Projects on plants and plant surfaces

Terrestrial vegetation and soil take up and emits different organic molecules called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which in case of the latter, contributes to the production of aerosol particles, which affect cloud formation and climate. Due to global change, it is expected that the global temperature will significantly increase, and droughts will become more prevalent and severe, in certain regions. These altered environmental conditions not only changes the VOC emissions and consumption. It has previously been shown that warming, as well as drought, affect the plant and soil microbiota composition. It has been shown that drought influence microbial soil biomass and relative abundance, depending on the soil type, due to resource limitations. The correlation between soil and plant associated microbial communities and VOC emission and consumption, during global change, has yet to be investigated further. 

This project aims to investigate the effects of global change events on the relationship between soil VOC emissions and consumption, and plant and soil associated microbiota.

Key-researcher: Neel Lindsby

Funded by DNRF

Plants defend themselves against insect herbivory by releasing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to the atmosphere. Herbivore damage typically alters the emitted VOC blends and increases the emission rates. This effect may be considerable during high insect density periods in the Subarctic mountain birch forest ecosystem, where cyclic outbreaks of geometrid moths occur approx. every 10 years. Our aim is to quantify VOC emissions of the mountain birch, Betula pubescens var. pumila (L.) at different scales during several growing seasons with contrasting insect densities. The in situ collection of branch and stem-emitted VOCs on adsorbent cartridges for offline analysis using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry is complemented with forest-scale measurement of VOC fluxes using eddy covariance technique and online analysis of VOCs with proton transfer reaction-time of flight-mass spectrometry. Our work provides new information on biotic stress effects in natural ecosystems and allows improvement of ecosystem models that currently do not account for effects of herbivory on VOC emissions. This will improve our understanding of the plant-stress-related climate feedbacks.

Key-researcher: Amy Smart

Collaborators: Andreas Westergaard-Nielsen, Simon Nyboe Lauersen, Jolanta Rieksta, Roger Seco, Jing Tang

PI: Riikka Rinnan

Funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark

IndiVOCtual investigates the sources (genetics, dendroecology, insect herbivory stress) of within-species variation and their influence on volatile emissions from widespread mountain birch forests in the Subarctic. Currently, these factors are unaccounted for in the models, and are necessary to improve our ability to predict volatile emissions from high-latitude ecosystems.

Key-researcher: Jolanta Rieksta

Collaborators: Riikka Rinnan, Jing Tang, James D. M. Speed (NTNU), Kristine Bakke Westergaard (NTNU) & Jane Uhd Jepsen (NINA)

PI: Jolanta Rieksta

Funded by Villum Foundation

The Arctic experiences amplified warming and increased heatwaves. It is essential to understand how plants cope with these fast-changing thermal conditions and alter their climate impacts. This project will integrate in-situ and satellite observations, laboratory experiments, and mathematical modelling to elucidate the fundamental role of plant thermal temperature in influencing several plant processes and regional climate. The grant will fund 1-2 PhD students and 2 postdocs.

Key researchers: Marta Contreras Serrano, Hongliang Ma

Collaborators: Riikka Rinnan, Eva Rosenqvist (PLEN), Almut Arneth (KIT), Alex Guenther (AirUCI)

PI: Jing Tang

Funded by Villum Foundation