Benjamin Roux, University of Bordeaux in France, discusses his article: Tree canopy shapes the survival of oak and beech saplings during the regeneration stage along an elevation-driven temperature gradient The challenges of heatwaves for forest ecosystems As western Europe experiences yet another heatwave, most of the public discussion focuses on how human societies can adapt…
Liedson Carneiro, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, discusses his article: Structural differences in individual pollinator networks across bee species reveal the importance of population-level processes in the assembly of species interactions Plant–pollinator interactions are often described as networks; plant species are connected to pollinator species through their visits to flowers. This approach has advanced our understanding…
Brandie Quarles-Chidyagwai, University of California, Davis, discusses her article: Adaptational lag at high elevations depends on life stage in a California wildflower With ongoing climate change, many plant species will have to track environmental changes through adaptation or poleward/upslope dispersal. High elevations in particular are experiencing warming temperatures, reduced snowpack, and shifting growing seasons. With…
Jonathan Ritson, who worked at the University of Manchester during this research, discusses his article: Cation responses to global changes alter ecological processes in ombrotrophic systems In bogs, we often focus on the hydrology of the system; there has also been a large body of work trying to understand the global implications of acid deposition…
Diana Bertuol Garcia, University of Victoria, discusses her article: Long-term aridity shapes grassland drought resistance and modulates the roles of plant diversity and functional composition As ecologists, we often ask how ecosystems cope with change. This question now feels more urgent than ever. Around the world, ecosystems are facing habitat loss, overexploitation, invasive species, rising…
Kechang Niu and Pingyu Liu, Nanjing University, discuss their article: Earlier flowering, later fading: Plant diversity loss restructures alpine phenology via competitive release What is our paper about? For centuries, the timing of flowering has captivated both the public and scientists. Much of this fascination stems from a desire to understand the rhythms of life…
Qingzhou Zhao, Umeå University in Sweden, discusses their article: Increasing precipitation reshapes alpine plant–microbial nutrient partitioning and enhances ecosystem carbon and nitrogen retention A rainy question in the alpine ecosystem Rainfall is changing as the climate warms. In many alpine regions, including the Tibetan Plateau, ecosystems are becoming not only warmer, but also wetter. At…
Shun Nonaka, Yokohama National University in Japan, discusses his article: Non-random species loss weakens functional diversity and species asynchrony, destabilizing grassland communities Why does the order of species loss matter? When we think about biodiversity loss, we often ask a simple question: how many species are disappearing? This is important, but it is not the…
Cristina Herrero-Jáuregui (Complutense University of Madrid), Merryn Hunt and Simon Smart (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology), and Lenore Fahrig (Carleton University) discuss their article: Richness of forest specialist plant species increases with forest fragmentation per se but decreases with proximity to forest edge and reduced forest patch size Walk into a large, ancient British…
Gheyur Gheyret, Xinjiang Normal University, discusses his article in Journal of Ecology: Tree growth phenology shifts in response to trait-based neighborhood effects in a large subtropical forest biodiversity experiment Growth in trees is invisible to the naked eye — it happens too slowly, too quietly, measured in micrometers rather than anything you could observe directly.…
Jan Vigués Jorba, from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, discusses his article: Same damage, different story: Vertical decoupling of herbivore abundance and beech herbivory across forest layers Invertebrate herbivory is a key ecological process that shapes ecosystem functions, especially in forest habitats. Since forests have a complex three-dimensional structure,…
Xiaoran Wang, East China Normal University, and Jian Zhang, Sun Yat-Sen University, discuss their article: Elevation and environmental factors shape variability rather than the mean of seedling herbivory across subtropical forests In mountain forests, not all seedlings experience insect herbivory in the same way. While some individuals suffer substantial leaf damage, others are barely affected.…
Luís Felipe Daibes, from Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, Haldre Rogers, from Virginia Tech, and Marco A. Pizo, from São Paulo State University, discuss their article: Landscape features predict broad-scale seed rain patterns across fragments of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, in both English and Portuguese Spanning a broad latitudinal gradient across South America, the Brazilian…
Alexandra Urza, Whitebark Institute in California, discusses her article: Seed source climate and precipitation timing determine dryland tree recruitment in hot and dry range margins As climate change intensifies drought and reshapes precipitation patterns across western North America, many dryland forests are facing an uncertain future. Adult trees can survive harsh conditions for centuries, but…
Oliver Spacey, University of Oxford, UK, discusses his article: European mistletoe shares a similar demographic strategy with non-parasitic plants Few plants are as enshrined in folklore as mistletoe, and much of this is owed to its unusual ecology. A parasitic plant that never touches the ground and was thus associated with divine power, European mistletoe…
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