Ecosystem services are dependent on the resilience of natural objects and processes, as well as the pressures of society. To describe the resilience of natural organisms and processes to stress factors, the following properties can be measured: resistance (no change during the pressure of stressors), elastic deformation (change with bouncing back to the same state), plastic deformation preserving the functions (change without full structural bouncing back, but the function is recovered), and adaptability (structural change preserving and extending the functions). All these features, as well as preparedness, can be used to describe relevant societal processes. A thorough understanding of ecosystems' resilience to climate change is crucial to human preparedness for increasingly compromised ecosystem services. Vegetation plays a key role in this adaptation.

The role of vegetation can be conceptualized physically (regarding energy flow and biogeochemical cycles) or by complex networks of trait-mediated interactions between species and the coupling between population and community scale processes. Resistance and elastic deformation are important for individuals, plants, and communities. Plastic deformation and adaptability are relevant to more complex subsystems, engaging plants, consumers, and decomposers. It is necessary to cross-fertilize between the scientific fields of ecophysiology, population ecology, community ecology, and ecosystem ecology to gain a better understanding of the role of vegetation in providing ecosystem services.

A general question is how resilient vegetation in terms of energy flow, biogeochemical cycles, and species interactions to high and low-temperature episodes is, precipitation intensity, droughts, and their frequency and temporal variation. Specific questions are:

• How resilient are plant species to climate stress due to functional redundancy in primary production? Does human preparedness differ for different types of ecosystems?

• To what extent do plants contribute to the cycles of C, N, P, heavy metals, and other ecosystem services under climate stress? How can stoichiometric approaches be coupled with this specific problem?

• Can climate stress result in the decoupling of interactions between plants and fungi, invertebrates, and vertebrates? How does this change relate to the phenology of species and time as a resource in ecology? What could be the potential implications of such a decoupling for the processes that underpin ecosystem services?

This project aims to facilitate communication among plant scientists, ecologists, and earth and environmental scientists, as well as gather contributions on, but not limited to, the below:

• Reviews of the knowledge in plant ecophysiology, plant population ecology, plant community ecology, and ecosystem ecology pertinent to the vegetation's resistance, elastic deformation, plastic deformation, and adaptability to climate stress.

• Methodologies of field investigations and experimental design to investigate the effect of climate stress on the plants’ role in the provision of ecosystem services, in particular, those related to biogeochemical cycles.

• Observations and experiments on resistance, elastic deformation, plastic deformation, and adaptability of plants’ processes at eco-physiological, populational, community, and ecosystem scales to climate stress

• Transfer of the analytic and integrated knowledge to decision makers to enhance the societal preparedness for a diminished role of plants in the provision of ecosystem services.

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Frontiers in Plant Science

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