Article
Entomology
Arleu B. Viana-Junior, Paola Mitraud, Wesley Dattilo, Og DeSouza, Frederico de S. Neves
Summary: Termite nests provide shelter, alleviating harsh environmental conditions. There is a positive correlation between elevation and the richness and abundance of cohabiting termitophiles.
ECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Travis G. Britton, Shane A. Richards, Melissa R. Gerwin, Rose E. Brinkhoff, Mark J. Hovenden
Summary: Neighbouring plants and climatic conditions interactively affect the growth of eucalypts. The competitive effects of neighbours on eucalypt growth are stronger under drier and hotter climate conditions. This finding has implications for future forest productivity under projected climate change.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Carlos Navarro-Barranco, Paul E. Gribben, Janine J. Ledet, Alistair G. B. Poore
Summary: The intensity of positive interactions between foundation species and their associated species is influenced by environmental stress and trait variations. This study found that the magnitude of facilitation increased at lower tidal heights, contrary to the stress gradient hypothesis. Further research is needed to identify the factors explaining the patterns of facilitation intensity.
Article
Agronomy
Simon Boudsocq, Camille Cros, Philippe Hinsinger, Hans Lambers
Summary: This study evaluated the performance of a cereal-legume mixture on gradients of nitrogen and phosphorus availability. The results showed that intercropping increased biomass and nutrient content of wheat and white lupin compared to sole crops under all levels of nitrogen and phosphorus supply. However, the performance of white lupin decreased with increasing nitrogen and phosphorus supply, leading to a shift from mutualism to competition between the two species, and compensation mechanisms were observed.
Article
Plant Sciences
Guangshuai Cui, Francisco I. Pugnaire, Liu Yang, Wanglin Zhao, Rita Ale, Wei Shen, Tianxiang Luo, Eryuan Liang, Lin Zhang
Summary: Shrub facilitates the survival, growth, and reproduction of understory species by buffering environmental extremes and improving limited resources in arid and semiarid regions. However, the importance of soil water and nutrient availability on shrub facilitation, and its trend along a drought gradient, have been relatively less addressed.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Gamze Yilmaz, Salim Neselioglu, Fatma Nur Ceylan, Burak Elmas, Fatmanur Ece Aydogdu, Ozcan Erel, Ozlem Uzunlar, Esma Sarikaya, Ozlem Moraloglu Tekin
Summary: Understanding the facilitation patterns of legume shrubs in arid/semi-arid ecosystems is important for predicting their resilience to climate change. This study found that water availability and nurse species turnover interact to shape the facilitation pattern of these shrubs along a large elevation gradient. Leaf & delta;13C of nurse plants can track the changes in facilitation pattern and may be useful for predicting the effects of global change on nurse plant facilitation.
Article
Ecology
Jacob E. Lucero, Akasha M. Faist, Christopher J. Lortie, Ragan M. Callaway
Summary: This study investigated the interactions between native shrubs and invasive annual species in desert plant communities, and found that shrubs had positive effects on some invasive species but negative effects on others. Native species tended to have higher abundance away from shrubs. Additionally, it was discovered that the impacts of invasive species on native species may depend more on the characteristics of the invasive species rather than the severity of the environment.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Benjamin Schlau, Travis Huxman, Kailen Mooney, Jessica Pratt
Summary: Recent studies have shown that positive plant-plant species interactions can promote stable coexistence, emphasizing the importance of understanding the long-term interactions among species in evaluating facilitation's impacts on community structure.
Review
Ecology
Pubin Hong, Bernhard Schmid, Frederik De Laender, Nico Eisenhauer, Xingwen Zhang, Haozhen Chen, Dylan Craven, Hans J. De Boeck, Yann Hautier, Owen L. Petchey, Peter B. Reich, Bastian Steudel, Maren Striebel, Madhav P. Thakur, Shaopeng Wang
Summary: The research shows that biodiversity has a positive impact on ecosystem functioning, especially in high-stress environments affected by global environmental change factors. This positive impact is mainly driven by interspecific complementarity and increases over time.
Article
Soil Science
Shuang-Guo Zhu, Wesly Kiprotich, Zheng-Guo Cheng, Rui Zhou, Jing-Wei Fan, Hao Zhu, Wen-Ying Wang, Wei Wang, Ren-Qing Wang, Hong-Yan Tao, You-Cai Xiong
Summary: This study investigated plant-plant interaction and its effects on soil nutrient and microbial biomass in a maize-grass pea intercropping system along a soil phosphorus gradient. The results showed that intercropping had a facilitative effect on total community productivity. In phosphorus-deficient soils, mutual facilitation between maize and grass pea was observed. However, under phosphorus-sufficient conditions, maize acted as a facilitated species and grass pea acted as a facilitator. Phosphatase activity in the rhizosphere was enhanced in phosphorus-deficient soils, leading to increased phosphorus and nitrogen utilization. The microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus were also significantly increased in intercropping systems.
SOIL & TILLAGE RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Jenna Braun, Michael Westphal, Christopher J. Lortie
Summary: This study examined the relationship between arthropod communities and vegetation in arid regions of California, finding that the canopy of Ephedra californica contributes to increased arthropod abundance and species richness. Vegetation cover on the soil surface negatively influences arthropod abundance.
Article
Plant Sciences
Beatriz A. Aguirre, Brian Hsieh, Samantha J. Watson, Alexandra J. Wright
Summary: The impact of drought on plant communities can be mitigated by plant diversity, but results are inconsistent and the effects of increased atmospheric VPD have been neglected. Experimental manipulation of atmospheric drought is crucial to understand the protective role of diversity in ecosystems.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Shuang-Guo Zhu, Hao Zhu, Rui Zhou, Wei Zhang, Wei Wang, Yi-Ning Zhou, Bao-Zhong Wang, Yu-Miao Yang, Jing Wang, Hong-Yan Tao, You-Cai Xiong
Summary: This study investigated the effects of fertilizer input gradient on the production efficiency of intercropping. The results showed that high fertilizer inputs decreased the relative productivity and nutrient uptake of intercropping. The experiments confirmed the reliability and universality of the meta-analysis conclusions.
AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Maral Bashirzadeh, Santiago Soliveres, Mohammad Farzam, Hamid Ejtehadi
Summary: The study found that nurse plants have a positive impact on the taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of alpine communities, as well as the functional and phylogenetic diversity of dryland communities. Nurse plants have the largest effects on biodiversity in moderate environmental conditions, which suggests their potential to protect biodiversity from the impacts of climate change in the future.
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Veronica Chillo, Mariano Amoroso, Daniela Arpigiani, Carlos Rezzano
Summary: This study aims to assess the importance of nurse effect for active restoration in mixed evergreen forests. The results show that herbivory pressure and light availability are related to the nurse effect, while the palatability of the nurse shrub does not significantly affect it. Considering the interaction between disturbance factors can increase the diversity of active restoration actions.
Article
Plant Sciences
Ramona E. Irimia, Jose L. Hierro, Soraia Branco, Gaston Sotes, Lohengrin A. Cavieres, Ozkan Eren, Christopher J. Lortie, Kristine French, Ragan M. Callaway, Daniel Montesinos
Summary: The study examines the reproductive success of invasive plants by experimentally mixing genotypes from different regions, finding varying fitness effects among populations of the invasive species Centaurea solstitialis. The results suggest that invasive species may adapt and accumulate reproductive incompatibilities at a faster rate than previously assumed, leading to a global mosaic of reproductive outcomes during colonization on large biogeographical scales.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2021)
Review
Plant Sciences
Christopher J. Lortie, Jose L. Hierro
Summary: This study explored plant climate adaptation and ecotypic differentiation in reciprocal common gardens, demonstrating plant adaptation to climate change through meta-analysis. The need for future studies to clearly define ecotypic testing in common garden experiments and the importance of reciprocal climatic gardens were emphasized.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Alexandra J. Wright, Kathryn E. Barry, Christopher J. Lortie, Ragan M. Callaway
Summary: Through experiments and mechanistic approaches, positive relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are studied. In addition to competition and resource partitioning, various facilitative mechanisms are identified, such as reduction of species-specific pathogens and improvement of soil nutrient cycling.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Diego A. Sotomayor, Alessandro Filazzola, Christopher J. Lortie
Summary: The study revealed that dominant plants in deserts have facilitative effects on the understorey plants, but the responses to the removal of neighbors can be species-specific. The facilitative effects of dominant plants are important for coexistence mechanisms in desert ecosystems.
JOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Christopher J. Lortie, Alessandro Filazzola, Charlotte Brown, Jacob Lucero, Mario Zuliani, Nargol Ghazian, Stephanie Haas, Malory Owen, H. Scott Butterfield, Emmeleia Nix, Michael Westphal
Summary: The study suggests that shrubs can accelerate the invasion process by invasive species and amplify their negative effects on native communities, leading to ecosystem degradation. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the indirect effects of shrubs in order to advance grassland management and restoration theory more rapidly.
Article
Ecology
Jenna Braun, Christopher J. Lortie
Summary: Interactions with pollinators are crucial for the structure and function of plant communities, and inter-individual variation plays a role in the sharing of pollinators in visitation networks.
ECOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Xuejun Yang, Lorena Gomez-Aparicio, Christopher J. Lortie, Miguel Verdu, Lohengrin A. Cavieres, Zhenying Huang, Ruiru Gao, Rong Liu, Yonglan Zhao, Johannes H. C. Cornelissen
Summary: This study uses a global database to examine the patterns of plant interactions and their effects on climate. It finds that competition occurs more frequently than facilitation in plant communities worldwide and that plant interactions show weak relationships with latitude and climate. The study highlights competition as a fundamental mechanism structuring plant communities globally.
Article
Ecology
Christopher J. Lortie, Nargol Ghazian, Mario Zuliani
Summary: Seeds and seed banks play a crucial role in plant community theory and experimental design in desert ecosystems. It was observed that the choice of seeding density was often arbitrary and lacked key components needed for calculating seed density in desert experiments, leading to limitations in reproducibility and comparability between studies. A proposed workflow of 5 steps aims to address these challenges by improving data-checking processes and fostering higher levels of consistency and replication in experimental design, ultimately benefiting scientific syntheses for arid ecosystems.
JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS
(2022)
Editorial Material
Plant Sciences
Susanne Schwinning, Christopher J. Lortie, Todd C. Esque, Lesley A. DeFalco
Summary: These papers highlight the trends in common garden experiments, including the relationship between climate-related traits and fitness optima, as well as discussing various methods for improving common garden studies.
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Christopher J. Lortie, Maria Florencia Miguel, Alessandro Filazzola, Harry Scott Butterfield
Summary: This study used meta-analysis to examine the impact of local species richness on restoration outcomes in dryland areas, and found that the most effective restoration outcomes were observed at sites with intermediate to relatively low species richness. Therefore, restoring degraded or low diversity arid grasslands should be prioritized during the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and plant species richness can serve as a crucial factor in decision-making.
RESTORATION ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Christopher J. Lortie
Summary: Decisions and judgment are complex processes due to the profound pressures exerted by global change on natural systems. A hierarchical approach is proposed to prioritize interventions based on implementation timing, with protecting first, managing second, and restoring last. This optimization workflow is considered reasonable for addressing various global challenges, not limited to climate mitigation through restoration.
RESTORATION ECOLOGY
(2023)
Editorial Material
Ecology
C. J. Lortie
Summary: Globally, teaching has undergone significant changes and innovations in the past three years, allowing for more seamless integration of technology and active visual teaching online or in-person. The CREATE pedagogy, originally proposed years ago and recently applied to ecology and evolution courses, offers a framework for engaging students in active reading and critical thinking. This approach not only enhances student engagement in various courses but also has a profound impact on how educators deliver content in lecture settings.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Ramona E. Irimia, Daniel Montesinos, Anurag Chaturvedi, Ian Sanders, Jose L. Hierro, Gaston Sotes, Lohengrin A. Cavieres, Ozkan Eren, Christopher J. Lortie, Kristine French, Adrian Christopher Brennan
Summary: Invasive species have a high capacity to adapt to new environments, resulting in spatial trait variation. We examined the geographic differentiation of phenotypic traits in the invasive Centaurea solstitialis by comparing genetic differentiation and phenotypic differentiation. We found that native plants were more fecund, while non-native plants had larger seed mass. There was little overall genetic differentiation between native and non-native ranges, suggesting rapid evolution has contributed to the success of C. solstitialis.
EVOLUTIONARY APPLICATIONS
(2023)
Editorial Material
Ecology
Gareth B. Jenkins, Andrew P. Beckerman, Celine Bellard, Ana Benitez-Lopez, Aaron M. Ellison, Christopher G. Foote, Andrew L. Hufton, Marcus A. Lashley, Christopher J. Lortie, Zhaoxue Ma, Allen J. Moore, Shawn R. Narum, Johan Nilsson, Bridget O'Boyle, Diogo B. Provete, Orly Razgour, Loren Rieseberg, Cynthia Riginos, Luca Santini, Benjamin Sibbett, Pedro R. Peres-Neto
Summary: We urge journals to mandate archiving open data in a user-friendly format for readers. Consistent implementation will allow contributors to receive recognition through open data citation and promote scientific advancements.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Mario Zuliani, Nargol Ghazian, Malory Owen, Michael F. F. Westphal, H. Scott Butterfield, Christopher J. J. Lortie
Summary: Positive associations between animals and foundational shrub species are frequent in desert ecosystems. This study investigated the impact of shrub density on the presence and habitat use of the federally endangered lizard species, Gambelia sila. The findings suggest that both shrub density and shrub cover are key factors for some desert lizards.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)