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Dr. Amanda Ratier Backes
Kontakt
Institut für Biologie / Geobotanik und Botanischer Garten
Am Kirchtor 1
06108 Halle (Saale)
Telefon: +49 345 55 26240
amanda.ratier-backes@botanik.uni-halle.de
I am currently developping the research project "TRACE – TRAit-environment interactions driving elevational range expansions under ClimatE change".
The main objective of the project is to use the model region of Tenerife to analyze which species have expanded their elevational range in the past 14 years. I will use high-resolution data to describe changes of species elevational distribution and to specify the environmental conditions (climate, soil properties, human influence, vegetation structure) and functional traits allowing these changes. We hypothesize that (i) growth-related functional traits facilitate range expansion specifically in benign environments (e.g. benign temperature, good nutrient supply, sufficiently moist conditions; i.e. conditions of lower elevations) and in competitive environments (i.e. in habitats with limited human influence), while (ii) species with the largest range-expansions are characterized by stress-tolerant traits, because these are the species which successfully expanded into the highest and hence harshest environments.