Doctoral defence: Eleonora Beccari "Mapping and exploring trait spaces across the tree of life"

On February 21 at 10:15 Eleonora Beccari will defend her doctoral thesis "Mapping and exploring trait spaces across the tree of life" for obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in Botany and Mycology).

Supervisor:
Professor Carlos Pérez Carmona, University of Tartu

Opponent:
Professor Holger Kreft, University of Göttingen (Germany)

Summary:
Life on Earth is incredibly diverse, yet all species face the challenge of allocating limited resources to grow, survive, and reproduce. My research examined how plant and mammal species invest in these processes using “trait spaces” – maps of measurable characteristics (traits) that reveal the strategies species use to navigate their environments.

By investigating the global trait space of plants, I revealed a strong alignment between above- and belowground size: tall plants possessed extensive root systems to support their aboveground structures and secure resources for growth, while shorter plants had smaller root systems. Surprisingly, traits reflecting strategies for resource acquisition and conservation in leaves and roots were decoupled, operating independently of each other.

Similarly, I constructed a global trait space of mammals and found that mammals are distributed into two main groups within this space: species with faster but shorter lives, and those with slower but longer lives. These strategies are strongly linked to habitats, with aquatic and aerial environments favouring “slow” strategies, if compared to terrestrial ones.

Finally, I tested whether this trait space framework can be applied in biodiversity monitoring through remote sensing. Drone images from plant communities in coastal dunes in Italy revealed that patterns in spectral space – variations in light reflected by vegetation – strongly related with the trait spaces of plant communities. This suggests that plant strategies can be studied remotely, offering an efficient way to monitor biodiversity changes over large areas.

The trait-space methodology enables comparisons of strategies across species, quantify their diversity, and allow to model how strategies relate to environmental factors. This approach is crucial for understanding how organisms adapt, and predict community responses to global changes, aiding biodiversity conservation and ecosystem stability.