Wildfire shapes the structure, dynamic and functioning of boreal forests. With predicted warmer and drier summers, increased incidence and intensity of crown‐fires may affect plant‐soil interactions with consequences for post‐fire fertility and forest productivity. We assessed how severity of crown‐ and ground‐fire in boreal pine forests affected post‐fire responses of soil fungal communities and their

Disturbances are increasing in size and frequency with climate change, facilitating species that opportunistically exploit areas where habitat‐forming foundation species have been removed. Although it is well‐recognized that consumers, disease, and weedy space‐holders can affect foundation species’ resistance to and recovery from disturbance, how predators influence their resilience is less clear.

Plant functional traits are thought to drive biomass production and biogeochemical cycling in tropical forests, but it remains unclear how nitrogen (N)‐fixing legumes influence the functional traits of neighboring trees and forest‐wide biomass dynamics. Further, the degree to which effects of N‐fixers are density‐dependent and may depend on stem size and spatial scale remains largely unknown. Here

Long‐term metapopulation persistence is mediated by the dynamics of colonization and extinction. To understand and predict future species occupancy in changing landscapes, we must account for the dynamic rates that shape the occupancy and disentangle their dependence on environmental conditions. Specialist and generalist species may differ in their dynamics in systematic ways. Using an extensive, large‐scale

Common garden experiments are valuable to study adaptive phenomenon and adaptive potential, in that they allow to study local adaptation without the confounding effect of phenotypic plasticity. The QST−FST comparison framework, comparing genetic differentiation at the phenotypic and molecular level, is the usual way to test and measure whether local adaptation influences phenotypic divergence between

The high diversification rates of plant lineages in the Mediterranean Basin hotspot have been linked to a complex interaction of climatic stressors, geographic isolation and soil type, but the question remains as to which of these factors has been the most significant environmental driver of recent speciation. Here, we draw on distributional data for the entire endemic flora of the Iberian Peninsula

The ecological dynamics of co‐flowering communities are largely mediated by pollinators. However, current understanding of pollinator‐mediated interactions primarily relies on how co‐flowering plants influence attraction of shared pollinators, and much less is known about plan‐plant interactions that occur via heterospecific pollen (HP) transfer. Invaded communities in particular can be highly affected

Nutrient limitation and metal toxicity have been implicated in changes of grassland communities by nitrogen (N) deposition. Belowground processes, especially those at the soil‐root interface, play important roles in determining variation in nutrient concentrations in plants. However, few studies have specifically focused on the roles of these processes in mineral‐element acquisition in grassland plants

1. In mixed stands, species complementarity (e.g., facilitation and competition reduction) may enhance forest tree productivity. Although positive mixture effects have been identified in forests worldwide, the majority of studies have focused on two‐species interactions in managed systems with high functional diversity. We extended this line of research to examine mixture effects on tree productivity

Heritable symbionts are often observed at intermediate prevalence within host populations, despite expectations that positive fitness feedbacks should drive beneficial symbionts to fixation. Intermediate prevalence may reflect neutral dynamics of symbionts with weak fitness effects, transient dynamics of symbionts trending toward fixation (or elimination), or a stable intermediate outcome determined

Bamboo‐dominated forests (BDF) extend over large areas in the drought‐prone Southwestern Amazon, yet little is known about the dynamics of these ecosystems. Here, we investigate the hypothesis that bamboo modulates large‐scale ecosystem dynamics through competition with coexisting trees for water.

Climate and litter quality drive litter decomposition, but there is currently little consensus on their relative importance, likely because studies differ in the duration, the climatic gradients, and variability in litter‐trait values. Understanding these drivers is important because they determine the direct and indirect (via vegetation composition) effects of climate change on decomposition and thereby

Plant‐associated fungi can ameliorate abiotic stress in their hosts, and changes in these fungal communities can alter plant productivity, species interactions, community structure and ecosystem processes. We investigated the response of root‐associated fungi to experimental drought (66% reduction in growing season precipitation) across six North American grassland ecosystem types to determine how

The extent to which historical dispersal, environmental features and geographic barriers shape the phylogenetic structure and turnover of tree communities in northwestern Amazonia at multiple spatial scales remains poorly understood.

In the southern Great Lakes Region, North America, between 19,000 to 8,000 years ago, temperatures rose by 2.5 to 6.5 °C and spruce (Picea) forests/woodlands were replaced by mixed‐deciduous or pine (Pinus) forests. The demise of Picea forests/woodlands during the last deglaciation offers a model system for studying how changing climate and disturbance regimes interact to trigger declines of dominant

1.In savannas, ruminant herbivores can have divergent impacts on tree recruitment and subsequent woody cover. Whereas heavy grazing by cattle results in woody thickening, intensive grazing by wildlife instead tends to be associated with lower woody cover.