Riccardo Ciarle, Victoria University of Wellington in Aotearoa New Zealand, discusses his article: Ancestral state reconstruction sheds new light on the loss of divarication hypothesis on New Zealand’s outlying islands The background If you step into the New Zealand bush, the first thing you’ll see will be towering podocarps, lofty tree ferns, and a wide…
Guilin Wu, Hainan Jianfengling Forest Ecosystem National Field Science Observation and Research Station, Research Institute of Tropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, discusses his article: Shaded habitats drive higher rates of fern diversification Ferns represent one of the three major lineages of vascular plants, having originated approximately 411–385 million years ago. In prehistoric times, they…
Ramona Heim, Institute of Landscape Ecology of the University of Münster in Germany, discusses her article: Arctic tundra ecosystems under fire – Alternative ecosystem states in a changing climate? Fire events in the tundra are becoming increasingly frequent, garnering more media attention. These fires strongly reshape the landscape; however, our understanding of tundra vegetation recovery…
Lily Dun, Western Sydney University in New South Wales, Australia, and The University of Queensland in Queensland, Australia, discusses her article: Do trait-growth relationships vary with plant age in fire-prone heathland shrubs? When we think about plant growth, we often assume that certain functional traits—such as wood density, leaf structure, or biomass allocation—determine how fast…
Kechang Niu, Nanjing University in China, discusses his article: Plant species loss reduces rare soil microbes through diversity effects amplified by multitrophic interactions Background A key reason for the flourishing of life on Earth is that diverse groups of organisms mutually thrive in changing environments. However, increasing evidence shows that we are suffering the sixth…
Margaret W. Simon, University of Kansas, USA, discusses her article: Fast-growing annual plants drive disease spillover in multi-host communities Infectious plant diseases affect hosts in natural, agricultural, and urban systems. Modeling studies can help predict these effects, but traditional disease models were developed for animal systems. These models are not well suited for plant disease…
Hang Wang, Southwest Forestry University, discusses his article: Leaf biomechanical traits predict litter decomposability As ecologists, we often focus on how plants grow, reproduce, and interact with their environment. However, what happens after a plant has lived its life? More specifically, how do leaves breakdown after they fall to the ground? This process, known as…
Camila Medeiros, University of California, Los Angeles, discusses her article: Simplification of woody plant trait networks among communities along a climatic aridity gradient Motivation Plants are enormously diverse across regions, even within specific ecosystems, and zooming in on individual plants, one finds great diversity among their traits. Variation of all kinds of traits can play…
Raissa Jardim, Federal University of Paraná, Brazil, describes her article: Unveiling above- and below-ground ecological strategies that underlie woody plant encroachment in grasslands, in both English and Portuguese. Woody plant encroachment in forest-grassland mosaics Forests and grasslands aren’t always neatly separated ecosystems. In many places they coexist side by side, creating beautiful but complex mosaics…
Ana Patricia Sandoval-Calderon and Yann Hautier, Utrecht University, discuss their article: Andean grassland stability across spatial scales increases with camelid grazing intensity despite biotic homogenization Nestled high in the Andes, a vibrant yet fragile ecosystem thrives under the watchful gaze of camelids. These ancient grasslands have been shaped over centuries by the grazing habits of…
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