BACKGROUND
Although wetlands are widespread and occupy large areas around the globe, cross-continental scale patterns of plant adaptations to wetland conditions have received little attention. This contrasts to work done on global patterns of plant traits in terrestrial ecosystems.

GOAL
Our working group aims at a quantitative global meta-analysis of relationships between plant traits and environmental conditions in wetlands. To do so, we will develop a database of plant traits that consists of

i) traits specific for wetland conditions to predict values for these traits as a function of soil, hydrology and climate

ii) traits generally used to describe plant strategies to test the modulation of these traits by wetland conditions

iii) traits linked to methane emissions.

We aim to have a version of the database close to ready before the first meetings of the working group, and this is supported by a student-assistant of the Vrije University Amsterdam.

Last Updated September 2008