Frei, Esther

Curriculum Vitae

PhD Project

Adaptation to local site conditions and phenotypic plasticity may favour peripheral high altitude populations in terms of response to expected future climate change scenarios

Under predicted climate change scenarios it is expected that plants will move up mountain slopes, following favourable temperature regimes. In doing so, they will encounter the poorer soil conditions of high elevations. We therefore seek to explore whether plants from core populations, adapted to local temperature and soil conditions, will be favoured over peripheral plants adapted to more stressful low-temperature and poor soil conditions, in higher elevation sites. We use controlled-climate chambers and a reciprocal transplant field study to address these questions.

Publications

Hahn, T., Kettle, C. J., Ghazoul, J., Frei, E. R., Matter, P., & Pluess, A. R. (2012). Patterns of genetic variation across altitude in three plant species of semi-dry grasslands. PLoS ONE, 7(8), e41608.

Pluess, A.R., Frei E., Kettle, C.J., Hahn, T. & Ghazoul J. (2011) Plant growth and fitness of Scabiosa columbaria under climate warming conditions. Plant Ecology & Diversity, available online Sep. 1st DOI: 10.1080/17550874.2011.618848

Frei, E., Bodin J. & Walther, G.-R. (2010) Plant species` range shifts in mountainous areas - all uphill from here? Botanica Helvetica 120 (2), 117-128.

Frei, E., Walther, G.-R., Burga, C.A. & Heggli, M. (2007) Climate induced shift of alpine plants speeds up. Poster at the Annual Meeting of SGmG, Samedan.

Burga, C.A., Frei, E., Reinalter, R. & Walther, G.-R. (2007) Neue Daten zum Monitoring alpiner Pflanzen im Engadin. Berichte der Reinhold-Tüxen-Gesellschaft, Band 19, p.37-43.