Press archive
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Islands are key to protecting plant biodiversity
From Tasmania to Madagascar to New Guinea, islands make up just over five per cent of Earth’s land. Yet, a study led by Macquarie University, Australia, and Göttingen University, Germany, reveals that islands are home to over 31 per cent of the world’s plant species. The research shows that of all plants classified as threatened worldwide, more than half are unique to islands. This study provides the first comprehensive assessment of plants – such as trees, shrubs and grasses – which are both native and endemic to marine islands worldwide. Their findings were published in Nature.
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Nitrogen pollution drives forest plants west
The movement of plant species across Europe has mainly been attributed to climate change. However, a new study shows that other environmental factors play an important role. An international research team led by the University of Ghent, with the participation of the University of Göttingen, examined the biodiversity of forests in relation to climate change and the input of nitrogen and sulphur.
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Tropical forest resilience to seasonal drought linked to nutrient availability
Tropical forests are highly productive ecosystems accounting for nearly half of the global forest carbon sink. If tropical forests can no longer remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the effects of climate change may become even more severe. In recent times, these forests have been found to be increasingly limited in nutrients, which may affect their resilience to seasonal droughts and the rate at which they can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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Megadiverse flowering plant family on isolated islands
An international research team with the participation of the University of Göttingen has now compiled and analysed a new global database on the distribution and evolutionary history of all Asteraceae species. Asteraceae, a family of flowering plants which includes daisies, sunflowers and asters, are the most diverse group of flowering plants in the world. The researchers found that an unexpectedly high number of evolutionary events – known as “speciation” where a new species of plants evolves from a common ancestor – occurred in the aster family within relatively short time periods on many islands worldwide. The results were published in Nature Communications.
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Forestry in a changing climate: Extreme weather increases investment risk
A research team from the University of Göttingen, the Northwest German Forest Research Institute and the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) has investigated silvicultural adaptation strategies to climate change from a forestry perspective. "From a purely economic perspective, if there is a high probability of extreme weather events occurring, it may make sense to focus on low-investment tree species, i.e. those with low establishment and maintenance costs," says lead author Jasper M. Fuchs from the Department of Forest Economics and Sustainable Land Use Planning at the University of Göttingen. Prof. Dr. Carola Paul points out that forest policy measures such as financial support programs must be designed accordingly in order to maintain diverse and stable forests with their diverse ecosystem services.
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How do plants react to climate change?
Researchers at the Universities of Bayreuth and Göttingen have developed a new method for assessing climate change risks to ecosystems. Their modeling suggests that climate change will cause a profound shift in the Earth's vegetation zones. It also shows where and how the growing conditions for plants will change.
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Understanding greenhouse gases in oil palm plantations
During recent decades, rising global demand for cheap oils and fats has promoted the expansion of oil palm plantations in tropical regions. High yields of palm oil are typically achieved by a high use of fertilizer. Professor Alexander Knohl, senior author and head of the Bioclimatology Group, University of Göttingen recommends to develop optimal fertilizer management systems adapted to the age of the palms, nitrogen requirements of each plant, and local soil and climate condition for mitigating the negative impacts of oil palm cultivation by reducing N2O emissions.
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New endowed professorships in the Faculty of Forestry
51ÁÔĆć of Göttingen has been awarded two new endowed professorships in the Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology. "Forest Phytopathobiomes" and "Hydrology of Multi-Functional Landscapes" will be funded by the Eva Mayr-Stihl Foundation with a total of 1.35 million euros. The contract was signed in Waiblingen near Stuttgart at the end of January. "The two professorships are a perfect addition to our faculty's portfolio with regard to the future of the forest," says Prof. Christian Ammer.
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A plea from experts: stop personifying plants
An international research team including Göttingen University reviewed popular books on forests and criticises lack of scientific evidence. They conclude that metaphoric descriptions are often held as literally true, and warn against portraying plants as if they were like human beings. "It would be disastrous for the adaptation of forests to climate change if political decisions were made on the basis of pleasant-sounding, but incorrect messages, rather than on the basis of scientific facts", says Prof. Ammer.
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Patterns of biodiversity unveiled
Understanding the origins and preservation of biodiversity is crucial as human impact continues to threaten our planet’s rich variety of life. A new study led by a team of international researchers at the University of Göttingen has now uncovered global patterns and factors influencing phylogenetic endemism in seed plants, providing invaluable insights for conservation efforts worldwide.
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Protection of the rainforest also economically valuable
Researchers compare real forest losses with simulated agricultural decisions. Prof. Dr. Carola Paul, Department of Forest Economics and Sustainable Land Use Planning: "Temporally limited successes in forest protection are of course not sufficient in the long run. However, our study is encouraging in that any protection of tropical forests is also economically valuable. Remarkably, the social value of climate regulation through forest protection exceeds the private economic benefits of forest clearing."
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Remote plant worlds
Oceanic islands provide useful models for ecology, biogeography and evolutionary research. Now, an international research team led by the University of Göttingen has investigated the flora of the Canary Island of Tenerife. The results were surprising...
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Forests of Europe: the science-based data
To complement national forest inventories, an international research team has developed the "PathFinder" project. It addresses the European Commission's requirement for standardized, scientifically robust data on forests across Europe, updated at short intervals.
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Mechanical weeding promotes ecosystem functions and profit in industrial oil palm
Oil palms are the most productive oil crop and global demand for them is increasing. Plantations are widely cultivated with high use of fertilisers and herbicides and severe consequences for the environment. An international research team led by the University of Göttingen now shows that a switch to mechanical weed control and reduced fertiliser use have benefits for the ecosystem and profit.
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Tree rows in modern agriculture reduce damage to environment
"Alley cropping” is the agricultural practice of planting rows – or alleys – of trees in fields of crops. According to a new study by an international, multidisciplinary research team led by the University of Göttingen, this type of land use rapidly leads to significant ecosystem improvements in farmland.
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Secrets of Namibia’s fairy circles demystified: plants self-organise
Scientists have puzzled over the origin of Namibia’s fairy circles for nearly half a century. It boiled down to two main theories: either termites were responsible, or plants were somehow self-organizing. Now, researchers from the University of Göttingen, benefitting from two exceptionally good rainfall seasons in the Namib Desert, show that the grasses within the fairy circles died immediately after rainfall, but termite activity did not cause the bare patches.
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