Article
Forestry
Pantana Tor-ngern, Chidsanuphong Chart-asa, Wirong Chanthorn, Chadtip Rodtassana, Siriphong Yampum, Weerapong Unawong, Anuttara Nathalang, Warren Brockelman, Kanchit Srinoppawan, Yajun Chen, Niles J. Hasselquist
Summary: Deforestation has led to the presence of heterogeneous patches of old-growth and secondary forests in Southeast Asia, posing challenges for understanding the hydrological and carbon cycles. However, research suggests that forest succession may not directly influence gas exchange, rather, canopy development associated with forest stage appears to have the main effect.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Agronomy
Yuetai Weng, Guang Yang, Lixuan Wang, Xiankui Quan, Xueying Di, Hongzhou Yu, Dongdong Han
Summary: The study demonstrates that wildfires in boreal forests can influence the concentrations of water-soluble organic carbon and water-soluble nitrogen in the litter layers, which are also affected by post-fire vegetation succession and ecological factors.
Article
Forestry
Rong Zhao, Yu Zhu, Zijun Mao, Weiping Gu, Hongguang Zhang, Fuqiang Long, Tao Sun
Summary: Decomposition of plant roots and their related fungal mutualists plays a crucial role in ecosystem material cycles. Fine roots, which are the main source of soil organic carbon (SOC) storage, decompose at different rates depending on the types of mycorrhizal fungi. In this study, the decomposition of fine roots in different mycorrhizal species was investigated in a temperate forest. Results showed that decomposition was faster among arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) species compared to ectomycorrhizal (EM) species. Initial aluminum and manganese concentrations were found to be the best predictors for fine root decomposition, along with other traits such as cellulose concentration, carbon:nitrogen ratio, and lignin:N ratio for AM species, and phosphorus, calcium, and non-structural carbohydrate concentrations for EM species. The initial concentrations of sodium, iron, non-structural carbohydrates, cellulose, and hemicellulose were also important predictors of fine root decomposition across the studied tree species.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Yulin Liu, Kaibo Wang, Lingbo Dong, Jiwei Li, Xiaozhen Wang, Zhouping Shangguan, Bodong Qu, Lei Deng
Summary: This study conducted a decomposition experiment across four successional stages to investigate the dynamics and mechanisms of litter decomposition and soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration following vegetation succession. The results showed that litter decomposition rates decreased gradually with vegetation succession, and litter quality was the major factor controlling the decomposition rate. The early successional stage had higher rates of litter decomposition and SOC turnover, while the late successional stage showed lower rates. Litter inputs significantly increased SOC content in the early stage, but soil carbon sequestration reached saturation in the late stage.
Article
Forestry
Huaibin Wang, Xiao Xu, Zhihui Wang, Rui Cao, Bingqian Zheng, Siyu Song, Yurui Jiang, Qianyu Zhu, Wanqin Yang
Summary: The decomposition of abnormal litter caused by extreme weather events is becoming increasingly important in carbon and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems under climate change scenarios. Abnormal litter has higher concentrations of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus and lower concentrations of lignin and cellulose compared to physiological litter. The mass loss rates and carbon release of abnormal litter are higher than physiological litter, and are positively correlated with temperature and initial nutrient concentrations.
Article
Agronomy
Luciana Gonzalez-Paleo, Damian Ravetta, David Van Tassel
Summary: This study aims to investigate the impact of early domestication on leaf traits and its influence on litter quantity, quality, and decomposition rates in Silphium integrifolium plants. The improved accessions of Silphium produced more litter but with faster decomposition rates compared to the wild types. The resin content was found to be the key driver in the decomposition process, rather than the usual chemical predictors of litter quality.
Article
Forestry
Benjapan Manohan, Dia Panitnard Shannon, Pimonrat Tiansawat, Sutthathorn Chairuangsri, Jutatip Jainuan, Stephen Elliott
Summary: Forest ecosystem restoration involves establishing tree species mixes representing different successional stages, using functional traits as a tool for species selection. Cluster analysis and rank scoring were used to identify successional guilds among 28 tree species. The techniques successfully distinguished six guilds and seven guilds, respectively. Cross-validation between the two techniques showed their robustness in using functional traits to inform species selection.
Article
Ecology
Yan-Mei Fu, Xiu-Yue Zhang, Dan-Dan Qi, Fu-Juan Feng
Summary: The study found that leaf litter decomposition rate was significantly higher in the primary Korean pine forest compared to the secondary broad-leaved forest. The main chemical quality of leaf litter in the broad-leaved forest had a higher remaining percent mass than in the pine forest, indicating a faster chemical turnover in the latter. Actinomycetes PLFA biomass played a crucial role in leaf litter decomposition, while soil abiotic factors indirectly influenced decomposition through interactions with actinomycetes.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Chen Chen, Yabo Wen, Tengyue Ji, Hongxia Zhao, Runguo Zang, Xinghui Lu
Summary: Plant ecological strategies are shaped by long-term adaptation to the environment and play a crucial role in plant survival and reproduction. Research has shown that ecological strategies may shift in plant communities over the course of succession, leading to variations in the ecological strategy spectra of different successional stages.
Article
Forestry
David Pessanha Siqueira, Giovanna Campos Mamede Weiss de Carvalho, Jose Gabriel de Souza Silva, Marcos Vinicius Winckler Caldeira, Deborah Guerra Barroso
Summary: Litter production and decomposition processes of two tropical legume tree species, P. reticulata and H. courbaril, in Brazil, showed variations in nutrient release and stoichiometry. P. reticulata exhibited greater nutrient release, while H. courbaril showed nutrient immobilization during decomposition. The C:N and N:P ratios differed between the species, but N:P ratio did not correlate to mass loss.
JOURNAL OF FORESTRY RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jinbo Gao, Wenjun Zhou, Yuntong Liu, Liqing Sha, Qinghai Song, Youxing Lin, Guirui Yu, Junhui Zhang, Xunhua Zheng, Yunting Fang, John Grace, Junbin Zhao, Jianchu Xu, Heng Gui, Fergus Sinclair, Yiping Zhang
Summary: Litter, as a major nutrient source decomposed by soil microbes, can affect methane uptake. The reduction of litter layer decreases methane uptake, and the decomposition and input of carbon and nitrogen also significantly reduce methane uptake.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Edith Rivas-Alonso, Cristina Martinez-Garza, Marines de la Pena-Domene, Moises Mendez-Toribio
Summary: Restoration interventions aim to accelerate forest recovery by skipping early succession stages and promoting the growth of late-successional tree species with large seeds. Different restoration treatments were evaluated in terms of forest structure, with planted areas showing higher richness and abundance of late-successional trees compared to natural succession.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Chen Chen, Yabo Wen, Baohui He, Yuwei Yang, Xuejiao Han, Tianxu Sun, Xinghui Lu
Summary: This study aimed to identify the environmental driving factors behind successional changes in a tropical lowland rainforest in Hainan. Using large-scale plots, we assessed the composition of woody plant communities and collected various environmental variables. We found that the ecological strategy spectrum of communities differed along the C-S axis in the four succession stages, with no major communities falling under the R strategy group. The change in plant ecological strategy is influenced by the interplay of biotic factors, topographic factors, and soil factors, with biotic factors playing a leading role.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Zhaolin Sun, Peng Tian, Xuechao Zhao, Yanping Wang, Shunzhong Wang, Xiangmin Fang, Qingkui Wang, Shengen Liu
Summary: This study reveals the variation of litter traits and their dependence on plant functional type during litter decomposition. The results show that litter traits play different roles in different stages of decomposition, with physical traits being more important in the early stages and nutrient-related traits being more important in the later stages. Furthermore, litter decomposition rates of deciduous and evergreen species are controlled by different types of litter traits.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Xiaofeng Ni, Lijuan Sun, Qiong Cai, Suhui Ma, Yuhao Feng, Yuanfeng Sun, Lihua An, Chengjun Ji
Summary: Leaf anatomical traits exhibit high plasticity in response to environmental factors and show significant variation across different plant functional types and geographical locations. Phylogeny has negligible effects on these traits, while climate and soil nutrient availability have relatively marginal effects. The coordination of leaf anatomical traits reflects the resource trade-off and utilization strategies of plants.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Caio Cesar Pires de Paula, Petr Macek, Jiri Barta, Jakub Borovec, Ilona Svobodova, Eva Hola, Jan Leps, Dagmara Sirova
Summary: Foliar endophytic bacteria and fungi in parasitic and non-parasitic plants were found to be diverse, dominated by generalist taxa, but highly similar across all studied species. Despite contrasting leaf tissue chemistry, the trophic mode of parasitic plants did not systematically affect the diversity, composition, or predicted biogeochemical function of the endophytic microbiomes under field conditions. Parasitic plants may possess mechanisms to regulate the extent of colonization by endophytic fungi.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Enrique Valencia, Francesco de Bello, Thomas Galland, Lars Gotzenberger, Jan Leps, Jorge Duran, Carlos P. Carmona
Summary: The diversity of plant species affects soil nitrogen availability, and this effect may be related to the ecological differences among coexisting species. However, there is limited evidence for the independent and combined effects of functional diversity (FD) and phylogenetic diversity (PD) on ecosystem functions.
Article
Entomology
Anna Sobieraj-Betlinska, Piotr Szefer, Lucyna Twerd
Summary: This study assessed the attractiveness of two common types of woodlots in an agricultural landscape in northern Poland to wild bees. The results showed that linear woodlots were more attractive in terms of wild bee abundance, but woodlot type did not affect species composition or functional traits. Species composition was primarily influenced by syntaxonomic and landscape heterogeneity.
AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST ENTOMOLOGY
(2023)
Correction
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Malgorzata Rutkowska, Jerzy Falandysz, Martyna Saba, Piotr Szefer, Malgorzata Misztal-Szkudlinska, Piotr Konieczka
APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Ales Lisner, Marie Konecna, Petr Blazek, Jan Leps
Summary: The role of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning (BEF) has been a major focus of ecological research. Results from artificially assembled communities point to the important role of biodiversity, showing that loss of species has a negative effect on various ecosystem functions. However, evidence from manipulations of natural communities is scarce, and results are often contradictory between these two approaches. This study found that species diversity is a poor predictor of community above-ground biomass production, and dominant species can effectively compensate for the total production after substantial loss of other species in a grassland community.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ryan R. Germain, Shaohong Feng, Lucas Buffan, Carlos P. Carmona, Guangii Chen, Gary R. Graves, Joseph A. Tobias, Carsten Rahbek, Fumin Lei, Jon Fjeldsa, Peter A. Hosner, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Guojie Zhang, David Nogues-Bravo
Summary: By combining morphological, ecological, and life-history trait data with genomic-based estimates of changing effective population size, this study explores the demographic-based shifts in avian functional diversity over the past million years and under pre-anthropogenic climate warming. The results show that functional diversity remained relatively stable over this period, but significant changes occurred in some key areas of trait space due to changing species abundances. Furthermore, the study identifies the vulnerability of different regions of functional space among taxa, enhancing our understanding of losses of biosphere integrity before human disturbances and contemporary biodiversity loss.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Biology
Diego P. F. Trindade, Carlos P. Carmona, Triin Reitalu, Meelis Partel
Summary: Global change drivers impact both the observed species and functional traits in a local site and its dark diversity. Long-term temporal dynamics in observed and dark diversity are relevant for assessing and predicting biodiversity change. A study examining sedimentary pollen data in northern Europe found that taxonomic and functional observed and dark diversity increased over time, but dark diversity revealed expansion lags and extensive functional redundancy.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Eva Janikova, Jan Leps
Summary: Community composition is determined by a species' ability to survive and establish in a particular site, which is influenced by both abiotic conditions and biotic interactions. It is crucial to accurately define the species pool for comparison with the community composition.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Pagi S. S. Toko, Bonny Koane, Kenneth Molem, Scott E. E. Miller, Vojtech Novotny
Summary: The elevation gradients in tropical rainforests represent global maxima of biodiversity and are important for community studies. We surveyed geometrid moths in Papua New Guinea and found high diversity, with molecular data playing an important role in taxonomy. The richness of species and beta diversity of communities showed interesting patterns along the elevation gradient.
INSECT CONSERVATION AND DIVERSITY
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Vitor de A. Kamimura, Priscilla de P. Loiola, Carlos P. Carmona, Marco A. Assis, Carlos A. Joly, Flavio A. M. Santos, Simone A. Vieira, Luciana F. Alves, Valeria F. Martins, Eliana Ramos, Rafael F. Ramos, Francesco de Bello
Summary: In this study, different models, including boosted regression tree (BRT) models, were used to investigate the relationship between functional traits and demographic rates of tropical tree species. The results showed that functional traits, trait-trait interactions, and the environmental context have significant effects on the growth, mortality, and recruitment rates of tropical tree species. Therefore, considering the environmental context and trait interactions is necessary to improve the prediction of demographic rates based on functional traits.
PERSPECTIVES IN PLANT ECOLOGY EVOLUTION AND SYSTEMATICS
(2023)
Review
Plant Sciences
Jan Leps, Francesco de Bello
Summary: One of J.P. Grime's greatest achievements was demonstrating the importance of the relationship between the environment and plant functional traits. The community weighted means (CWMs) method, which evaluates changes in communities' average trait values along gradients, is well-established but has been criticized for inflated Type I errors. Different approaches exist that test different trait-environment relationships, each with different null hypotheses and ecological questions.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Luisa Conti, Enrique Valencia, Thomas Galland, Lars Gotzenberger, Jan Leps, Anna E-Vojtko, Carlos P. Carmona, Maria Majekova, Jiri Danihelka, Juergen Dengler, David J. Eldridge, Marc Estiarte, Ricardo Garcia-Gonzalez, Eric Garnier, Daniel Gomez, Vera Hadincova, Susan P. Harrison, Tomas Herben, Ricardo Ibanez, Anke Jentsch, Norbert Juergens, Miklos Kertesz, Katja Klumpp, Frantisek Krahulec, Frederique Louault, Rob H. Marrs, Gabor Onodi, Robin J. Pakeman, Meelis Partel, Begona Peco, Josep Penuelas, Marta Rueda, Wolfgang Schmidt, Ute Schmiedel, Martin Schuetz, Hana Skalova, Petr Smilauer, Marie Smilauerova, Christian Smit, MingHua Song, Martin Stock, James Val, Vigdis Vandvik, David Ward, Karsten Wesche, Susan K. Wiser, Ben A. Woodcock, Truman P. Young, Fei-Hai Yu, Martin Zobel, Francesco de Bello
Summary: Ecological theory suggests that the stability patterns in plant populations are influenced by their ecological strategies. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the specific traits underlying species stability across different biomes. In this study, we analyzed a worldwide collection of long-term vegetation records and found that leaf dry matter content and seed mass were associated with greater stability over time. Other traits also played a role, but to a lesser extent. Further research is needed to understand the role of other traits and intraspecific variability in species stability.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2023)
Editorial Material
Ecology
Juan C. Copete, Alfred Kik, Vojtech Novotny, Rodrigo Camara-Leret
Summary: The role of indigenous and local peoples in cataloging life on Earth is significant but often overlooked, and their knowledge faces increasing threats. Greater participation by them in research can enhance scientific efficiency, sustainable conservation, and the preservation of traditional knowledge, although significant obstacles remain.
TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION
(2023)