Koenraad Van Meerbeek is an Assistant Professor at the Division Forest, Nature and Landscape of the KU Leuven (Belgium). In 2015, he obtained a PhD in Bioscience Engineering with his research about the link between biodiversity conservation and renewable energy. In 2015, he successfully secured funding to continue as a postdoc at the KU Leuven and, in 2017, he moved to Denmark to collaborate with Prof. Jens-Christian Svenning (Aarhus University). At the end of 2018, he returned to KU Leuven to take up a permanent position. Since then, he is heading the sGlobe lab and developed his own research lines focusing on the conservation of plant biodiversity and the effects of climate change on plant species and ecosystem functioning. In 2022, he received a prestigious ERC starting grant for his FutureNature project, aiming to shape future functional plant communities.

Importance of microclimate for global change ecology

Ecological research heavily relies on coarse-gridded climate data based on standardized temperature measurements recorded at 2 m height in open landscapes. However, many organisms experience environmental conditions that differ substantially from those captured by these macroclimatic (i.e. free air) temperature grids. In forests, the tree canopy functions as a thermal insulator and buffers sub-canopy microclimatic conditions, thereby affecting biological and ecological processes. Microclimate research gained renewed interest over the last decade and its importance for many ecological processes is increasingly being recognized. The recent development of high-resolution sub-canopy microclimate layers for European forests opens a new avenue of ecological research.

井新，兰州大学草地农业科技学院三级“萃英教授”，博士生导师。2014年博士毕业于北京大学；2015-2021年，先后在北京大学、佛蒙特大学、鲁汶大学和哥本哈根大学开展博士后研究工作；2022年1月入职兰州大学。目前主要从事群落生态学、生态系统生态学和全球变化生态学相关研究，以“生态系统多功能性”为核心，研究生态系统多功能性形成的生态学基础及其对全球变化的响应和适应。代表性成果发表在Nature Communications、Global Ecology and Biogeography、Functional Ecology、Soil Biology & Biochemistry等学术刊物上。现任Grassland Research和Soil Ecology Letters期刊青年编委，Faculty Opinions助理评论员，中国生态学学会恢复生态专业委员会委员。

以地上、地下关联的视角研究生物多样性与生态系统功能之间的关系

生物多样性为人类社会提供了赖以生存、丰富多样的物质资源。但由于人类活动和全球变化，生物多样性正面临前所未有的丧失风险。过去30年，为了阐明生物多样性丧失对生态系统功能有怎样的影响，生态学家开展了大量的生物多样性“受控实验”，这些“受控实验”的结果是否能应用到“野外观测”仍是争议话题。本讲座将借助在欧洲森林开展的生物多样性与生态系统功能研究平台(FunDivEUROPE)，回答(1)地上、地下选择与互补是否调节树种多样性对生态系统功能的作用；(2)地上、地下资源利用如何调控树种多样性对生态系统功能及其稳定性的影响。基于此，报告者尝试利用植物功能性状和生态生产方程来构建研究框架，从地上、地下关联的视角探究生物多样性与生态系统功能之间的作用机制。