Article
Forestry
Blaine C. Luiz, Christian P. Giardina, Lisa M. Keith, Douglass F. Jacobs, Richard A. Sniezko, Marc A. Hughes, James B. Friday, Philip Cannon, Robert Hauff, Kainana Francisco, Marian M. Chau, Nicklos Dudley, Aileen Yeh, Gregory Asner, Roberta E. Martin, Ryan Perroy, Brian J. Tucker, Ale'Alani Evangelista, Veronica Fernandez, Chloe Martins-Keli'iho'omalu, Kirie Santos, Rebekah Ohara
Summary: Metrosideros polymorpha is a keystone species in Hawaii's native forests and is of great cultural, ecological, and economic importance. However, these forests, especially on Hawaii Island, are being severely affected by Rapid 'Ohi'a Death (ROD), a disease caused by fungal pathogens. This article outlines the 'Ohi'a Disease Resistance Program (ODRP) which aims to identify and develop ROD resistance in Metrosideros polymorpha to mitigate the impacts of the disease and preserve the ecology, culture, and communities depending on this tree species.
Article
Ecology
Francois Vasseur, Cyrille Violle, Brian J. J. Enquist, Denis Vile
Summary: The metabolic scaling theory (MST) predicts quasi-universal trait-size relationships in plants, but recent studies have found variability in these relationships and the role of genetic variation and environment is not well understood.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Konrad Wessels, Xiaoxuan Li, Alexandre Bouvet, Renaud Mathieu, Russell Main, Laven Naidoo, Barend Erasmus, Gregory P. Asner
Summary: Global savannas, as the third largest carbon sink, are facing rapid changes. This study tested the ability of L-band SAR to track changes in savanna vegetation structure and found that it has a higher sensitivity than previous studies suggested.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Review
Ecology
Alexander Keller, Markus J. Ankenbrand, Helge Bruelheide, Stefanie Dekeyzer, Brian J. Enquist, Mohammad Bagher Erfanian, Daniel S. Falster, Rachael Gallagher, Jennifer Hammock, Jens Kattge, Sara D. Leonhardt, Joshua S. Madin, Brian Maitner, Margot Neyret, Renske E. Onstein, William D. Pearse, Jorrit H. Poelen, Roberto Salguero-Gomez, Florian D. Schneider, Aniko B. Toth, Caterina Penone
Summary: Traits play a crucial role in ecological and evolutionary sciences, helping researchers understand the function of organisms and their interactions with the environment. However, there are challenges in measuring, compiling, and analyzing trait data. This article provides 10 simple rules as a guide to making critical decisions and promoting good practice in collecting and managing trait data for reuse by the research community.
METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Bing Lin, Yiwen Zeng, Gregory P. P. Asner, David S. S. Wilcove
Summary: By combining Instagram data from tourists and live coral cover maps in Hawaii, this study reveals that coral reefs both attract and suffer from coastal tourism. Higher live coral cover attracts more visitors, but their visitation contributes to subsequent reef degradation. This finding highlights the economic value of coral reefs and the importance of effective conservation management.
NATURE SUSTAINABILITY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Francois Munoz, Christopher A. Klausmeier, Pierre Gauzere, Gaurav Kandlikar, Elena Litchman, Nicolas Mouquet, Annette Ostling, Wilfried Thuiller, Adam C. Algar, Arnaud Auber, Marc W. Cadotte, Leo Delalandre, Pierre Denelle, Brian J. Enquist, Claire Fortunel, Matthias Grenie, Nicolas Loiseau, Lucie Mahaut, Anthony Maire, David Mouillot, Catalina Pimiento, Cyrille Violle, Nathan J. B. Kraft
Summary: Recent work has demonstrated that evaluating the distinctiveness of functional traits, which is the average trait distance of a species to other species in a community, can provide valuable insights into the dynamics of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. However, the underlying ecological mechanisms that drive the emergence and persistence of functionally distinct species are not well understood. In this study, we address this issue by considering a heterogeneous fitness landscape, where functional dimensions encompass peaks that represent trait combinations resulting in positive population growth rates in a community. We identify four ecological cases that contribute to the emergence and persistence of functionally distinct species and provide examples and guidelines to distinguish between them. Additionally, we explore how stochastic dispersal limitation can lead to functional distinctiveness. Our framework offers a novel perspective on the relationship between fitness landscape heterogeneity and the functional composition of ecological assemblages.
Article
Plant Sciences
Iris Hordijk, Daniel S. Maynard, Simon P. Hart, Lidong Mo, Hans ter Steege, Jingjing Liang, Sergio de-Miguel, Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Peter B. Reich, Meinrad Abegg, C. Yves Adou Yao, Giorgio Alberti, Angelica M. Almeyda Zambrano, Braulio V. Alvarado, Alvarez-Davila Esteban, Patricia Alvarez-Loayza, Luciana F. Alves, Christian Ammer, Clara Anton-Fernandez, Alejandro Araujo-Murakami, Luzmila Arroyo, Valerio Avitabile, Gerardo A. Aymard C, Timothy Baker, Radomir Balazy, Olaf Banki, Jorcely Barroso, Meredith L. Bastian, Jean-Francois Bastin, Luca Birigazzi, Philippe Birnbaum, Robert Bitariho, Pascal Boeckx, Frans Bongers, Olivier Bouriaud, Pedro H. S. Brancalion, Susanne Brandl, Roel Brienen, Eben N. Broadbent, Helge Bruelheide, Filippo Bussotti, Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, Ricardo G. Cesar, Goran Cesljar, Robin Chazdon, Han Y. H. Chen, Chelsea Chisholm, Emil Cienciala, Connie J. Clark, David B. Clark, Gabriel Colletta, David Coomes, Fernando Cornejo Valverde, Jose J. Corral-Rivas, Philip Crim, Jonathan Cumming, Selvadurai Dayanandan, Andre L. de Gasper, Mathieu Decuyper, Geraldine Derroire, Ben DeVries, Ilija Djordjevic, Amaral Ieda, Aurelie Dourdain, Engone Obiang Nestor Laurier, Brian Enquist, Teresa Eyre, Adande Belarmain Fandohan, Tom M. Fayle, Leandro V. Ferreira, Ted R. Feldpausch, Leena Finer, Markus Fischer, Christine Fletcher, Lorenzo Frizzera, Javier G. P. Gamarra, Damiano Gianelle, Henry B. Glick, David Harris, Andrew Hector, Andrea Hemp, Geerten Hengeveld, Bruno Herault, John Herbohn, Annika Hillers, Euridice N. Honorio Coronado, Cang Hui, Hyunkook Cho, Thomas Ibanez, Il Bin Jung, Nobuo Imai, Andrzej M. Jagodzinski, Bogdan Jaroszewicz, Vivian Johanssen, Carlos A. Joly, Tommaso Jucker, Viktor Karminov, Kuswata Kartawinata, Elizabeth Kearsley, David Kenfack, Deborah Kennard, Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas, Gunnar Keppel, Mohammed Latif Khan, Timothy Killeen, Hyun Seok Kim, Kanehiro Kitayama, Michael Koehl, Henn Korjus, Florian Kraxner, Diana Laarmann, Mait Lang, Simon Lewis, Huicu Lu, Natalia Lukina, Brian Maitner, Yadvinder Malhi, Eric Marcon, Beatriz Schwantes Marimon, Ben Hur Marimon-Junior, Andrew Robert Marshall, Emanuel Martin, Olga Martynenko, Jorge A. Meave, Omar Melo-Cruz, Casimiro Mendoza, Cory Merow, Miscicki Stanislaw, Abel Monteagudo Mendoza, Vanessa Moreno, Sharif A. Mukul, Philip Mundhenk, Maria G. Nava-Miranda, David Neill, Victor Neldner, Radovan Nevenic, Michael Ngugi, Pascal A. Niklaus, Jacek Oleksyn, Petr Ontikov, Edgar Ortiz-Malavasi, Yude Pan, Alain Paquette, Alexander Parada-Gutierrez, Elena Parfenova, Minjee Park, Mar Parren, Narayanaswamy Parthasarathy, Pablo L. Peri, Sebastian Pfautsch, Oliver L. Phillips, Nicolas Picard, Maria Teresa Piedade, Daniel Piotto, Nigel C. A. Pitman, Irina Polo, Lourens Poorter, Axel Dalberg Poulsen, John R. Poulsen, Hans Pretzsch, Freddy Ramirez Arevalo, Zorayda Restrepo-Correa, Mirco Rodeghiero, Samir Rolim, Anand Roopsind, Francesco Rovero, Ervan Rutishauser, Purabi Saikia, Christian Salas-Eljatib, Peter Schall, Dmitry Schepaschenko, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Bernhard Schmid, Jochen Schongart, Eric B. Searle, Vladimir Seben, Josep M. Serra-Diaz, Douglas Sheil, Anatoly Shvidenko, Javier Silva-Espejo, Marcos Silveira, James Singh, Plini Sist, Ferry Slik, Bonaventure Sonke, Alexandre F. Souza, Krzysztof Sterenczak, Jens-Christian Svenning, Miroslav Svoboda, Ben Swanepoel, Natalia Targhetta, Nadja Tchebakova, Raquel Thomas, Elen Tikhonova, Peter Umunay, Vladimir Usoltsev, Renato Valencia, Fernando Valladares, Fons van Der Plas, Do Van Tran, Michael E. Van Nuland, Rodolfo Vasquez Martinez, Hans Verbeeck, Helder Viana, Alexander C. Vibrans, Simone Vieira, Klaus von Gadow, Hua-Feng Wang, James Watson, Gijsbert D. A. Werner, Susan K. Wiser, Florian Wittmann, Verginia Wortel, Roderick Zagt, Tomasz Zawila-Niedzwiecki, Chunyu Zhang, Xiuhai Zhao, Mo Zhou, Zhi-Xin Zhu, Irie Casimir Zo-Bi, Thomas W. Crowther
Summary: Biodiversity is important for ecosystems, with higher species richness often leading to increased productivity. However, the relationship between biodiversity and productivity varies across environments and is less pronounced at high levels of species richness. Community evenness can mediate this relationship, and our study shows that it is negatively correlated with species richness and plays a crucial role in the biodiversity-productivity relationship.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
M. M. Seeley, E. A. Stacy, R. E. Martin, G. P. Asner
Summary: Imaging spectroscopy can be used to map closely related plant species at a larger scale. This research focused on understanding the differences in spectral reflectance between genotypes of a single species, Metrosideros polymorpha, and its hybrids. The study found that leaf reflectance patterns successfully distinguished different varieties of M. polymorpha on Hawaii Island and populations of the same variety on different islands. The findings contribute to the use of imaging spectroscopy in biodiversity studies at the genetic level.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
L. Duncanson, M. Liang, V. Leitold, J. Armston, S. M. Krishna Moorthy, R. Dubayah, S. Costedoat, B. J. Enquist, L. Fatoyinbo, S. J. Goetz, M. Gonzalez-Roglich, C. Merow, P. R. Roehrdanz, K. Tabor, A. Zvoleff
Summary: Forests are crucial in stabilizing Earth's climate, and protected areas (PAs) are one approach to conserving forests. However, the global impact of PAs on the carbon cycle has not been quantified due to a lack of accurate global-scale carbon stock maps. Using lidar samples from NASA's GEDI mission, this study estimated a total PA aboveground carbon stock of 61.43 Gt, with 26% attributed to PAs. These higher carbon stocks are mainly from avoided emissions in PAs compared to unprotected forests, equivalent to one year of global fossil fuel emissions.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Wu-Bing Xu, Wen-Yong Guo, Josep M. Serra-Diaz, Franziska Schrodt, Wolf L. Eiserhardt, Brian J. Enquist, Brian S. Maitner, Cory Merow, Cyrille Violle, Madhur Anand, Michael Belluau, Hans Henrik Bruun, Chaeho Byun, Jane A. Catford, Bruno E. L. Cerabolini, Eduardo Chacon-Madrigal, Daniela Ciccarelli, J. Hans C. Cornelissen, Anh Tuan Dang-Le, Angel de Frutos, Arildo S. Dias, Aelton B. Giroldo, Alvaro G. Gutierrez, Wesley Hattingh, Tianhua He, Peter Hietz, Nate Hough-Snee, Steven Jansen, Jens Kattge, Benjamin Komac, Nathan J. B. Kraft, Koen Kramer, Sandra Lavorel, Christopher H. Lusk, Adam R. Martin, Ke-Ping Ma, Maurizio Mencuccini, Sean T. Michaletz, Vanessa Minden, Akira S. Mori, Uelo Niinemets, Yusuke Onoda, Renske E. Onstein, Josep Penuelas, Valerio D. Pillar, Jan Pisek, Matthew J. Pound, Bjorn J. M. Robroek, Brandon Schamp, Martijn Slot, Miao Sun, Enio E. Sosinski Jr, Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia, Nelson Thiffault, Peter M. van Bodegom, Fons van der Plas, Jingming Zheng, Jens-Christian Svenning, Alejandro Ordonez
Summary: Studying the impacts of past climate change on biodiversity helps to understand the risks from future climate change. This study found that larger glacial-interglacial temperature change was associated with lower species replacements and higher richness changes in beta-diversity. Furthermore, regions with large temperature change showed lower phylogenetic and functional turnover and higher nestedness than expected, indicating selective processes during glacial-interglacial oscillations. These findings suggest that future human-driven climate change could lead to local homogenization and reduction in angiosperm tree diversity.
Letter
Ecology
Cory Merow, Brad Boyle, Brian J. J. Enquist, Xiao Feng, Jamie M. M. Kass, Brian S. S. Maitner, Brian McGill, Hannah Owens, Daniel S. S. Park, Andrea Paz, Gonzalo E. E. Pinilla-Buitrago, Mark C. C. Urban, Sara Varela, Adam M. M. Wilson
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Cory Merow, Josep M. Serra-Diaz, Brian J. Enquist, Adam M. Wilson
Summary: Chatbots powered by AI, like ChatGPT, can speed up tedious coding tasks and teach new skills. We illustrate the advantages and limitations of using generative AI for scientific coding with examples and argue that debugging can give you a head start on more challenging tasks.
NATURE ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2023)
Correction
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Bing Lin, Yiwen Zeng, Gregory P. Asner, David S. Wilcove
NATURE SUSTAINABILITY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Megan M. Seeley, Nicholas R. Vaughn, Brennon L. Shanks, Roberta E. Martin, Marcel Konig, Gregory P. Asner
Summary: This study provides accurate and high-resolution spatial data on the keystone species Metrosideros polymorpha in Hawai'i Island, using airborne imaging spectroscopy and LiDAR. The study compares two tree species classification techniques and finds that the support vector machine (SVM) model better reproduces the spatial distribution of M. polymorpha than spectral mixture analysis (SMA) model.