Lalasia Bialic-Murphy

Last Name

Bialic-Murphy

First Name

Lalasia

ORCID

0000-0001-6046-8316

Organisational unit

01709 - Lehre Umweltsystemwissenschaften

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Publications 1 - 10 of 19

Growth–survival trade-off in temperate trees is weak and restricted to late-successional stages
Bordin, Kauane Maiara; Bauman, David; Pugh, Thomas A.M.; et al. (2025)
Journal of Ecology
1. Life-history strategies emerge from eco-evolutionary constraints, where organisms allocate limited resources to growth, survival, and reproduction, resulting in trade-offs such as the growth–survival trade-off. There is still a limited understanding of whether and how disturbance regimes and successional stages might mediate such trade-offs, with potential consequences for species population dynamics and community assembly. 2. Here, we investigate how disturbances shape the growth–survival trade-off by comparing early and late-successional forest stands across the eastern United States. Using large-scale sampling to capture the realised niche of 68 temperate species, we estimated species-specific mortality probabilities under zero growth (a proxy for resource-poor environments) applying a Bayesian multilevel modelling framework. We tested trade-offs between these estimates and species' maximum growth capacity (a proxy for resource-rich environments), within and across early and late-successional stands. 3. Overall, we found a weak growth–survival trade-off among temperate tree species (R² = 0.07). No clear evidence of this trade-off was found in early successional stands (R² = 0.02), while late-successional stands showed a relatively stronger—though still weak—positive association between species' maximum growth and mortality under zero growth conditions (R² = 0.17). Disturbances therefore seem to mediate a filtering of tree life-history strategies. Consequently, an increase in disturbance rates or changes in their regime could disrupt the growth–survival trade-off in temperate forests. 4. Synthesis: Life-history strategies arise from eco-evolutionary constraints and can lead to trade-offs like tree growth and survival. While temperate tree species in late-successional or low-disturbance-frequency forests do show a growth–survival trade-off, this trade-off is weak and was not found in early successional or high-disturbance-frequency stands, nor across all stages combined. Our findings highlight a role of disturbances in filtering life-history strategies and their potential impact on forest dynamics and global carbon cycling but also a need to better understand the mediating processes of tree demographic trade-offs.
Soil microbial community differences drive variation in Pinus sylvestris physiology, productivity, and responses to elevated CO₂
Anthony, Mark A.; Röckel, Nora; Traistaru, Alexandra; et al. (2025)
Environmental Microbiomes
Background Soil microbial communities can affect plant nutrient uptake, productivity, and may even confer resistance to global change. Elevated atmospheric CO₂ is widely expected to stimulate plant productivity; however, this will depend on the availability of growth limiting nutrients such as nitrogen. Soil microbial communities are the main mediators of soil nitrogen cycling and should therefore play a key role in influencing plant responses to elevated CO₂. Results To test this, we conducted a controlled, growth chamber experiment with Pinus sylvestris to evaluate how soil microbiome variation influences plant physiology, productivity, and responses to elevated CO₂ (eCO₂; 800 ppm versus 400 ppm in the ambient treatment). Field soils were collected from six forests with varying tree growth rates and were used as an inoculant source, either sterilized or living, into a common growth medium seeded with P. sylvestris. After seven months of growth, we measured plant carbon assimilation, photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency, above- and belowground productivity, and we measured soil microbial biodiversity using DNA metabarcoding. Our findings demonstrate that seedling productivity was stimulated under eCO₂ conditions and that this was supported by improved plant photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency, but only in the presence of living versus sterilized soil inoculant. The magnitude of this response was also dependent on the forest soil microbial inoculant source and was linked to a 70% increase in bacterial species richness, increased relative abundances of bacteria known to have positive effects on plant growth (e.g., Lactobacillus, Bacillus, Flavobacterium), and with a concomitant shift in saprotrophic fungal community composition and root growth. Variation in inorganic nitrogen cycling which favored the accumulation of nitrate under eCO₂ was also correlated with a twofold reduction in photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency, suggesting a decoupling of nitrogen availability and assimilation efficiency with distinct implications for plant growth responses to elevated CO₂. Conclusions Our results show that soil microbial community variation directly affects P. sylvestris physiology, productivity, and responses to eCO₂, and may enhance plant growth through improved nitrogen use efficiency. Surprisingly, growth with different microbial communities even more strongly impacted plant productivity than a doubling of atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. The soil microbiome therefore plays a key role in supporting plant nutrition and growth under ambient and eCO₂ conditions, and in turn, may confer increased forest resistance to climate change.
Coexistence of Tropical Forest Tree Species Along the Demographic Buffering Spectrum
Yang, Xianyu; Angert, Amy L.; Zuidema, Pieter A.; et al. (2025)
Global Change Biology
Organisms have evolved diverse adaptive strategies to cope with environmental fluctuations. Slow-growing long-lived species tend to exhibit low temporal variability in population growth (strongly buffered demographically), whereas fast-growing short-lived species optimize growth in favorable years (weakly buffered). These patterns set up the expectation that differentiation in demographic buffering may reduce disparities in long-term fitness among species, enhancing the potential for coexistence in variable environments. Yet, this expectation has never been empirically tested for trees. Here, we quantified differences in long-term population growth among 204 co-occurring tropical trees spanning a life-history spectrum from strongly to weakly buffered. We found that interspecific differences in demographic buffering reduced disparities in long-term population fitness at low densities, highlighting demographic differentiation as a key mechanism promoting coexistence in fluctuating environments. However, simulated increases in temperature, precipitation, and drought variability produced divergent fitness responses among species and exacerbated interspecific fitness disparities. Together, these findings provide a novel perspective on the mechanisms that underpin the astounding tree diversity in tropical forests.
Wilderness Quality, Habitat Connectivity, and the Effectiveness of Protected Areas Diminish as Human Activities Intensify
Tu, Wenna; Crowther, Tom; Du, Yunyan; et al. (2025)
Conservation Letters
Intact and connected wilderness areas are vital for biodiversity conservation. The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) hosts some of the world's most unique ecosystems. Yet, increased economic development across the QTP raises concerns about the potential negative effects of increased human pressure on the stability of this unique biodiversity hotspot. In this study, we assessed the impacts of human activities on wilderness quality, habitat connectivity, and the effectiveness of protected areas across the QTP from 2000 to 2020. During this period, wilderness areas experienced a 41.08% reduction in large, intact patches, with a notable decline in quality, particularly in the eastern region of the QTP. Habitat connectivity decreased over time, and the cost of animal migration increased, with the most striking changes in areas with the highest initial wilderness quality. Economic growth and infrastructure development had strong negative impacts on the effectiveness of protected areas, with experimental protected areas declining faster than non-protected areas during periods of high infrastructure expansion. These emergent trend highlights the significant impact of increasing human pressure on animal migration and underscore the need for adaptive management and careful monitoring to ensure protected areas effectively prevent habitat fragmentation and support animal migration across global biodiversity hotspots.
Fragmentation increased in over half of global forests from 2000 to 2020
Zou, Yibiao; Crowther, Tom; Smith, Gabriel; et al. (2025)
Science
Habitat fragmentation, in which contiguous forests are broken into smaller, isolated patches, threatens biodiversity by disrupting species movement, shrinking populations, and altering ecosystem dynamics. Past assessments suggested declining global fragmentation, but they relied on structure-based metrics that overlook ecological connectivity. We analyzed global forest fragmentation from 2000 to 2020 using complementary metrics that captured patch connectivity, aggregation, and structure. Connectivity-based metrics revealed that 51 to 67% of forests globally—and 58 to 80% of tropical forests—became more fragmented, which is nearly twice the rate suggested by traditional structure-focused methods (30 to 35%). Aggregation-focused metrics confirmed increases in 57 to 83% of forests. Human activities such as agriculture and logging drive this change. Yet protected tropical areas saw up to an 82% reduction in fragmentation, underscoring the potential of targeted conservation.
Inferring plant-plant interactions using remote sensing
Chen, Bin J.W.; Teng, Shuqing N.; Zheng, Guang; et al. (2022)
Journal of Ecology
1. Rapid technological advancements and increasing data availability have improved the capacity to monitor and evaluate Earth's ecology via remote sensing. However, remote sensing is notoriously ‘blind’ to fine-scale ecological processes such as interactions among plants, which encompass a central topic in ecology. 2. Here, we discuss how remote sensing technologies can help infer plant–plant interactions and their roles in shaping plant-based systems at individual, community and landscape levels. At each of these levels, we outline the key attributes of ecosystems that emerge as a product of plant–plant interactions and could possibly be detected by remote sensing data. We review the theoretical bases, approaches and prospects of how inference of plant–plant interactions can be assessed remotely. 3. At the individual level, we illustrate how close-range remote sensing tools can help to infer plant–plant interactions, especially in experimental settings. At the community level, we use forests to illustrate how remotely sensed community structure can be used to infer dominant interactions as a fundamental force in shaping plant communities. At the landscape level, we highlight how remotely sensed attributes of vegetation states and spatial vegetation patterns can be used to assess the role of local plant–plant interactions in shaping landscape ecological systems. 4. $Synthesis$. Remote sensing extends the domain of plant ecology to broader and finer spatial scales, assisting to scale ecological patterns and search for generic rules. Robust remote sensing approaches are likely to extend our understanding of how plant–plant interactions shape ecological processes across scales—from individuals to landscapes. Combining these approaches with theories, models, experiments, data-driven approaches and data analysis algorithms will firmly embed remote sensing techniques into ecological context and open new pathways to better understand biotic interactions.
The pace of life for forest trees
Bialic-Murphy, Lalasia; McElderry, Robert M.; Esquivel-Muelbert, Adriane; et al. (2024)
Science
Tree growth and longevity trade-offs fundamentally shape the terrestrial carbon balance. Yet, we lack a unified understanding of how such trade-offs vary across the world's forests. By mapping life history traits for a wide range of species across the Americas, we reveal considerable variation in life expectancies from 10 centimeters in diameter (ranging from 1.3 to 3195 years) and show that the pace of life for trees can be accurately classified into four demographic functional types. We found emergent patterns in the strength of trade-offs between growth and longevity across a temperature gradient. Furthermore, we show that the diversity of life history traits varies predictably across forest biomes, giving rise to a positive relationship between trait diversity and productivity. Our pan-latitudinal assessment provides new insights into the demographic mechanisms that govern the carbon turnover rate across forest biomes.
The Disconnect Between Short- and Long-Term Population Projections for Plant Reintroductions
Bialic-Murphy, Lalasia; Knight, Tiffany M.; Kawelo, Kapua; et al. (2022)
Frontiers in Conservation Science
The reintroduction of rare species in natural preserves is a commonly used restoration strategy to prevent species extinction. An essential first step in planning successful reintroductions is identifying which life stages (e.g., seeds or large adults) should be used to establish these new populations. Following this initial establishment phase, it is necessary to determine the level of survival, growth, and recruitment needed to maintain population persistence over time and identify management actions that will achieve these goals. In this 5-year study, we projected the short- and long-term population growth rates of a critically endangered long-lived shrub, Delissea waianaeensis. Using this model system, we show that reintroductions established with mature individuals have the lowest probability of quasi-population extinction (10 individuals) and the highest increase in population abundance. However, our results also demonstrate that short-term increases in population abundances are overly optimistic of long-term outcomes. Using long-term stochastic model simulations, we identified the level of natural seedling regeneration needed to maintain a positive population growth rate over time. These findings are relevant for planning future reintroduction efforts for long-lived species and illustrate the need to forecast short- and long-term population responses when evaluating restoration success.
Distinct pathways to stakeholder use versus academic contribution in climate adaptation research
Hyman, Amanda A.; Courtney, Steph L.; McNeal, Karen S.; et al. (2022)
Conservation Letters
Challenges facing societies around the globe as they plan for and adapt to climate change are so large that usable, research-driven recommendations to inform management actions are urgently needed. We sought to understand factors that influence the variation of academic contribution and use of collaborative research on climate change. We surveyed researchers (n = 31), program-leaders (n = 5), and stakeholders (n = 81) from projects supported by a federally funded network across the United States. Our results suggest that peer-reviewed publications do not lead to use, but frequency of meetings with stakeholders significantly increased use. Overall, the factors needed for projects to have high degrees of academic contributions are distinct from those needed to be useful to stakeholders. Furthermore, leadership perceptions of use of projects were significantly different from users. Our quantitative results can inform future requests for proposals and better enable researchers using collaborative approaches to conduct science that is more often used by stakeholders.
Monitoring Terrestrial Ecosystem Resilience Using Earth Observation Data: Identifying Consensus and Limitations Across Metrics
Runge, Katharina; Tucker, Marlee; Crowther, Thomas W.; et al. (2025)
Global Change Biology
Resilience is a key feature of ecosystem dynamics reflecting a system's ability to resist and recover from environmental perturbations. Slowing down in the rate of recovery has been used as an early-warning signal for abrupt transitions. Recent advances in Earth observation (EO) vegetation data provide the capability to capture broad-scale resilience patterns and identify regions experiencing resilience loss. However, the proliferation of methods for evaluating resilience using EO data has introduced significant uncertainty, leading to contradictory resilience estimates across approximately 73% of the Earth's land surface. To reconcile these perspectives, we review the range of methods and associated metrics that capture aspects of ecosystem resilience using EO data. Using a principal component analysis, we empirically test the relationships between the most widely used resilience metrics and explore emergent patterns within and among the world's biomes. Our analysis reveals that the 10 resilience metrics aggregate into four core components of ecosystem dynamics, highlighting the multidimensional nature of ecosystem resilience. We also find that ecosystems with slower recovery are more resistant to drought extremes. Furthermore, the relationships between resilience metrics vary across the world's biomes and vegetation types. These results illustrate the inherent differences in the dynamics of natural systems and highlight the need for careful consideration when evaluating broad-scale resilience patterns across biomes. Our findings provide valuable insights for identifying global resilience patterns, which are critically needed to inform policy decisions and guide conservation efforts globally.

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Lalasia Bialic-Murphy

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