Journal of Ecology

Our modelling analysis reveals that the resource-ratio and CSR theories make different predictions regarding competition on poor soils, not because of their differing schemes of plant strategies, but because of the different disturbance types that they are considering. Tilman's predictions apply to little disturbed natural habitats, whilst Grime's predictions apply to disturbed ones.

There is enough evidence to affirm that soil heterogeneity modulates plant responses to elevated atmospheric CO₂ and N enrichment. Our synthesis indicates that we must explicitly consider soil heterogeneity to accurately predict plant responses to GC drivers.

The novel information provided by this study contributes to our understanding on the drivers of community assembly in Mediterranean rangelands, the functional links established between the above- and the below-ground components and the relative importance of the two main mechanisms (species turnover versus intraspecific variability) promoting functional adaptations of plant communities along field resource gradients.

Understanding the many factors that affect community composition and coexistence of species in natural environments is one of the central goals in ecology. In this study, we combined molecular identification techniques with seed germination experiments and spatial point pattern analyses to show that the presence of specific mycorrhizal fungi contributed to the spatial distribution and coexistence of three co-occurring orchid species (Anacamptis morio, Gymnadenia conopsea and Orchis mascula).

The study provides evidence that functional traits such as aerenchyma can effectively predict species niches, and evolution of these traits may constrain the habitats available to the clades. We underpin the importance of understanding the causal driver of the local distribution of species for making robust predictions of species range shifts under climate change.

Our findings show that behavioural differences of animal seed dispersers between habitat types can result in substantial changes in seed-dispersal distances and locations in human-modified habitats. These changes in seed-dispersal services for bird-dispersed plant species may be related to reduced seedling recruitment in farmland populations making such populations prone to extinction in the long term.

These results demonstrate that species interactions can lead to a mosaic of locally adapted plant, herbivore and pollinator populations. In addition to natural enemies, genetic variation, the abiotic environment, and mutualistic interactions contribute to the evolution of local adaptation in long-lived plants. These results provide new insights into the patterns and causes of variation in local adaptation, and are among the first to demonstrate that conflicting selection pressures within a population do not constrain local adaptation in multiple traits.

Relationships between the invasiveness traits index (PCA Axis 1) and literature-based invasiveness from (a) Holm et al.'s (1979) A Geographical Atlas of World Weeds and (b) Randall's (2002) A Global Compendium of Weeds.

Tragopogon dubius occurs widely across North America as an exotic naturalized weed. Long-term rodent exclosures combined with seed addition experiments indicate that biotic resistance from rodent florivory and seed predation strongly suppress this weed. These results suggest that biotic resistance from native rodents may help to explain why this invader has not become a problematic invader.Tragopogon dubius can reach high densities in locations where herbivory and plant competition are reduced. Photo taken in Eastern Montana by Allison Lansverk.

Our results clearly show the importance of studying both direct and indirect effects of land use intensity. They demonstrate the indirect nature, via productivity, of the negative effect of fertilization intensity on plant species richness in the real world context of management-induced gradients of intensity of fertilization, mowing and grazing. Finally, they highlight that careful consideration of regional environments is necessary before attempting to generalize land use effects on species diversity.

Fire tolerance traits did explain a significant component of the variance in observed shifts in the abundance of tree species. However, traits related to the carbon economy of photosynthesis were also important. The relationship (solid line) between the stem diameter of a 2-m-tall tree (estimated from the allometric models in Fig. 1) and the probability of topkill of a 2-m-tall tree in a dry season fire of 2000 kW m⁻¹ fire for common savanna tree species (this latter variables are the mean estimates from Fig. 3). The labels indicate the species names (see Table S1).

In Neotropical savannas tree canopy cover facilitates seedling establishment of woody species by reducing stressful environmental conditions. In particular, low irradiance and high litter cover in closed savannas enhance the recruitment and survival of woody seedlings relative to open savannas by reducing soil water deficits and increasing nutrient availability in the upper soil layers. The higher seedling limitation of tree species in open than in closed savannas contributes to maintain relatively different balances between trees and herbaceous plants along topographic gradients in Neotropical savannas and helps to explain spatial distribution patterns of woody species in these ecosystems.

This study highlights how the combination of abundance data with multiple plant traits capturing different functional dimensions may be critical to the detection of the complex functional responses of plant communities to environmental gradients. By contradicting and refining a number of widespread hypotheses from the literature, this study takes us further towards a general understanding of plant community assembly.

The demonstration that clear niche segregation may occur among related species without phylogenetic niche conservatism being detectable supports the hypothesis that hydrological niche responses are evolutionarily labile. More generally, the results demonstrate that phylogenetic analysis can be a poor guide to the process of community assembly. We argue that it may in future be better to apply ecological data to the interpretation of phylogenies, rather than to follow the current preoccupation with the application of phylogenies to ecology.

This study demonstrates the relevance of considering the phenotypic plasticity in functional traits for quantifying breadth of tropical tree species distribution over canopy disturbance gradient. Furthermore, the results show that tropical tree species with intermediate light requirements are not functionally equivalent as hypothesized by the neutral theory of community assembly.

Disturbances are widespread and may have important effects on community assembly and ecosystem processes. We use a large-scale logging experiment in a tropical forest and show that 8 years after logging, there are little changes in species tree diversity and functional diversity. There were, however, clear shifts in community functional composition towards “fast” species with more acquisitive traits, thus potentially fuelling primary productivity, nutrient- and carbon cycling.

Life-history trade-offs and low predictability of fire intervals may favour low rather than strong serotiny levels. Once adapted to some historical fire regime, serotinous populations are sensitive to a change in fire frequency and to an increase in the variance of fire intervals. Populations adapted to a historically high variance in fire return are more robust to fire regime changes.

These results suggest that we cannot assume extirpation-resistant species will compensate for the decline in ecosystem processes associated with biodiversity loss across all ecosystems. Understanding those factors that influence the ability of ecosystems to compensate for declines in ecosystem processes associated with biodiversity loss constitutes a significant challenge.

Our modelling study is the first to quantitatively define different modes of facilitation. We showed that facilitation have an important influence on plant population structure. Different modes of facilitation and competition can affect different aspects of populations, implying context-dependent outcomes and consequences. An explicit consideration of modes of facilitation and competition is crucial for understanding plant population and community dynamics.

These results reveal that local ‘filters’ such as post-dispersal seed predation and disturbance can individually and collectively impose strong limitation on seedling recruitment into local assemblages. Seed size importantly predicts how strongly individual species are influenced by these local filters. Interestingly, in situ community filters have differential effects on native versus exotic species, suggesting that processes that limit native recruitment may not have the same inhibitory influence on exotics.

We show with a simple theoretical model that demographic trade-offs among tree species with identical demographic responses to shade promotes stable coexistence through vertical foliage partitioning via demographic trade-offs. This mechanism works independently of the coexistence mechanism through horizontal partitioning of patch mosaic, which is associated with inter-specific difference in shade tolerance.

In simultaneous manipulations of plant species diversity and genetic diversity within a dominant species, we found that species diversity and genetic diversity interacted to influence community-level primary productivity. Our results highlight the importance of incorporating interactions among levels of biodiversity into our understanding of how biodiversity influences ecosystem function.

Editor's Choice

The results suggest that trade-offs between vegetative and seed reproduction are not revealed by analysis of species traits, probably due to the fact that trade-offs often only arise due to life-history costs that are shaped by the local environment. This highlights the importance of examining life history processes associated with trait values.

Synthesis. The dynamics of flower production in overstory trees can indirectly affect the pollination efficiency of understorey plants in the next season via the population dynamics of pollinators. Our results suggest that a cascade effect occurs through pollination networks in a cool-temperate forest ecosystem.

Using three dioecious understorey palm (Chamaedorea) species, we tested the hypothesis that females are less tolerant than males to increased levels of sustained defoliation. Results did not support the hypothesis aslife-history and functional trait effects of defoliation were mostly similar between genders. We discuss the ecological implications of these results and their importance for designing sustainable leaf harvesting regimes.

Fagus sylvatica is an important, shade-tolerant, native tree dominating the woodlands of S.E. England and extensively planted elsewhere, especially as a forestry tree. Its distribution is currently expanding in central Europe, but with climate change its range may well contract except in the north. Its susceptibility to Phytophthora diseases is a potential widespread threat to its future.