Baoshuang Hu and Wei Sun, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Northeast Normal University, discuss their article: Beyond species richness: grazing and fertilization shape temperate grassland stability through distinct stabilizing effects Imagine a vast, windswept grassland. To the casual observer, it might…
Rachel Standish discusses her recent article: Mycorrhizal symbiosis and phosphorus supply determine interactions among plants with contrasting nutrient-acquisition strategies. Find out more about the importance of below-ground mechanisms for understanding factors determining community structure. The south-west region of Western Australia is a drawcard for plant nerds. Geographic isolation, a stable climate, and ‘quiet’ flat landscape…
In this latest Author Blog, Lionel R. Hertzog and Michael P. Perring discuss their recent paper: ‘Overstorey composition shapes across-trophic level community relationships in deciduous forest regardless of fragmentation context.’ Community ecology is complex; some even say that it is a mess (Lawton, 1999). After all, everything apparently depends on everything else in diffuse ways.…
This post is from Journal of Ecology Executive Editor Richard Bardgett. The UN FAO report on the “State of Knowledge on Soil Biodiversity: Status, Challenges, and Potentialities” was released today, the day before World Soil Day. The report represents a truly global effort by soil scientists and ecologists worldwide and presents the best available knowledge on…
Lead author Marion Donald discusses her recently published Journal of Ecology article: Context-dependent variability in the population prevalence and individual fitness effects of plant-fungal symbiosis. Find out more about about this investigation into intermediate symbiont prevalence. Microbial symbionts are common partners of nearly every macro-organism on Earth. While some symbioses are deeply integrated, rendering them…
Dina in ‘t Zandt discusses her recent paper Local soil legacy effects in a multispecies grassland community are underlain by root foraging and soil nutrient availability. Find out more about their soil legacy experiments and how their results differed from the theory. Biodiversity plays a key role in ecosystem structure and function, with plant community…
The Editor’s Choice article for Volume 108 Issue 1 is “Growth–trait relationships in subtropical forest are stronger at higher diversity“ by Bongers et al. This study assessed how growth–trait relationships at the individual tree level are impacted by species richness at community and local neighbourhood scales. This Editor’s Choice article highlights the impact that species richness can have…
The latest issue of Journal of Ecology includes a Special Feature guest edited by Nicholas Barber, David Gibson and Holly Jones. Below, Holly discusses the inspiration behind the Special Feature & summarises each of the research articles. When scientists think of healthy ecosystems, they often think of ecosystems that have lots of different species. Diverse ecosystems are more resilient,…
Gretchen Brownstein and company have an accepted paper in the Journal titled “Chance in plant communities: a new approach to its measurement using the nugget from spatial autocorrelation “. Read the abstract here. The authors have provided a short synopsis of the paper and a photo of one of their study sites on the South Island, New Zealand.
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