Background and activities
Bente Jessen Graae
Plants are assumed to adapt (stay) or migrate (go) during environmental change. These processes shape plant communities. I study stay or go processes in plant communities - mostly tundra, temperate-boreal forests and tropical savanna. Much of my research has been on colonization patterns but I am also interested in trait variation in relation to climate change. I work both in lab and in the field. I right now work within four networks:
the Fleur network studying the impact of climate change to forest herbs along a latitudinal gradient from France to Northern Sweden see http://www.fleur.ugent.be
the ECOSHRUB network studying the effect of shrub encroachment on community dynamics and ecosystem processes in alpine tundra see http://www.ntnu.edu/biology/ecoshrub
the Stay or Go network where we look at alpine plant communities capacity to persist and to migrate
and the Serengeti Road project is evaluating vegetation and environmental changes as a consequence of the iroad construction in Tanzania.
Scientific, academic and artistic work
A selection of recent journal publications, artistic productions, books, including book and report excerpts. See all publications in the database
Journal publications
- (2017) Impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in Norway. Ecological research.
- (2016) Pre-adaptation or genetic shift after introduction in the invasive species Impatiens glandulifera?. Acta Oecologica. vol. 70.
- (2016) Acido- and neutrophilic temperate forest plants display distinct shifts in ecological pH niche across north-western Europe. Ecography. vol. 39 (12).
- (2015) Synchronous flowering despite differences in snowmelt timing among habitats of Empetrum hermaphroditum. Acta Oecologica. vol. 69.
- (2015) Divergent regeneration responses of two closely related tree species to direct abiotic and indirect biotic effects of climate change. Forest Ecology and Management. vol. 342.
- (2015) Low genetic diversity despite multiple introductions of the invasive plant species Impatiens glandulifera in Europe. BMC Genetics. vol. 16 (103).
- (2015) Patterns of phenotypic trait variation in two temperate forest herbs along a broad climatic gradient. Plant Ecology. vol. 216 (11).
- (2015) Linking small-scale topography with microclimate, plant species diversity and intra-specific trait variation in an alpine landscape. Plant Ecology & Diversity. vol. 8 (3).
- (2015) Disjunct populations of European vascular plant species keep the same climatic niches. Global Ecology and Biogeography. vol. 24 (12).
- (2014) Snow cover consistently affects growth and reproduction of Empetrum hermaphroditum across latitudinal and local climatic gradients. Alpine Botany. vol. 124 (2).
- (2014) Latitudinal variation in seeds characteristics of Acer platanoides and A. pseudoplatanus. Plant Ecology. vol. 215 (8).
- (2014) Plant movements and climate warming: Intraspecific variation in growth responses to nonlocal soils. New Phytologist. vol. 202 (2).
- (2014) To seed or not to seed in alpine restoration: introduced grass species outcompete rather than facilitate native species. Ecological Engineering: The Journal of Ecotechnology. vol. 64.
- (2014) Rodent population dynamics affect seedling recruitment in alpine habitats. Journal of Vegetation Science. vol. 25 (4).
- (2013) Latitudinal gradients as natural laboratories to infer species' responses to temperature. Journal of Ecology. vol. 101 (3).
- (2013) Microclimate moderates plant responses to macroclimate warming. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. vol. 110 (46).
- (2013) Climatic control of forest herb seed banks along a latitudinal gradient. Global Ecology and Biogeography. vol. 22 (10).
- (2013) Local temperatures inferred from plant communities suggest strong spatial buffering of climate warming across Northern Europe. Global Change Biology. vol. 19 (5).
- (2013) Plant community type and small-scale disturbances, but not altitude, influence the invasibility in subarctic ecosystems. New Phytologist. vol. 197 (3).
- (2013) Correlations between physical and chemical defences in plants: tradeoffs, syndromes, or just many different ways to skin a herbivorous cat?. New Phytologist. vol. 198 (1).