On March 19, Carlos Pérez Carmona, professor of functional ecology, presented the results of his research in the University of Tartu inaugural lecture “A trait-based approach to biodiversity”. In his research he is focused on functional traits diversity. Using his developed trait probability density method he has studied the relationship between aboveground and belowground traits in plants as well as the relationship between extinction risk and functional traits in different taxonomic groups. The video recording of the inaugural lecture can be viewed here.

Photos from the event: UTTV Fotod

We are happy to host a visiting PhD student from Italy! Luciano Ludovico Maria De Benedictis is a PhD student in University of Camerino, at the School of Biosciences and Veterinary Medicine, Plant Diversity and Ecosystems Management Unit. His PhD studies focus on fine-scale spatial patterns and functional diversity and he is visiting us for one month to work with Carlos. Together they are analysing above- and below-ground functional diversity in old-growth beech forest understory across time and space, and against short-term climate patterns in permanent monitoring plots.

On February 21st, Eleonora Beccari successfully defended her thesis "Mapping and Exploring Trait Spaces Across the Tree of Life" and earned her PhD degree in Botany and Mycology. The opponent was Holger Kreft from the University of Göttingen in Germany, and Eleonora's supervisor was Carlos Pérez Carmona.

Although December and January is not a good time for field work in Estonia, then on the southern hemisphere vegetation sampling is possible. This winter, our adventurous field workers, Slendy and Blanca, embarked on an expedition to two contrasting ecosystems in Colombia: one of the rainiest tropical wet forests in the world and one of the driest regions of the country. Their goal was to collect plant trait data to deepen ecological understanding in these unique environments since tropical regions are underrepresented in global trait databases. Slendy and Blanca returned to Estonia with invaluable above- and belowground trait information for 123 tropical plant species — along with countless stories of discovery and adventure.

In Bajo Calima (Valle del Cauca), they explored wet tropical forests together with the local organisation Consejo Comunitario de Comunidades Negras de la Cuenca Baja del Río Calima, and members of the "Pedro Antonio Pineda" Tropical Forest Center at the University of Tolima. In Nazareth (Guajira), they sampled sub-xerophytic thorny forests in collaboration with the Wayú indigenous community and Professor Hermes Cuadros Villalobos from the University of Atlántico.

Since Bruno and Slendy both received their PhD degrees a few months ago, they are now embarking on new adventures on the other side of the world. Bruno returned to his home country, Brazil, where he first celebrated his wedding and is now looking for postdoctoral opportunities. Slendy, who is from Colombia, also moved closer to home, as she will soon begin her postdoctoral research in the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. It was sad to say goodbye to them both, but we wish them all the best and hope to meet again soon.

On January 31st, the annual joint winter conference of the Botany and Zoology departments took place, where all PhD students had the opportunity to give 3-minute presentations. This time, we gathered in Mooste, Southern Estonia. Almost our entire workgroup attended the conference, but PhD students Daria and Oscar also gave great presentations. Daria, a first-year PhD student, introduced her research plan. Oscar talked about one part of his PhD research, where he investigates whether root symbionts mirror vegetation patches in the landscape.

Photos: Randel Kreitsberg

In January, Mats Otto-Kristian Ittonen started his postdoctoral position in our workgroup! He finished his PhD last year at Stockholm University where he studied evolutionary adaptation during a butterfly species’ climate change-driven range expansion. During his postdoctoral work he will focus on macroecology of different taxonomic croups - soil fungi that interact with plants and agricultural pest insects.

Driven by the mission to tackle Raunkiæran shortfall (lack of knowledge of species traits and functions) and enhance ecological understanding, the TraitDivNet is committed to explore the world's most challenging and remote regions. This autumn, our intrepid field workers, Blanca and Juni, embarked on an expedition through the rainforests and savannahs of Ghana since Africa is one of the continents lacking plant trait data. They successfully returned with invaluable data on ten above- and belowground functional traits for approximately 120 little studied species. Blanca and Juni collaborated with CSIR - Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) and University of Ghana (Department of Plant and Environmental Biology), and had a lot of help from local researchers, students and rangers, as well as from Philemon Gyamfi and John Yangyuro Kupagme who are PhD students in the University of Tartu Department of Botany.

Markéta Applová, a PhD student from the Czech Republic is visiting Macroecology workgroup during the month of November. She is supervised jointly by Carlos Carmona and Lars Götzenberger, who has done his post-doc in the botany department of University of Tartu. Markéta is affiliated both with Department of Botany of University of South Bohemia and  Department of Functional Ecology, Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences in the Czech Republic. She also gave a presentation for our workgroup, where she introduced her research of floral functional traits.

Photos: Meelis Pärtel, Daria Panasiuk

Every two years the University of Tartu Department of Botany organises a PhD conference where 2nd and 3rd year students present their research. This year the conference took place on November 21–22 in Nelijärve in Harju county. Although there were no presentations from our workgroup members, then Meelis Pärtel, as the head of the department, gave opening words. One of the sessions was also chaired by our workgroup 4th year PhD student Eleonora Beccari. We had the opportunity to enjoy many interesting presentations and appreciate the Winter Wonderland atmosphere.