Elinor Fajer, Harvard University, and Peter Pellitier, University of Utah, discuss their article: Ectomycorrhizal communities underlie trade-offs between greater long-term tree growth and reduced soil carbon concentrations in boreal forests Boreal forests are one of the most carbon-rich ecosystems on Earth. Belowground, the soils store massive amounts of carbon-rich organic matter, and aboveground, long-living trees…
Manqiang Liu, Lanzhou University, discusses their article: Elevated CO2 amplifies contrasting cultivar-specific plant‒soil feedbacks mediated by soil biota Elevated CO2 concentration (eCO2) can promote plant biomass production, with these effects cascading to soil biota and, in turn, feeding back to plant performance. However, crop cultivars can differ greatly in their responses to eCO2. This raises…
Sören Eliot Weber, West Virginia University, discusses his article: Fine-root responses to warming and elevated CO2 vary among plant functional types Roots link plants to soil, shaping the responses of carbon, nutrient, and water cycles to climate change in peatlands. Peatlands in northern Minnesota (USA) have shallow water tables and canopies of black spruce and…
Sarah Le Berre, Institute of Silviculture and Forest Protection (Technical University of Dresden), discusses her article: Identifying future climate refugia in central European mountain forests Mountain forests can seem timeless. Yet their tree communities are continuously changing in response to human pressures, natural disturbances, and shifts in climate. As temperatures rise and disturbance patterns become…
Micha Davidova, Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, discusses their article: Direct and indirect effects of elevated CO2, warming and drought on plant-consumer interactions of Plantago lanceolata Setting the scene Interactions between plants and their consumers, such as herbivores and pathogens, are among the key factors shaping plant communities. At the same time,…
Across all the BES journals, we’ve seen a marked rise in submissions over the last year, highlighting the strong reputation and reach of our journals and published articles. However, this growth also brings increased pressure to maintain a rigorous and fair peer review system, as editors face growing challenges in securing suitable reviewers, while reviewers…
Pilar Hurtado Aragüés, Global Change Research Institute and Department of Biology (Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain), discusses her article: Network modularity analysis reveals strategies for strengthening forest resistance, recovery, and resilience to disturbances Looking beneath the surface Before working on this project, I would probably have answered the question “Can we really make forests…
Wei Lin and Chengjin Chu, Sun Yat-sen University, discuss their article: Interannual rainfall variability promotes species coexistence primarily through relative nonlinearity in interaction strength Ecologists often study species coexistence as if environmental conditions remain constant over time. But in the real world, rainfall can vary dramatically from one year to the next. Does this variability…
Nicolas D. Zurbuchen, University of Zurich, discusses his article: Intraspecific trait variation responds consistently to global change drivers and mediates herbivory across unrelated plant species Plants may look still, but they live in a busy world. Around them, insects and other invertebrates are feeding, fungi are infecting leaves, and the climate is changing. For plant…
Duo Chen, University of Konstanz in Germany, discusses her article: Induced resistance of plants reduces their negative soil-legacy effects on natives but not on naturalized aliens Plants leave a lasting imprint on the soil Plants do much more than grow in soil. Throughout their lives, they alter the environment around their roots by taking up…
Caiyue Yang and Shaopeng Li, from East China Normal University, and Scott J. Meiners, from Eastern Illinois University, discuss their article: Compensatory and statistical-averaging effects jointly explain the decrease in species asynchrony over 60 years of succession A long-term view of succession If you had walked through abandoned farmland in New Jersey in the late…
Christian Ammer, University of Göttingen, discusses his article: Get out of the starting block quickly—Small initial differences in seed and seedling size affect tree survival and growth over 25 years A race spanning decades—who will win? When seeds fall from old European beech trees during a mast year, several hundred thousand seedlings can sprout across…
Yong-Jiao Zhou, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, discusses their article: Trait networks and the whole-plant economics spectrum: Uncovering key determinants of growth rate across 33 temperate tree species Why do some trees grow fast, while others always seem to lag behind? For decades, ecologists have strived to answer this question. Past research…
Xinmin Lu, Huazhong Agricultural University, Joshua Lynn, Manchester University, and Evan Siemann, Rice University, discuss their article: Latitudinal patterns in growth and defense against multiple enemies of an invasive species and its native congener Why are some plant species more successful invaders than others? A long-standing hypothesis is that invasive plants differ from native species…
Lauren Jenkins, Duke University, discusses her article: Fecundity and terrain-climate interactions that shape tree niche differences across North America and Europe Terrain shapes tree reproduction When you think about climate change threatening forests, you may picture species migrating miles northward or upslope. But what if refuge is just around the hillside? In forests of the…
