Abstract
Despite that factors such as forest management, nitrogen (N) deposition, and changed climate all influence function and diversity, their interactive effects on forest plant communities are poorly understood. Such knowledge is needed to correctly predict consequences of global change, and to develop strategies to counter the effects. Plant communities dominated by ericaceous dwarf-shrubs is the most common forest type in Sweden. Besides the production of economically important berries, a large number of insects and birds are directly or indirectly dependent on dwarf-shrubs, and reducing their abundance may influence both function and diversity of coniferous forests. In the project we will study: 1) how forest fertilization and thinning regime influence composition and diversity of the ground vegetation in dwarf-shrub dominated forests, 2) how the effects differ depending on climate and N deposition, 3) if change in vegetation is linked to altered interactions between plants and their enemies (herbivores and parasitic fungi), and 4) how berry production by dwarf-shrubs are influenced. We will addresses this by surveys and manipulation of vegetation and plant enemies in: a) N-fertilization and thinning experiments along the Swedish N deposition/climate-gradient, b) a N-addition experiment in an area with low background N deposition, and c) a transplantation experiment that simulates climate change. I apply for funding of a PhD-student, part of my salary, and for fieldwork.
Sweden