Article
Forestry
Yicheng Shen, Wenjia Cai, I. Colin Prentice, Sandy P. Harrison
Summary: Plants in fire-prone ecosystems have developed various strategies to resist or adapt to fire. Post-fire resprouting plays a crucial role in promoting rapid ecosystem recovery and impacts the carbon cycle. However, understanding of the quantitative relationship between resprouting and fire regimes is limited. This study explores the relationship between fire frequency and the proportion of resprouters in woody plants, as well as their relationship with gross primary production and grass cover.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Kristian Bell, Tim S. Doherty, Tricia Wevill, Don A. Driscoll
Summary: Maintaining ecosystem processes within patches of remnant vegetation is critical for minimizing biodiversity loss. In agricultural landscapes, foundation plant species that interact with multiple other species are a conservation priority. A study in Australia showed that reintroducing controlled burns and removing competitors can restore a foundation plant species in degraded agricultural areas.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Eddie J. B. van Etten, Robert A. Davis, Tim S. Doherty
Summary: The study explored the contemporary fire regimes in a semi-arid region of inland south-western Australia, finding significant differences in fire frequency among different vegetation types. Sandplain shrublands experienced more frequent and intense fires compared to eucalypt woodlands, which had relatively rare fire events. Fire occurrence in the region was linked to previous rainfall patterns and varied significantly depending on vegetation type.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Ana Carolina Santacruz-Garcia, Sandra Bravo, Florencia del Corro, Elisa Mariana Garcia, Domingo M. Molina-Terren, Monica Azucena Nazareno
Summary: The study evaluated the biochemical responses to experimental burns, finding an increase in concentrations of phenolic compounds and tannins up to two years after the burns, while photosynthetic pigment concentrations did not vary significantly. Phenolic compounds may play a significant role in resprouting responses, with a minor but significant role for photosynthetic pigments.
Review
Ecology
Juliana Balluffi-Fry, Shawn J. Leroux, Emilie Champagne, Eric Vander Wal
Summary: Nutritional ecologists aim to predict the effects of food availability on populations and landscapes, but tools to extrapolate nutrition from small to large scales are often lacking. Ecological stoichiometry (ES), commonly used in ecosystem ecology, can meet these demands but has been underutilized in wildlife nutrition studies. This article discusses the use of elemental currencies in terrestrial herbivore nutritional ecology and suggests that ES and elemental currencies can be used to measure resource quality and compare nutrient availability. However, there are limitations to ES that need to be addressed, and future research directions are outlined.
Article
Plant Sciences
Aino Kalske, James D. Blande, Satu Ramula
Summary: This study demonstrates the significance of soil microbiota on the plant performance, herbivore resistance, and volatile organic compounds production in Lupinus polyphyllus. The intact soil inoculum has a greater impact on plants of native origin, while plants of invasive origin exhibit higher resistance to snails. However, this resistance difference disappears when soil microbes are reduced.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Pedro Jaureguiberry, Sandra Diaz
Summary: Plant fire syndromes are typically defined by the combination of fire response traits, such as resprouting and seeding. However, plant flammability has rarely been considered in defining these syndromes. This study proposes a three-dimensional model that incorporates resprouting, seeding, and plant flammability, providing a comprehensive approach to understand the role of fire in shaping plant traits.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Nicholas A. McMillan, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf, Laura E. Goodman, Craig A. Davis, Barney Luttbeg, Robert G. Hamilton
Summary: This study found that burnings during the growing season led to significantly less weight gain in yearling stocker cattle, and herbicide application did not increase weight gains overall. There was no significant relationship between the abundance of the invasive species Lespedeza cuneata and the weight gain of the cattle.
AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Michael Eisenring, Sybille B. Unsicker, Richard L. Lindroth
Summary: Variation in individual plant functional traits is influenced by genetic, spatial, and biotic factors, which have significant ecological consequences. The sources contributing to subindividual trait heterogeneity within plants are complex and multifaceted, including genetic variation, spatial distribution, and biotic interactions. These factors play a key role in shaping within-plant trait variance and can impact ecological interactions within plant communities.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Emily K. Meineke, David S. Eng, Richard Karban
Summary: This study investigates the impact of vehicle emissions on leaf damage and nutritional quality of trees. The results show that vehicle emissions significantly increase leaf damage and caterpillars prefer leaves from trees exposed to vehicle emissions and perform better on those leaves.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Zoe L. Getman-Pickering, George M. Stack, Jennifer S. Thaler
Summary: The study demonstrates that mycorrhizae can enhance resistance to herbivores in tomato plants at medium levels of fertilization, particularly when using phosphorus-rich organically derived fertilizers. Additionally, under low fertilization conditions, mycorrhizae contribute to an increase in plant biomass.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Kari Anne Brathen, Francisco Pugnaire, Richard D. Bardgett
Summary: The grassland biome supports a diverse range of life, with forbs playing a key role in the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity. Evidence suggests that forbs were abundant in the Pleistocene grasslands and may still rely on niche construction by large herbivores. Greater research and conservation efforts are needed to sustain the abundance and diversity of forbs in grasslands globally.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Christopher A. Pocknee, Sarah M. Legge, Jane McDonald, Diana O. Fisher
Summary: Fire impacts on individual mammal species are poorly understood, but a meta-analysis was conducted to predict these impacts based on traits, habitat, study variables, and fire characteristics. The analysis revealed that most mammals are resilient to fire, with only 7.83% of species showing statistically significant effects. The study also identified factors such as reproductive rates, burrowing behavior, and fire return interval that influence mammal responses to fire.
CONSERVATION BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Edward J. Raynor, Heidi L. Hillhouse, Diane M. Debinski, James R. Miller, Walter H. Schacht
Summary: The study examined the impact of grazing pressure and time since fire on patch utilization and production in experimental grassland pastures dominated by the invasive grass tall fescue. It was found that recently burned patches showed greater initial patch-scale utilization, leading to reduced tall fescue production, especially under high grazing pressure. Although increased grazing promoted native grass production in the invaded grassland landscape, the dominance of tall fescue mediated the lack of structural heterogeneity induced by patch-level prescribed fire and grazing.
Article
Ecology
Matthew Chard, Claire N. Foster, David B. Lindenmayer, Geoffrey J. Cary, Christopher MacGregor, Wade Blanchard
Summary: Fire and herbivores have significant impacts on vegetation structure and function. Post-fire herbivory reduces plant species richness and diversity, and promotes the dominance of certain plant species in the understory. As time since fire increases, community diversity and evenness decrease, and there are morphological changes to dominant understory plants. Previous prescribed burns have no effect on herbivores or vegetation.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)