In light of climate change, it is crucial to determine whether plant species can adapt to future climates to avoid extinction. Plants adapt to various conditions by altering their functional traits... Show moreIn light of climate change, it is crucial to determine whether plant species can adapt to future climates to avoid extinction. Plants adapt to various conditions by altering their functional traits, such as leaf size or photosynthetic rate. Some traits appear linked and vary together between species, suggesting resource management strategies of plants. Traits can also vary within species, known as intraspecific trait variation (ITV), and its extent varies between species. Our understanding of how and why these traits vary within species is limited.This dissertation uses newly compiled global databases of species' ITV and genetic adaptation rates. We investigate whether trait-trait relationships between species also occur within species, confirming these as true plant strategies. We then explore the drivers of components of ITV: phenotypic plasticity, allowing plants to change in response to the environment, and genetic adaptation, involving inherited changes. Each offers different benefits for species adapting to changing conditions. By combining them, we can better understand plant species' adaptive capacity. Finally, we evaluate whether plants with different growth forms and from different biomes differ in their adaptive capacity to climate change.Our results provide new insights into plant strategies and have important implications for vegetation modelling and conservation efforts. Show less
One of the effects of climate change is the phenomenon of desertification, a process that occurs in semi-arid and arid areas and causes land degradation as well as vegetation loss. Due to the lack... Show moreOne of the effects of climate change is the phenomenon of desertification, a process that occurs in semi-arid and arid areas and causes land degradation as well as vegetation loss. Due to the lack of resources, vegetation self-organizes to sustain itself by forming large-scale spatial patterns. In this thesis, the underlying mathematical structure of these observed vegetation patterns is studied using partial differential equations models. The vegetation patterns are analyzed using techniques from geometrical singular perturbation theory and numerical simulations. Additionally, novel multi-front patterns are constructed that arise within one of the models studied. This interdisciplinary research allows for cross-fertilization of both mathematics and ecology. Show less
Vast, often populated, areas in dryland ecosystems face the dangers of desertification. Loosely speaking, desertification is the process in which a relatively dry region loses its vegetation -... Show moreVast, often populated, areas in dryland ecosystems face the dangers of desertification. Loosely speaking, desertification is the process in which a relatively dry region loses its vegetation - typically as an effect of climate change. As an important step in this process, the lack of resources forces the vegetation in these semi-arid areas to organise itself into large-scale spatial patterns. In this thesis, these patterns are studied using conceptual mathematical models, in which vegetation patterns present themselves as localised structures (for example pulses or fronts). These are analysed using mathematical techniques from (geometric singular) perturbation theory and via numerous numerical simulations. The study of these ecosystem models leads to new advances in both mathematics and ecology. Show less
Van der Horn, Sarah A.; Van Kolfschoten, Thijs; Van der Plicht, Johannes; Hoek, Wim Z. 2015
