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2023 HARPER PRIZE SHORTLIST: All through March, we’re that includes the articles shortlisted for the 2023 Harper Prize. The Harper Prize is an annual award for the most effective early profession analysis paper printed in Journal of Ecology. Maria Jessen’s article ‘Litter accumulation, not gentle limitation, drives early plant recruitment‘ is a kind of shortlisted for the award:
👋 About me: from forests to grasslands
I’ve at all times been a nature-loving particular person, so I began my research in Worldwide Forest Ecosystem Administration on the Eberswalde College for Sustainable Improvement, Germany. I envisioned making the world a greater place by later working in nature-based improvement help. However an internship on the Local weather Influence Analysis Centre in Abisko, Sweden, and on the Laboratorio Ecotono in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, opened up the fascinating world of plant neighborhood analysis to me. To delve deeper into excessive latitude ecosystems, I labored a number of occasions as a area assistant in Abisko and moved to Umeå, Sweden for a Grasp’s diploma in Ecology. Already throughout my internship, I developed a ardour for working with (tree) seedlings, as they symbolize each new beginnings and continuity. For my PhD place I switched from forest and arctic to grasslands. I moved to central Germany, the place I labored ( and am nonetheless working) on the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Analysis and the German Institute for Integrative Biodiversity Analysis (iDiv) in Leipzig. Throughout my PhD, I centered on plant neighborhood elements of biodiversity loss in grasslands with regard to competitors for gentle beneath nutrient enrichment and the lack of mammalian herbivores. After finishing my PhD, I labored briefly on annual ring information of herbaceous crops in response to land administration.
🔎 The shortlisted article: Seedlings managed by litter
My article contribution “Litter accumulation, not gentle limitation, drives early plant recruitment” was realised utilizing the infrastructure of a singular area experiment by which grassland plant communities within the area had been instantly provided with gentle through LED lamps in full-factorial mixture with nutrient enrichment and exclusion of herbivores (sheep). For the article, we performed a sub-experiment with the addition of seeds of 15 grassland species, by which litter removing was added as a remedy.
The motivation for this research was the speculation of sunshine deprivation-induced variety loss throughout nutrient enrichment and herbivore loss. Particularly, we needed to know what occurs throughout early recruitment, e.g. species arrival. Due to this fact, we investigated the significance of lowering gentle availability as a consequence of shading by surrounding vegetation in comparison with litter accumulation throughout early seedling recruitment.
The outcomes clearly confirmed that litter accumulation hinders seedling recruitment, whereas the addition of sunshine doesn’t enhance seedling recruitment, even when litter is eliminated. The discovering that the addition of sunshine had no impact in any of the experimental remedies was fairly shocking, as we might have anticipated from each principle and experimental proof that the addition of sunshine would have a optimistic impact on variety, particularly with nutrient enrichment and herbivore exclusion.
Engaged on this text taught me to determine seedlings from cotelydons alone, which I actually loved as soon as I developed an eye fixed for it, but additionally confirmed me to by no means cease questioning theories, no matter how lengthy or nicely established they’re. On this specific case, we learnt that the variety of seedling and grownup plant communities is managed by totally different mechanisms, which is an attention-grabbing piece of the puzzle for the general image of ongoing biodiversity loss. On this research, the precise mechanism by which litter accumulation reduces seedling recruitment stays unanswered.
🌱 My present analysis: new paths with Nutrient Community
I’m penning this weblog textual content throughout my parental depart. Previous to this, I took up a postdoctoral place inside the Nutrient Community, disturbance results of small mammal herbivores in relation to nutrient enrichment. The inspiration for this got here from working with the nominated paper, as we discovered clear proof of small mammal herbivore harm in our plots that appeared to vary between remedies, and saved questioning what influence this had on the general plant neighborhood.
As well as, I want to use the European Nutrient Community to direct my future analysis to a extra integrative and interdisciplinary stage, investigating a mix of ecological and social elements of grasslands in occasions of change. Now that I’ve a baby, I’m much more delicate to how and to what sort of world I need to contribute to. Creating data by way of analysis is a good alternative.
Discover out extra about Maria’s analysis on-line.
Learn the complete checklist of articles shortlisted for the 2023 Harper Prize right here.
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