Garzón M, Cornwell W, Gianoli E, van Kleunen M, Naya DE, Nicotra AB, Poorter H, Zavala MA (2014) The effects of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation on forecasts of species range shifts under climate change. Ecology Letters 17(11):1351-64.
• Forner A, Aranda I, Granier A, Valladares F (2014) Differential impact of the most extreme drought event over the last half century on growth and sap flow in two coexisting Mediterranean trees. Plant Ecology 215 (7): 703-719.
• Grossiord C., Granier A, Ratcliffe S, Bouriaud O, Bruelheide H, Checko E, Forrester DI, Dawud SM, Finér L, Pollastrini M, Scherer-Lorenzen M, Valladares F, Bonal D, Gessler A. (2014) Tree diversity does not always improve resistance of forest ecosystems to drought. PNAS 111 (41), 14812-14815.

Contact:  Julie Messier, julie.messier@gmail.com

Contact du Comité SEEM: seem@services.cnrs.fr.