When friends turn to enemies

Heinz Rennenberg (Freiburg): Many plant species have developed in evolution on marginal soils with low nutrient availability. Therefore, plants in their natural environment are thought to be highly adapted to multiple nutrient limitations, in particular of nitrogen and phosphorus. For this purpose, different strategies to overcome nutrient limitations have been developed. In this lecture two interesting strategies to overcome nitrogen limitation will be discussed, i.e. nitrogen acquisition by plant carnivory and nitrogen cycling in forests, the latter with special emphasis on tree – microbial interactions in European beech forests. The significance of climate change for these interactions in beech forests will be addressed.