Siebenkäs Alrun
Visiting researcher in 2020
I acquired my PhD analysing the effects of resource availability and plant diversity on plant trait variation, biodiversity effects, and ecosystem functioning in temperate grasslands. My practical work consisted of establishing and maintaining a greenhouse as well as a biodiversity field experiment with perennial temperate grassland species (including forbs and grasses) and collecting a large dataset of trait data (leaf and root chemical traits, stomatal conductance, SPAD, and several other morphological traits). I have previously worked in a project in applied nature conservation focussing on threatened and endangered species on small, fragmented sites. I am also interested in species distributions and effects of climate change on plant species.
Expertise
Experimental Ecology
Trait Ecology
Biodiversity
Education
2020 – 2021 Visitor in Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, Průhonice
2011 – 2016 Doctoral degree in Biology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg & Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ
2004 – 2010 Diploma Degree in Biology Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Publications
Kattge J, Bönisch G, Díaz S, et al. (2020) TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access. Glob Change Biol 26, 119 – 188
Poorter H, Niinemets Ü, Ntagkas N, Siebenkäs A, Mäenpää Maarit, Matsubara S, Pons T (2019) A meta-analysis of plant responses to light intensity for 70 traits ranging from molecules to whole plant performance. New Phytologist 223, 1073-1105
Craven D, Isbell F, Manning P, Connolly J, Bruelheide H, Ebeling A, Roscher C, van Ruijven J, Weigelt A, Wilsey B, Beierkuhnlein C, de Luca E, Griffin JN, Hautier Y, Hector A, Jentsch A, Kreyling J, Lanta V, Loreau M, Meyer ST, Mori AS, Naeem S, Palmborg C, Polley HW, Reich PB, Schmid B, Siebenkäs A, Seabloom E, Thakur MP, Tilman D, Vogel A, Eisenhauer N (2016) Plant diversity effects on grassland productivity are robust to both nutrient enrichment and drought. Philos Trans R Soc B 371(1694)
Siebenkäs A, Schumacher J, Roscher C (2017) Trait plasticity in response to resource availability and plant diversity modulates functional dissimilarity among species in experimental grasslands. J Plant Ecol, 10(6), 981 – 993
Siebenkäs A, Schumacher J, Roscher C (2016) Resource availability alters biodiversity effects in experimental grass-forb mixtures. PLoS one: pone.0158110
Siebenkäs A, Roscher C (2016) Functional composition rather than species richness determines root characteristics of experimental grasslands grown at different light and nutrient availability. Plant Soil 404(1), 399-412
Siebenkäs A, Schumacher J, Roscher C (2015) Phenotypic plasticity to light and nutrient availability alters functional trait ranking across eight perennial grassland species. AoB PLANTS 7:plv029
PhD Thesis (2016) “How resource availability modulates biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning” available here