PFTC News
The 7th International Plant Functional Traits Course will be held in Drakensberg, South Africa, 1 – 19 December 2023. Plant Functional Traits Courses (PFTC) offer hands-on training in applications of plant functional trait ecology within a real-life field research project setting. During this 7th PFTC course, students will collect and explore plant functional trait data in the field and use trait-based approaches within community and ecosystem ecology. Following the course, students will have opportunities to participate in / lead publications using the data. See our current publications. Trait-based ecology incorporates methods that enable powerful approaches to predict how climate and biotic interactions shape plant community dynamics and ecosystem functioning. This course will provide students with essential background knowledge and the practical field, lab, and computational skills needed for conducting their own research within trait-based ecology. Application deadline: 28 February, 2023. Update 9 March: Any applications received from now on can unfortunately not be considered. The PFTC7 course will be held in the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa, between the 1st and 19th of December 2023 with online pre-course preparatory work in September – November 2023. We will work alpine grasslands, from c. 2000 to 3000 m a.s.l., in the Witsieshoek area of the Drakensberg mountains. It is a fascinating and truly beautiful study system, located within a very biodiverse area (c. 3000 plant species in the eastern Drakensberg region, with c. 9% endemism; Carbutt 2019 S. Afr. J. Bot). Students will be introduced to the environmental, microenvironmental, ecological, and taxonomic diversity of the region, and given hands-on instruction in relevant theory and methods of ecophysiology; community, functional traits and ecosystem ecology; population biology; computational biology; and data management. Students will work in four groups: Plant trait responses along an elevational gradient (~10 students). This large group will assess trait responses along an elevational gradient. Within this larger group, students will focus on specific projects such as grasses vs. forbs, ridge vs. depression microhabitats, C3 vs C4 grasses, grazing quality, and/or explore consequences for plant community assembly and ecosystem functioning. This group will collaborate with groups 2, 3, and 4 to understand plant and ecosystem functional consequences of these community shifts. Group leaders: Julia Kemppinen & TBDs Leaf traits as a tool to understand environmental impacts on photosynthesis and respiration (~5 students). This group will study how leaf temperatures and physiological fluxes vary between plants from different elevations, origins, functional types, and photosynthetic pathways. Group 2 will collaborate with the group 1 sub-groups to put these responses in context of broader plant and community responses to the environment. Group leaders: Sean Michaletz & TBD Environmental impacts on traits and ecosystem functioning (~5 students). This group will study how trait composition influences ecosystem functioning by measuring CO2-flux within and across plant communities. Group 3 will collaborate with group 1 to access data on community trait shifts, and mainly focus on ecosystem carbon dynamics in response to environmental variation. Group leaders: Brian Enquist & TBD Remote assessment of plant traits and ecosystem functioning (~8 students). This group will assess how remotely-sensed data can capture plant and ecosystem functional traits from individual plants to landscape-scale. We will work on two projects: a) Passive Sensors/reflectance: leaf spectroscopy in the field to capture intra- and inter-specific variability as it is linked to landscape properties, and to study how the multi- and hyper-spectral reflectance data can inform on plant traits. b) Active Sensor/radar: we will employ a Ground-penetrating Radar (GPR) to infer belowground plant biomass and root structure. Group 4 will collaborate with groups 1-3 over community-level data. Students applying for this group should have experience with geospatial analyses. Group leaders: Nicola Kühn, Nicole Bison, & Marc Macias-Fauria. Through developing and conducting these research projects to explore the potential of plant functional trait-based approaches in understanding the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of the study area, PFTC students will build key research skills in planning and conducting trait-based field campaigns. You will gain practical experience in measuring plant functional traits and related physiological, plant community, and ecosystem data in the field using standard protocols. Group 1 will be focussing especially on the biodiversity and plant functional trait data, group 2 and 3 students will become especially familiar with taking measurements using ecophysiological equipment including LiCor 6800 and LiCor 7500, and group 4 with spectral data. You will learn about the structure and analysis of trait data, be introduced to best practice data management and reproducible coding, as well as having the opportunity to analyse and interpret data yourself. You can read about previous courses in China, Peru, and Norway here. An important element of this course is its cross-disciplinarity, spanning from detailed measurements of physiological rates to remote sensing. While students will receive in-depth training within their speciality, they will also contribute to, collaborate on, and gain insight into the work of the other groups. The course is primarily aimed at graduate students, both MSc and PhD, but both earlier and later career stages may be considered given appropriate justification. The course will give a broad introduction to and hands-on experience in different aspects of trait-based ecology. You will work with international instructors, in teams, and collect research-grade data in the field to address a specific research question. There will be opportunities for participating in publications based on the course data. Selection criteria Students are selected based on: How well this course fits into and will contribute to their career plans. The student’s specific need for practical experience in the research approaches offered (e.g. students applying for group 1 should not have extensive prior experience with measuring plant traits). Note the exception for group 4, where specific prior experience is requested. Location, with within-continent students prioritized. Diversity of educational, academic, cultural/ethnic backgrounds of the team as a whole will be considered. Other relevant factors – students are encouraged to motivate their need and interest for participating in the course by including any information that they see fit. Practicalities The course fee covers costs for accommodation, food, and local Read more…
At the end of July, forty-two researchers, including twenty-nine students, traveled from across the world to study the alpine flora in Aurland. They visited eight sites on local farms that are already part of long-term research by Professor Vigdis Vandvik’s research group from Universitetet i Bergen. A common technique to study climate change is to choose research sites along an elevational gradient. The lowest site (here at Vikesland) experiences warmer temperatures and a longer growing season, while the highest site (here at Liahovden) experiences colder temperatures and a shorter growing season. Scientists can then see how plants change when they are moved from higher sites to lower ones, as if they were experiencing a warming climate. Some of the sites were established as long as fourteen years ago, allowing scientists to understand how plants respond to a new environment over time. Dr. Aud Halbritter, a researcher in Vandvik’s group, is also interested in how grazing changes plants, so they established plots where sheep and goats could graze and others where the animals were fenced out. Since 2016, Vandvik’s group, along with Professor Brian Enquist’s group in the United States, have taught students worldwidea course for students worldwide on how to measure plant traits. ‘Plant traits’ refer to a wide range of measurable parts of a plant – how tall it grows, the size of its leaves, the size of its seeds, and so on. Scientists are interested in plant traits because they are a relatively straightforward way to compare plant species and vegetation worldwide. In this course, called the Plant Functional Traits Course or PFTC, postdoctoral researchers and PhD and Master’s students learn how to measure plant traits while collecting actualreal data from established sites along alpine gradients worldwide. Past courses have been taught in China, Peru, and Svalbard. Data from each course is used to study plants in their local setting and joined to the global dataset so scientists can better understand how the effects of climate change’s effects vary worldwide. This year, researchers collected plant trait data including plant height, leaf size, leaf thickness, and leaf density, as well as other traits such as plant-atmosphere carbon exchange and solar light reflectance measured using more specialized equipment such as infrared gas analyzers and to measure photosynthesis rates, carbon taken from and returned to the atmosphere, and to capture drone-based aerial imagery using drones. Some students even studied the course participants to better understand how the course impacted future scientists. The students conducted interviews with Aurland residents to learn about how to build relationships between residents and student scientists and held an open day where community members could learn about what happens during the course. By the end of the two week course, the researchers had collected all their data, but are still analyzing their results. They will continue to virtually collaborate on the final reports from their home institutions around the world, and hope to be able to report some of these results here in Aurlendingen in the months and years to come. They also want to extend a warm thank you to the Aurland and Flåm communities for welcoming us, letting us do the research on your land, coming to our open day, and even letting us join you for the morning swims in Aurlandsfjorden! Authors: Rebekka Gullvåg, Alyssa Ohlson, Jocelyn Navarro, Courtenay Ray, Brian J. Enquist, Aud Halbritter, Sean Michaletz, Brian Maitner, Marc Macias-Fauria, Vigdis Vandvik. Photo credit: Kai Lepley @import url(https://plantfunctionaltraitscourses.w.uib.no/wp-content/plugins/siteorigin-panels/css/front-flex.min.css); #pgc-1064-0-0 { width:100%;width:calc(100% – ( 0 * 30px ) ) } #pl-1064 .so-panel { margin-bottom:30px } #pl-1064 .so-panel:last-of-type { margin-bottom:0px } @media (max-width:780px){ #pg-1064-0.panel-no-style, #pg-1064-0.panel-has-style > .panel-row-style, #pg-1064-0 { -webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column } #pg-1064-0 > .panel-grid-cell , #pg-1064-0 > .panel-row-style > .panel-grid-cell { width:100%;margin-right:0 } #pl-1064 .panel-grid-cell { padding:0 } #pl-1064 .panel-grid .panel-grid-cell-empty { display:none } #pl-1064 .panel-grid .panel-grid-cell-mobile-last { margin-bottom:0px } }
Amidst fjords, steep mountains, and occasional pouring rain, the sixth edition of the Plant Functional Traits Course has successfully kicked off. 42 students and staff members from 27 institutions over 15 countries have gathered in western Norway to study mountain vegetation and its attributes, all the while getting hand-on experience in collecting a large and valuable dataset of plant functional traits. The students are divided over five groups, each with a different research focus – collecting complementary data to help get a more holistic understanding of the functioning of mountain vegetation in a changing world. Group 1 is led by Sonya Geange and Vigdis Vandvik, and studies how experimental warming and differences in precipitation influences the alpine plants and their functional traits such as leaf thickness, plant height, leaf area, weight, and nutrient composition. Group 2, led by Aud Halbritter, studies the same functional traits in the vegetation, but focuses on how these traits change along an elevational gradient spanning from 500 – 1300 m.a.s.l. and how that is influenced by grazing, warming and nitrogen deposition. This same elevational gradient is the focus of group 3, which is led by Sean Michaletz and Josef Garen and studies the photosynthetic activity of plants and its optimal temperature range, measured at leaf level. Carbon exchange along the elevational gradient is measured at the plot level by group 4, led by Julia Chacon Labella and Joseph Gaudard. Using the unique opportunity of this course, this group will perform carbon flux measurements during 24 hours in each of the four sites. Finally, group 5 is led by Marc Macias Fauria and will be mapping the distribution of species and functional traits at the landscape scale, using a drone equipped with a multispectral camera. In addition to training in the hard ecological research skills, we want to engage with the local population by informing them of our goals and activities, and listening to what they have to say about the areas we study. Under the guidance of Sehoya Cotner and Alyssa Olson, our students conduct interviews with the residents of Aurland, asking them what they know about the research that we carry out, what they would want to know from us, and what their advice is for ensuring a positive relationship between field ecologists and local residents. In addition, we will hold an open house at the Sogn Ecological Agricultural School (Sogn Jord- og Hagebruksskule) in Aurland, where we inform about our work and motivation, and are able to interact with anyone who is interested. Finally, we are joined this year by Kai Lepley who will make a documentary about this course, the people in it, and our views on science and what it means to be a scientist in today’s society. This documentary will be made available on public platforms. So far, we are off to an excellent start. We are lucky with a fantastic group of enthusiastic students, wonderful food cooked for us straight from the farm, and of course beautiful surroundings. We are eagerly looking forward to seeing the final results of these 12 days of hard work! @import url(https://plantfunctionaltraitscourses.w.uib.no/wp-content/plugins/siteorigin-panels/css/front-flex.min.css); #pgc-1016-0-0 { width:100%;width:calc(100% – ( 0 * 30px ) ) } #pl-1016 .so-panel { margin-bottom:30px } #pl-1016 .so-panel:last-of-type { margin-bottom:0px } @media (max-width:780px){ #pg-1016-0.panel-no-style, #pg-1016-0.panel-has-style > .panel-row-style, #pg-1016-0 { -webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column } #pg-1016-0 > .panel-grid-cell , #pg-1016-0 > .panel-row-style > .panel-grid-cell { width:100%;margin-right:0 } #pl-1016 .panel-grid-cell { padding:0 } #pl-1016 .panel-grid .panel-grid-cell-empty { display:none } #pl-1016 .panel-grid .panel-grid-cell-mobile-last { margin-bottom:0px } }
The 6th International Plant Functional Traits Course will be held in Aurland, Norway 23. July – 5. August 2022. Plant Functional Traits Courses (PFTC) offer hands-on training in applications of plant functional trait ecology within a real-life field research project setting. During this 6th PFTC course, students will collect and explore plant functional trait data in the field and use trait-based approaches within global change research and ecosystem ecology. Following the course, students will have opportunities to participate in / lead publications using the data. See our current publications. Trait-based ecology incorporates methods that enable powerful approaches to predict how climate and biotic interactions shape plant community dynamics and ecosystem functioning. This course will provide students with essential background knowledge and the practical field, lab, and computational skills needed for conducting their own research within trait-based ecology. Application deadline: 27. February 2022 Due to technical issues around the application date, we have extended our deadline by one week, until the 6th of March 2022. The PFTC6 course will be held in Aurland in the fjords of Western Norway, between the 23. July and 5. August 2022 with online pre-course preparatory work in April-May 2022. We will work in boreal and alpine grasslands, from sea level to 1500 m a.s.l., in and around Sognefjorden. The PFTC6 will exploit the already existing research infrastructure of climate change experiments and gradient approaches in this system (for more information see Between the Fjords lab). It is a fascinating and truly beautiful study system. Students will be introduced to the environmental, ecological, and taxonomic diversity of the region, and given hands-on instruction in relevant theory and methods of ecophysiology; community, ecosystem, and climate change ecology; population biology; computational biology; and data management. Students will work in five groups: Plastic trait responses to climate change. This group will harness existing climate change experiments (Open Top Chambers) to assess plastic trait responses to experimental warming and biotic interactions in plants from alpine vs. warmer-climate origins. This group will collaborate with group 3 to understand how this variability impacts leaf ecophysiology. Group leader: Sonya Geange Plant trait responses to global change. This group will assess community trait distribution responses to the interactive effects of warmer climate, nitrogen deposition, and grazing along an elevational gradient, and explore consequences for plant community assembly and ecosystem functioning. This group will collaborate with groups 3 and 4 to understand plant and ecosystem functional consequences of these community shifts. Group leaders: Julia Chacon & Aud Halbritter Leaf traits as a tool to understand climate impacts on photosynthesis and respiration. This group will study how plant temperatures and photosynthetic rates vary between plants with alpine or warmer-climate origin, along elevational gradients, and in response to global change drivers. Group 3 will collaborate with groups 1 and 2 to put these responses in context of broader plant and community responses to global change. Group leaders: Sean Michaletz & Joseph Garen Climate change impacts on traits and ecosystem functioning. This group will study how trait composition influences ecosystem functioning by measuring CO2-flux within and across plant communities. Group 4 will collaborate with group 2 to access data on community trait shifts, and mainly focus on ecosystem carbon dynamics in response to climate change, but also nitrogen deposition and grazing. Group leader: Joseph Gaudard Remote assessment of plant traits and ecosystem functioning. This group will use technologies based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV/drone) in combination with measurements from the experiments to assess how remotely-sensed data (e.g., reflectance spectra) can capture plant and ecosystem functional shifts from leaf to landscape-scale. The group will collaborate with groups 1-4 over community-level data. Students applying for this group should have experience with geospatial analyses. Group leaders: Marc Macias-Fauria & Marcus Spiegel (TBC) Culturally relevant science communication. This group will use questionnaires and interviews to engage with the local community, with the aim of learning their knowledge and perceptions of climate change (especially relevant to local considerations). Group 6 will conduct research locally in Western Norway, compare with results from previous PFTC courses in Peru and Svalbard, and draft a manuscript for publication. Group leader: Sehoya Cotner Through developing and conducting these research projects to explore the potential of plant functional trait-based approaches in understanding the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of the study area, PFTC6 students will build key research skills in planning and conducting trait-based field campaigns. You will gain practical experience in measuring plant functional traits and related physiological, plant community, and ecosystem data in the field using standard protocols. You will become familiar with taking measurements using ecophysiological equipment including LiCor 6400 and LiCor 7500. You will learn about the structure and analysis of trait data, be introduced to best practice data management and reproducible coding, as well as having the opportunity to analyse and interpret data yourself. You can read about previous courses in China, Peru, and Svalbard here. An important element of this course is its cross-disciplinarity, spanning from leaf physiology via remote sensing to science communication. While students will receive in-depth training within their speciality, they will also contribute to, collaborate on, and gain insight into the work of the other groups. We will discuss lessons across groups in light of current challenges in climate-change science and communication, the added value of incorporating local ecological knowledge, and ethical concerns of conducting fieldwork in remote locales. The course is aimed at graduate students – both MSc and PhD – and will give a broad introduction to and hands-on experience of different aspects of trait-based ecology. You will work with international instructors, in teams, and collect research-grade data in the field to address a specific research question. There will be opportunities for participating in publications based on the course data. Students are selected based on: How well this course fits into and will contribute to their career plans The student’s specific need for practical experience in the research approaches offered (e.g. students applying for group 1 or 2 should not have extensive prior experience with measuring plant traits). Read more…
Vaccinium vitis-idaea at the sub-Arctic Fennoscandian site. Image by Julia Kemppinen PFTC insights help show that trait–environment relationships are generalizable across tundra plant communities. Years of hard work mixed with a solid dose of expertise, this paper led by PFTC4 participant Julia Kemppinen integrates an elaborate field study in tundra with insights from the PFTC course held on Svalbard in 2018. Aiming to test the assumption that that relationships between plant functional traits and environmental conditions are globally consistent, the researchers set up multiple grids in four locations across the Arctic and Antarctic tundra. They then combined detailed data on species composition and local abiotic conditions, with functional trait data using databases (BIEN, TRY, and TTT). The study shows that indeed, trait–environment relationships were generalizable across geographical locations and taxonomic composition, as local variation within the sites was overridden by strong, global trait–environment relationships. These results reveal a great potential for further exploiting plant functional traits in understanding how (tundra-) ecosystem functioning will be impacted by global changes. Interestingly, this paper has a strong PFTC connection even though no PFTC data were directly used. Julia explains that she feels that PFTC played a huge role in inspiring and teaching her about traits in the first place. In her own words: “To be honest, before the PFTC I did not really understand the fuzz about traits. During the two-week crash course on Svalbard, I really saw the potential in trait ecology and moreover, understood that plants are so much more than just different species (probably this took me so long to realise, since I am a biogeographer by training, not an ecologist). Without those realizations that PFTC gave me in an orderly and well-thought way, the road to the NEE study would have been very (or completely) different.” Further, Julia highlights why she thinks these types of international and collaborative field courses are so valuable. “I think such courses are true gems. I had so much fun exploring new methods with new friends and seeing how other scientists work in the field and in the lab. PFTC introduced me to friends with whom I got to collaborate in the NEE study, but I also got friends with whom we stay in touch just for the sake of friendship!” This paper was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, and Julia’s beautiful photo even made it on the front cover! While you’re there, check out this engaging blog post written by Julia for an interesting peak behind the scenes in the making of this paper. Congratulations Julia Kemppinen et al. with this very well-written, aesthetically pleasing, but above all, very important paper!
The last PFTC course was held in Peru March 2020, and unfortunately cut short (and for many, extended far beyond planning) due to the emerging Covid-19 outbreak. You can read more about that here, here and here. Whilst we had to leave our field sites early, we still managed to collect most of our planned data. In addition to learning about plant functional traits, we took away many lessons on the topic of open science and its integration in field courses, which is an important red thread in the PFTC philosophy. These lessons are now published in Ecology and Evolution, in our paper ‘Next‐generation field courses: Integrating Open Science and online learning‘. In the article, we outline practical recommendations for integrating Open Science practices into field courses to equip early career researchers with the skills and competences they need to succeed in the future. Project-based field courses are a well-established element in providing hands-on training for ECRs in the fields of Ecology and Evolution, but also other scientific disciplines. Given a rising Open Science movement and growing online toolsets, field courses should integrate these elements to increase participants’ learning outcomes and benefit the wider community. By representing the complete scientific workflow, field courses provide an ideal arena to teach Open Science implementation in Higher Education. If used appropriately, considering diversity of participants, online tools can facilitate both teaching and application of Open Science elements. Integrating these elements into field courses will help to provide the next generation of researchers with crucial skills for an increasingly Open Science-focused future and facilitate collaborative, transparent and reproducible research. This group effort was led by Sonya Geange, Jonathan von Oppen and Tanya Strydom with Mickey Boakye, Tasha-Leigh Gauthier, Ragnhild Gya, Aud Halbritter, Laura Jessup, Sara Middleton, Jocelyn Navarro, Maria Elisa Pierfederici, Julia Chacón-Labella, Sehoya Cotner, William Farfan-Rios, Brian Maitner, Sean Michaletz, Richard Telford, Brian Enquist, and Vigdis Vandvik. What is more, dealing with this pandemic and continuing the course in a modified format, taught us many lessons way beyond the scope of the course. In a large group effort led by course participants, we now published a paper on academic practice in Ecology and Evolution, called: ‘From a crisis to an opportunity: Eight insights for doing science in the COVID‐19 era and beyond‘. In this paper, we highlight eight insights for how innovative, collaborative and often Open Science driven developments that have arisen from the COVID-19 crisis can form a blueprint for a community reinvention in academia. Our insights include personal approaches to managing our new reality, maintaining capacity to focus and resilience in our projects, and a variety of tools that facilitate remote collaboration. We also highlight how, at a community level, we can take advantage of online communication platforms for gaining accessibility to conferences and meetings, and for maintaining research networks and community engagement while promoting a more diverse and inclusive community. COVID-19 may have forced us to change the way we work. but we believe the pandemic has also provided us with several novel ways of conducting international Science. Overall, we are confident that these practices can support a more inclusive and kinder scientific culture for the longer term. This was a group effort lead by Julia Chacón-Labella and Sonya Geange and involving Mickey Boakye, Brian Enquist, William Farfan-Rios, Ragnhild Gya, Aud Halbritter, Sara Middleton, Jonathan von Oppen, Samuel Pastor-Ploskonka, Tanya Strydom, and Vigdis Vandvik. We are so happy and proud to see our participants showing such amazing initiative and drive to write these fantastic papers and get them out. We hope you give them a read. Enjoy!