Frédéric Clement

Frédéric Clement
Department of Biometry and Environmental System Analysis
Tennenbacher Straße 4, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
Room 03.064
email: frederic.clement(a)biom.uni-freiburg.de
phone: +49 761 203-8667
fax: +49 761 203-3751
Research Interests
Plant community, hydrological niches, diversity, mechanism of coexistence, temporal heterogeneity, time series analysis, sum exceedance values (SEVs).
1. Species hydrological niche and community composition
Previous results (e.g. Silvertown et al. 1999) suggest that plants are constrained by a trade-off between the time they can tolerate (i) drought and (ii) water-logged stressful conditions. The hydrological niche of a species is defined by the range this species occupies on this gradient. As a result different hydrological condition lead to different community composition
Hypothesis: This alignment of species, and thus communities, on the stress gradient can be observed in systems with different hydrological regimes.
2. Hydrological dynamic and community diversity
Empirical models (e.g. Chesson 2000) predict that temporal heterogeneity can provide the conditions for coexistence and thus increase the number of species community. Still, for the relation between water level fluctuation and plant diversity, observational and empirical evidences are sparse.
Hypothesis: In plant community, diversity is driven by water fluctuation more than by the average condition.
Hypothesis: Water level fluctuation on the seasonal and inter-annual scales are the more important ones to drive diversity.
Hydroniche, PhD project
PIs: Prof. Dr. Carsten F. Dormann (Freiburg) and JunProf. Dr. Anke Hildebrandt (Jena)
Hydroniche is funded by Biodiversity Exploratories (DFG Priority Programm 1374)
We first review the existing observational and experimental evidences on the relation between diversity and water level fluctuation.
To test the above hypotheses, we analyze a dataset on soil moisture and vegetation from the Biodiversity Exploratories.
We also carry a grassland mesocosm experiment as a proof of principle. Water level fluctuation and soil type are manipulated to observe the effect on diversity and community composition.
Curriculum Vitae
2011-2015 | PhD student in Ecology, University of Freiburg, Germany | |
2009-2011 | Graduate studies in Ecology and Evolution (Master EFCE), University of Rennes 1, France Diploma thesis on "Root functional traits, biomass and grassland community structure" | |
2006-2009 | Undergraduate studies in Biology and Environmental Science (License Biologie, Environnement), University of Bretagne Sud, France | |