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EMBO Reports -

Tree diversity and mycorrhizal dominance are considered major drivers of multitrophic diversity and ecosystem functioning in forests. Here the authors disentangle the effects of these factors on above...

A new TUM method reveals how plant roots and mycorrhizal fungi interact in soil, offering insights for climate-resilient and drought-tolerant crops.

Increasing nutrient diversity is expected to promote microbial diversity. This study shows that more complex environments can enhance resource uptake, intensify competition and lead to microbial biodi...

In this project, you will investigate the biogeography of above- and belowground fungi associated with several Scalesia species. We aim to develop an integrated view of diversity and distribution of t...

Weiden, Steppenrelikte, Trockenrasen, Feuchtwiesen – was sie bedroht und wie sie zu neuem Leben erweckt werden können

Using coupled above- and below-ground trait sampling on individuals of co-existing species, we quantified relationships between 18 leaf and fine root traits in two environmentally contrasting subtrop...

Many biotic interactions occur via chemical compounds released in the environment. Here the authors review the field of chemical ecology and discuss the importance of investigating landscape-scale che...

Even though two weeks have passed since the first denunciation by environmentalists of the intervention with heavy machinery in the Pishë–Poro–Nartë protected area, institutions continue to offer trun...

Marker-gene microbiome surveys systematically under-sample rare taxa, causing alpha diversity metrics to reflect dominance rather than true richness. This conceptual mismatch can lead to misleading e...

New predictions for how temporal stability and resilience depend on their resistance and recovery components are explored.

Pathogens and droughts lead to increasingly thinned forests worldwide, shaping regeneration conditions. In Leipzig (Germany), we investigated the curr…

The ecological significance of root exudation has long been recognized, yet most research on root-trait organization has focused on easily measurable morphological and chemical traits. Root exudation, despite representing a substantial carbon investment in rhizosphere processes and belowground interactions, remains largely overlooked in the current Root Economics Space (RES) framework. Emerging evidence reveals inconsistent correlations between root-exudation traits and the collaboration versus conservation gradients of the RES. We explore potential mechanisms underlying these inconsistencies and propose two testable hypotheses: that root exudation can either be integrated into the existing two-dimensional RES or constitute an independent axis that extends the framework to three dimensions. Finally, we identify key research priorities to address critical knowledge gaps and improve trait-based predictions of belowground carbon allocation.

Sarah McCarthy-Neumann, Katherine E. A. Wood, Inés Ibáñez, Richard K. Kobe This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Forests are full of hid…

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npj Biodiversity - The flounder effect: disparities in taxonomic and ecological study intensity across extant and fossil marine organisms hamper conservation

Feeding a growing population while protecting the environment is a major global challenge. This study suggests that agricultural diversification enhances long-term profitability, biodiversity, soil he...

A global synthesis of >600 studies finds that across agro-ecosystems, grasslands and forests in temperate and tropical zones, increasing plant diversity has a consistently positive effect on plant ...

Während die EU-Kommission plant, Pestizide einfacher zuzulassen, zeigt eine neue Studie: Reste von Pflanzenschutzmitteln auf Äckern und Wiesen wirken sich auch auf Kleinstlebewesen im Boden aus. Von J...

A global synthesis of >600 studies finds that across agro-ecosystems, grasslands and forests in temperate and tropical zones, increasing plant diversity has a consistently positive effect on plant ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

These fungi boost plant growth and restore depleted ecosystems, but federal funding for a library housing them has been cut – and it may be forced to close

In recent years, one of the loudest ideas in environmental policy has been that trees are the planet’s universal remedy. Plant enough of them, in enough places, and carbon will be soaked up, water wil...

Disease risk varies among ecological communities because species differ in their host quality, that is, their contribution to parasite fitness. We propose a four-component framework of host quality that harmonizes terminology across plant and animal domains. Using this framework, we demonstrate how the host defense strategies of resistance and tolerance relate to distinct components of host quality. Easily extendable to multi-parasite systems, the framework also helps to identify new ways of examining the continuum between specialist and generalist parasites. Ultimately, breaking down and formalizing the components of host quality helps with synthesizing disease ecology across domains and unlocking relationships between biodiversity and disease risk.

In forests, trait expression is influenced by tree-tree interactions. Castro Sánchez-Bermejo et al. show how phenotypic variability of tree species decreases with tree diversity and contributes import...

Determining the age of genetic individuals in clonal plants is fundamental for understanding their persistence strategies, but is inherently challenging due to the gradual loss of older parts as the clone expands. The first step in age estimation is to assign physically independent individuals (ramets) to genetic individuals (genets) by molecular methods. Once this is established, the size and rate of lateral spread (LS) of the genet can be measured or estimated using morphological traits. More recently, classical or somatic molecular clocks, using genomic data, have been proposed. In this review, we examine the methodological principles and limitations of both morphological and genomic approaches, and propose a conceptual framework that integrates these methods to enable more robust and reliable age estimations of clonal plants.