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,…
Carla Vázquez-González, University of California, Irvine & Misión Biológica de Galicia (CSIC), discusses her article: Testing the contribution of vertebrate predators and leaf traits to mainland-island differences in insect herbivory on oaks Insularity research on plant-herbivore interactions Islands have long fascinated evolutionary ecologists, beginning with the early observational studies of naturalists like Charles Darwin and…
Eric Duell, from the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research, discusses his article: ‘Mycorrhizal-herbivore interactions and the competitive release of subdominant tallgrass prairie species‘ Tallgrass prairies of central and eastern North America are characterized by diverse plant communities consisting of grasses and forbs (often called wildflowers or broadleaves) which possess a variety of…
Author Sally Archibald discusses newly published article: “Browsing is a strong filter for savanna tree seedlings in their first growing season” by Archibald, Twine, Mthabini, & Stevens. This research found that establishment limitation through early browsing is an under-recognised constraint on savanna tree species distributions When trying to explain why an organism is found in…
The Editor’s Choice for our May issue is “Herbivore dung stoichiometry drives competition between savanna trees and grasses” by Judith Sitters & Harry Olde Venterink. This article shows that browsing and grazing herbivores potentially help maintain the tree‐grass balance in African savanna, through variation in the nitrogen (N) to phosphorus (P) ratio of their dung! Here the…
The Editor’s Choice for our April issue is “Dynamic feedbacks among tree functional traits, termite populations and deadwood turnover” by Guo, Tuo, Ci, Yan & Cornelissen. The findings of this article imply that tree functional composition, with variation in deadwood quality through decomposition time, can help to sustain termite populations and thereby forest carbon turnover. Here…
The cover image for our April issue shows a rodent herbivore alongside black mangrove seedlings, in a Florida salt marsh. Author and photographer, Rachel S. Smith, describes how she and her team tracked down this mystery mangrove muncher!This image relates to recently published research article: “Dead litter of resident species first facilitates and then inhibits sequential life…
The cover image for our new issue shows an ant standing on the tip of a Lafoensia pacari leaf in the Cerrado, Brazil. Author Kleber Del-Claro shares the story behind this stunning image, which was taken by co-author Denise Lange and relates to their recent research article “Climate seasonality drives ant–plant–herbivore interactions via plant phenology in an extrafloral…
Here we take a closer look at a fascinating plant defense article by Calixto et al., which has recently been published in Journal of Ecology. Author Kleber Del-Claro explains different methods for anti-herbivore plant defenses and shares the results of this research, which is the first to show that ant recruitment via extrafloral nectar follows…
Journal of Ecology recently published an exciting new research paper by Johnson et al. “Seagrass ecosystem metabolic carbon capture in response to green turtle grazing across Caribbean meadows.” Author Robert Johnson discusses this research in more detail and presents further insights into how green turtle grazing affects carbon dynamics, within seagrass ecosystems. Green turtle abundance is…
