In collaboration with our colleagues from the Plant Ecology group, Maarja Öpik and Martti Vasar, and Scott Wilson from the University of Regina, Canada, Sabrina published an article about the importance of belowground plant richness measured by roots for a comprehensive estimation of total plant species richness in different vegetation types. The authors combined a molecular next-generation sequencing approach and vegetation surveys to demonstrate that aboveground but also belowground plant richness alone was a poor estimator of total plant richness within and across contrasting vegetation types along an elevation gradient. This highlights the need to account for both above- and belowground plant richness to estimate potential changes in plant communities in a changing environment.
Träger, S., Öpik, M., Vasar, M. & Wilson, S.D. (2018) Belowground plant parts are crucial for comprehensively estimating total plant richness in herbaceous and woody habitats. Ecology, doi: 10.1002/ecy.2575
