Francesca De Giorgi (PhD Student)
Contact:
Department for Physiological Diversity
German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv)
Puschstraße 4
04103 Leipzig
Germany
e-mail: francesca.de-giorgi@ufz.de
Research Gate: Research Gate Profile Francesca De Giorgi
Biodiversity loss has lately been the focus of many studies trying to understand its present and future consequences. It is already appreciated that biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning acquire strength over time and, in this framework, I am interested in the role of evolutionary processes for plant species responses to plant community diversity, plant history and soil history.
The aim of the project is therefore to measure evolutionary responses of plant species both at the phenotypic and molecular level in order to test whether these are heritable and adaptive and if they are linked to genetic and epigenetic differences.
An important and fascinating aspect of the project is the study of the role of epigenetics in evolutionary processes. I am interested in understanding to which level epigenetic variation is under genetic control as well as its level of heritability and reversibility.
For this purpose, I will conduct a Field Phytometer Experiment with nine species’ offspring of 17-year old plant diverse communities to test for adaptive phenotypic responses and an Ecotron Phytometer Experiment with some genotypes of the model species Plantago lanceolata selected in low- and high-diversity communities to test for adaptive phenotypic plasticity and epigenetic variation in the actual growth environment. I will also study evolutionary response to plant diversity at the genetic, epigenetic and phenotypic level conducting a common garden experiment with the apomictic model species Taraxacum officinale.
Scientific Education:
02/2020 - to date
PhD student at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ/German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
03/2019-09/2019
Postgraduate internship at ISEM-Institute of Science De L’evolution De Montpellier, Montpellier, France
03/2018-08/2018
Master thesis internship at NTNU-Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Thesis topic: Is there more in within-individual variation in seed size than developmental instability?2016-2018
M.Sc. in Evolutionary Biology at University of Padova, Italy
2013-2016
B.Sc. in Biology at University of Padova, Italy
Index:
You could use our publication index for further requests.
2024 (4)
- De Giorgi, F., Durka, W., Huang, Y., Schmid, B., Roscher, C. (2024):
Selection shapes plant performance in a grassland biodiversity experiment
bioRxiv 10.1101/2024.08.19.608599 - De Giorgi, F., Hoffmann, P., Durka, W., Roscher, C. (2024):
Trait measurements of individuals of the clonal herb Taraxacum officinale collected in the Main Experiment year 2019 [Dataset]
Biodiversity Exploratories Information System (BExIS) 10.25829/BN3X-TX39 - De Giorgi, F., Roscher, C., Durka, W. (2024):
Microsatellite genotyping data of individuals of the clonal herb Taraxacum officinale collected in the Main Experiment in 2019 [Dataset]
Biodiversity Exploratories Information System (BExIS) 10.25829/T11X-MH23 - De Giorgi, F., Roscher, C., Durka, W. (2024):
Effects of species diversity on trait expression of the clonal herb Taraxacum officinale and its relation to genotype diversity and phenotypic plasticity
Ecol. Evol. 14 (5), e11430 10.1002/ece3.11430
2021 (1)
- Pélabon, C., De Giorgi, F., Opedal, Ø.H., Bolstad, G.H., Raunsgard, A., Armbruster, W.S. (2021):
Is there more to within-plant variation in seed size than developmental noise?
Evol. Biol. 48 (3), 366 - 377 10.1007/s11692-021-09544-y