The Collaborative Research Centre “Phenotypic Plasticity in Plants”, hosted at the University of Potsdam, regularly offers training courses for its PhD students and postdocs. In these courses, principal investigators introduce concepts and methods central to understanding mechanisms, constraints, and evolution of phenotypic plasticity in plants.
 

Our working group contributes to a subproject that examines how genotype and environment interact in shaping functional plant responses related to resource acquisition and conservation, framed within the concept of the Leaf Economics Spectrum (LES). Because this concept has the potential to link across multiple projects in the Collaborative Research Centre, we offered a three-hour training course for PhD students and postdocs.

The morning began with a lecture by Prof. Anja Linstädter, who introduced the ecological background of the Leaf Economics Spectrum. Students went outdoors to collect leaves of various shapes and sizes, gaining first-hand insight into the remarkable variation captured by the Leaf Economics Spectrum. In the second session, Dr. Vera Hesen demonstrated how leaf traits are measured. Working in small groups, students had the chance to practice these methods themselves using Arabidopsis thaliana plants. The course provided a practical introduction to an important ecological framework and inspired students to integrate plant strategies in their own research.