Journal of Ecology最新文献

{"title":"The scale-variant interstage flow makes biological insights possible: A response to Hinrichsen","authors":"Hiroyuki Yokomizo, Keiichi Fukaya, John G. Lambrinos, Takenori Takada","doi":"10.1111/1365-2745.70049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.70049","url":null,"abstract":"<h2>1 INTRODUCTION</h2>\u0000<p>Hinrichsen (<span>2025</span>) identifies two primary limitations of the interstage flow matrix introduced by Yokomizo et al. (<span>2024</span>). The first limitation is described as biological unrealism due to equal weighting for each individual across all the stages. According to Hinrichsen (<span>2025</span>), Yokomizo et al. (<span>2024</span>) assign the same weight to seeds and reproducing adults, which he argues is biologically unrealistic because it undervalues the differing contributions of life stages to population growth. Abundant stages, such as seed banks, disproportionately influence the entries in the interstage flow matrix.</p>\u0000<p>The second limitation is that interstage flow is scale-variant: Simply rescaling the stages alters its entries. Hinrichsen (<span>2025</span>) asserts that this limits the utility of the matrix for robust comparative analyses, as results can vary with changes in scaling.</p>\u0000<p>However, we assert that these two points are not shortcomings of the interstage flow approach but valuable features of it.</p>\u0000<h3>1.1 Limitation 1: Equal weighting among developmental stages</h3>\u0000<p>Hinrichsen (<span>2025</span>) claims that ‘seeds receive the same weight or ‘value’ as reproducing adults’ in the interstage flow matrix and proposes reweighting (rescaling) approaches to obtain scale-invariant forms of the interstage flow matrix. However, it is not biologically unreasonable for seeds and reproducing individuals to have equal weight, as population growth rate is fundamentally based on individual-level rates of increase.</p>\u0000<p>Life-history strategies vary among species. Some species produce many offspring with low survivorship, while others produce fewer offspring with higher survivorship (Pearl, <span>1928</span>). The imbalance that Hinrichsen critiques—such as the concentration of populations in immature stages—often reflects biologically meaningful traits rather than a problem requiring correction. Yokomizo et al. (<span>2024</span>) demonstrated that four functional groups (semelparous herbs, iteroparous herbs, shrubs and trees) exhibit distinct patterns of interstage flow allocation across stasis, fecundity and growth. Semelparous herbs are characterized by flows dominated by growth and fecundity, while trees emphasize stability with flows primarily dominated by stasis. Iteroparous herbs and shrubs display intermediate patterns, balancing flows across stasis, growth and fecundity. These differences align with life-history strategies and ecological adaptations.</p>\u0000<p>While balancing, as proposed by Hinrichsen (<span>2024</span>, <span>2025</span>), could be applicable to examine species characteristics, it is unclear how the balanced results should be interpreted. How meaningful is balancing that amplifies very small stages for understanding species traits? Balancing could also overly emphasize older individuals which represent a small proportion and contribute less to fecundity. Hin","PeriodicalId":191,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ecology","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143930995","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Interspecific and intraspecific variations in root phosphatase activity among tropical tree species with different soil phosphorus associations","authors":"Ryota Aoyagi, Riona Kobayashi, Benjamin L. Turner","doi":"10.1111/1365-2745.70053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.70053","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:list> <jats:list-item>Variation in soil phosphorus (P) availability promotes niche differentiation among tropical tree species, yet the traits that underpin specialization on low‐P and high‐P soils (hereafter low‐P and high‐P species) remain poorly understood. Here, we examined interspecific and intraspecific variation in three types of root phosphatase enzymes and morphological traits among neotropical tree species in Panama with different habitat associations.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>We collected fine roots from 51 individual trees of four congeneric pairs of low‐P and high‐P neotropical tree species in the genera <jats:italic>Cordia</jats:italic>, <jats:italic>Hirtella</jats:italic>, <jats:italic>Inga</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Protium</jats:italic> in forests on moderate to low‐P soils. We determined root morphological traits (specific root length, diameter and root tissue density) and the root surface activities of phosphomonoesterase (PME), phosphodiesterase (PDE) and phytase (PHY) enzymes, which are synthesized to release inorganic orthophosphate from soil organic P. Soil P availability was determined by measuring resin‐extractable P concentration for soils collected from the base of each tree.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>Low‐P species allocated more resources to produce enzymes that decompose more complex forms of P, as indicated by greater PHY activity and greater PHY:PME and PDE:PME ratios at a given soil P availability. A principal component analysis of fine‐root traits showed a greater Euclidian distance among individuals of low‐P species than among those of high‐P species, supporting the hypothesis that fine‐root traits vary more among low‐P species than among high‐P species.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>Synthesis. These results suggest that the specialization of tropical tree species to low‐P soil involves investment in the acquisition of complex soil organic phosphates such as phosphodiesters and phytic acid. This is possibly related to root trait divergence and indicates that variation in P acquisition strategies among tropical tree species could contribute to resource partitioning on low‐P soils.</jats:list-item> </jats:list>","PeriodicalId":191,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ecology","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143915677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biological Flora of Britain and Ireland: Cytisus scoparius*","authors":"Peter A. Thomas, Monika Dering, Grzegorz Iszkuło, Marta Kujawska, Adrian Łukowski, Mariola Rabska, Katarzyna Sękiewicz, Dominik Tomaszewski, Łukasz Walas, Marian J. Giertych","doi":"10.1111/1365-2745.70057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.70057","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;Broom or Scotch Broom. Fabaceae. &lt;i&gt;Cytisus scoparius&lt;/i&gt; (L.) Link (&lt;i&gt;Spartium scoparium&lt;/i&gt; L., &lt;i&gt;Sarothamnus scoparius&lt;/i&gt; (L.) W.D.J. Koch, &lt;i&gt;S. bourgaei&lt;/i&gt; Boissier, &lt;i&gt;S. oxyphyllus&lt;/i&gt; Boissier, &lt;i&gt;Genista scoparia&lt;/i&gt; (L.) W.D.J. Koch, &lt;i&gt;Genista scoparia&lt;/i&gt; (L.) Lam., &lt;i&gt;Genista scoparia&lt;/i&gt; var. &lt;i&gt;vulgaris&lt;/i&gt; Rouy nom. Illegit., &lt;i&gt;Genista vulgaris&lt;/i&gt; Gray nom. illegit., &lt;i&gt;Sarothamnus vulgaris&lt;/i&gt; Wimm. nom. illegit., &lt;i&gt;Sarothamnus vulgaris&lt;/i&gt; var. &lt;i&gt;scoparius&lt;/i&gt; (L.) Timbal-Lagrave, &lt;i&gt;Cytisogenista scoparia&lt;/i&gt; (L.) Rothm.) is a multi-branched non-spiny shrub, typically up to 60 cm but reaching 200(–250) cm high, as wide as tall, branches numerous, erect, ascending or procumbent, twigs green, usually leafy, deeply 5-angled, pliable, glabrous after the first year, or sericeous when young. Leaves deciduous or semi-evergreen, alternate, usually 3-foliolate, but 1-foliolate and sessile on young twigs; stipules absent; leaves subsessile or petiolate to 7 mm, glabrous or hairy; leaflets 6–20 × 1.5–9 mm, green on the upper surface, paler beneath, narrowly elliptic-oblong to obovate, narrowed or cuneate at base, more or less acute apex, glabrous or with silky appressed hairs on both surfaces. Flowers axillary, zygomorphic, solitary or in pairs on 1-year-old stems, 15–20 mm; pedicels up to 10 mm, twice as long as calyx, slender, glabrous. Calyx 6–7 mm, green, 2-lipped, the lower lip with 3-min lobes, the upper lip with 2-min lobes, usually glabrous. Corolla 15–20 mm, golden-yellow or with dark red to mauve areas; standard 16–18(–20) mm, the limb ovate, emarginate at apex, rounded to a subcordate base, with a short, narrow claw; wings with oblong limb, rounded at apex, with short, very broad lobe at base and a narrow claw; keel with limb broadly oblong, slightly upturned at the rounded apex, with a short, broad lobe at the base and a short, narrow claw. Stamens 10, monadelphous, filaments pale, anthers alternately long and attached at or near the base, short and versatile. Single style, long, spirally coiled, stigma capitate. Fruit an oblong dehiscent legume 25–50(–70) × 8–10(–13) mm, oblong, strongly compressed, 2-valved, with long brown or white hairs on the sutures, otherwise glabrous; green when immature, dark brown or even black at maturity, seeds dispersed by explosive dehiscence, valves coiled after dehiscence, remaining on the parent plant. Seeds, 2.0–3.5 mm, ellipsoid, flattened, dark green to red-brown, hard water-impermeable seed coat with an elaiosome.&lt;/p&gt;\u0000&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Cytisus&lt;/i&gt; contains around 30 species, mainly distributed in Spain and Portugal (Sell &amp; Murrell, &lt;span&gt;2009&lt;/span&gt;). Currently, there are four recognized subspecies of &lt;i&gt;Cytisus scoparius&lt;/i&gt; (Auvray &amp; Malécot, &lt;span&gt;2013&lt;/span&gt;). Two of the subspecies are native to Britain and Ireland. Subsp. &lt;i&gt;scoparius&lt;/i&gt; (L.) Link has erect or arching branches, 150–200(–250) cm tall, leaves and young twigs glabrous or sparsely sericeous. It is usually a calcif","PeriodicalId":191,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ecology","volume":"43 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143910848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Diverse associations and proximate effects of weather on Madagascar reproductive phenology","authors":"Jannet K. Vu, Sheila M. Holmes, Cressant P. Razafindravelo, Edward E. Louis, Steig E. Johnson","doi":"10.1111/1365-2745.70058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.70058","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:list> <jats:list-item>How plants respond to weather seasonality is a fundamental evolutionary question that is particularly relevant to understand as climate change alters weather patterns across the globe. Although temperature and light conditions primarily cue flowering in temperate plants, the weather cues that tropical plants use to regulate their phenological cycles are lesser known.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>We studied the weather‐related ultimate causes of flowering and fruiting patterns in six woody perennial species found in the evergreen lowland humid forests of southeastern Madagascar by investigating the associations between biweekly weather (i.e. rainfall, temperature and insolation) and species‐level flowering and fruiting phenology. We then developed process‐based models to identify the potential proximate weather cues that these species use to regulate their flowering time. Given the region's strong rainfall seasonality, we hypothesised that the reproductive timing of these species would mainly be constrained by water availability.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>These species flowered asynchronously, at different times of the year and after a variety of weather conditions, including drought, cool temperatures, warm temperatures and low light. The flowering and fruiting patterns of only two species suggested that water stress constrained their phenology in support of the water limitation and optimal time of germination hypotheses.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>The flowering patterns of these six species did not align with the insolation limitation hypothesis, providing no evidence to suggest that light stress constrained their phenology. Cool temperature was most likely a proximate flowering cue for only one of these perennial tropical species, which contrasts with the ubiquitous influence that low temperatures have on temperate flowering phenology. Light limitation most likely influenced the flowering time of two species, paralleling the photoperiod flowering cues that some temperate plants use.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>The timescales at which these potential flowering cues operated were species‐specific, spanning 1–7 months.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item><jats:italic>Synthesis</jats:italic>. The diverse associations we identified between weather and flowering patterns suggest that the phenology of these perennial tropical plants evolved in response to different selective pressures and will likely have variable responses to climate change.</jats:list-item> </jats:list>","PeriodicalId":191,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ecology","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143910508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Drought decreases carbon flux but not transport speed of newly fixed carbon from leaves to sinks in a giant bamboo forest","authors":"Xiaogai Ge, Yu Cong, Yonghui Cao, Benzhi Zhou, Fei–Hai Yu, Arthur Gessler, Marco M. Lehmann, Matthias Saurer, Xupeng Xue, Mai–He Li","doi":"10.1111/1365-2745.70060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.70060","url":null,"abstract":"<h2> CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT</h2>\u0000<p>The authors declare no conflicts of interest.</p>","PeriodicalId":191,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ecology","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143905436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dual drivers of plant invasions: Enemy release and enhanced mutualisms","authors":"Luwei Wang, Wenrao Li, Jianqing Ding, Evan Siemann","doi":"10.1111/1365-2745.70059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.70059","url":null,"abstract":"<h2> CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT</h2>\u0000<p>The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.</p>","PeriodicalId":191,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ecology","volume":"222 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143884938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Range-wide study in a sexually polymorphic wild strawberry reveals climatic and soil associations of sex ratio, sexual dimorphism and sex chromosomes","authors":"Nevin Cullen, Ethan Richardson, Trezalka Budinsky, Rachel Reeb, Sebastian Mortimer, Aaron Liston, Tia-Lynn Ashman","doi":"10.1111/1365-2745.70056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.70056","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;h2&gt;1 INTRODUCTION&lt;/h2&gt;\u0000&lt;p&gt;Separate sexes (male and female) have evolved from hermaphroditism hundreds of times in flowering plant evolution (Renner, &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;), indicating that under some circumstances the benefits of sex specialization can outweigh the costs of reproductive uncertainty (reviewed in Pannell &amp; Jordan, &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;; Spigler &amp; Ashman, &lt;span&gt;2011&lt;/span&gt;). Indeed, there is a wide range of polymorphic sexual systems: gynodioecious (hermaphrodite and female), subdioecious (male, hermaphrodite and female) or dioecious (male and female), and these can form a continuum with intraspecific variation among populations within species (e.g. Costich &amp; Meagher, &lt;span&gt;2001&lt;/span&gt;; Dorken &amp; Barrett, &lt;span&gt;2003&lt;/span&gt;). Because the male and female reproductive pathways have different resource/mating demands, environmental variation can drive geographic patterns of sexual systems (reviewed in Varga &amp; Soulsbury, &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;). Recent concerns over anthropogenic change in climate factors and soil fertility (IPCC, &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;; Penuelas et al., &lt;span&gt;2013&lt;/span&gt;; Singh et al., &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;) have led ecologists to call for a broader understanding of the abiotic drivers of the key features of sexually polymorphic populations, such as sex ratio, sexual dimorphism and sex determination (Hangartner et al., &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;; Hultine et al., &lt;span&gt;2016&lt;/span&gt;; Varga &amp; Soulsbury, &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;). Yet, for most sexually polymorphic species the geographic relationship between-sex ratio and environment remains unexamined (Varga &amp; Soulsbury, &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;) and evidence of clinal variation in sexual dimorphism or sex-determining factors is all but absent in plants (but see Bürli et al., &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;; Puixeu et al., &lt;span&gt;2019&lt;/span&gt;)—especially at the range-wide scale.&lt;/p&gt;\u0000&lt;p&gt;In sexually polymorphic plant populations, the sex ratio is determined by the reproductive fertility of each sex morph, the genetic mechanism of sex determination, and the degree of sex environmental lability (reviewed in Käfer et al., &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;; Schenkel et al., &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;; Spigler &amp; Ashman, &lt;span&gt;2011&lt;/span&gt;). Given the lower energetic costs (Ashman, &lt;span&gt;1994&lt;/span&gt;; Obeso, &lt;span&gt;2002&lt;/span&gt;) of reproducing solely as a male (e.g. pollen production) than a female (e.g. ovule and seed production) in insect-pollinated plants, sex ratios can vary across gradients of environmental stressors (reviewed in Spigler &amp; Ashman, &lt;span&gt;2011&lt;/span&gt;; Varga &amp; Soulsbury, &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;). For instance, in gynodioecious species where hermaphrodites produce both pollen and as many seeds as females, they bear a higher reproductive cost than females. Female frequency is thus predicted to increase with increasing environmental stresses in gynodioecious species. For example, a survey of Illinois populations of &lt;i&gt;Lobelia spicata&lt;/i&gt; demonstrated female frequency increased with increasing temperature stress (Ruffatto ","PeriodicalId":191,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ecology","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143880760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Elevational changes in vegetation and soil geochemistry drive thresholds in bulk soil carbon and its key fractions","authors":"Yuntao Wu, Josep Peñuelas, Meifeng Deng, Shengnan Pan, Xingming Zhang, Zhiming Zhang, Lingli Liu","doi":"10.1111/1365-2745.70055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.70055","url":null,"abstract":"<h2> CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT</h2>\u0000<p>The authors declare no conflicts of interest.</p>","PeriodicalId":191,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ecology","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143872515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biodiversity of soil biota and plants stabilises ecosystem multifunctionality with increasing number of global change factors","authors":"Bing Wang, Yuhui Meng, Shangwu Deng, Xuan Zhou, Shuaifei Wang, Ying Wu, Liji Wu, Yongfei Bai, Dima Chen","doi":"10.1111/1365-2745.70054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.70054","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:list> <jats:list-item>Increasing the number of global change factors (GCFs) strongly influences biodiversity and ecosystem functions. However, the specific mechanisms through which biodiversity, especially soil biodiversity, stabilise ecosystem multifunctionality under rapidly growing GCFs remain elusive.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>Here, we implemented a multifaceted approach involving multiple GCFs (nitrogen addition, phosphorus addition and soil acidification) in the Inner Mongolia grassland to elucidate the impact of species diversity, community composition and temporal asynchrony within plant and soil biota on multifunctional stability.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>Our findings showed that with an increasing number of GCFs, plant and soil biodiversity, ecosystem multifunctionality and multifunctional stability broadly decreased. The negative effects of GCFs on multifunctional stability were primarily associated with the community asynchrony of soil nematodes and plants, while the negative effects on ecosystem multifunctionality were mainly associated with the community composition of soil fungi. Additionally, the indirect influence of diversities within plants and soil biota on multifunctionality and its stability was manifested through their effects on the community composition or asynchrony.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item><jats:italic>Synthesis.</jats:italic> Our results provide new empirical evidence that soil biodiversity is at least as important as plant biodiversity in determining multifunctionality and multifunctional stability under multiple GCFs. These findings highlight the importance of conserving soil biodiversity and integrating it into conservation efforts to maintain ecosystem stability in the face of increasing GCFs.</jats:list-item> </jats:list>","PeriodicalId":191,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ecology","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143857502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Neglecting non-vascular plants leads to underestimation of grassland plant diversity loss under experimental nutrient addition","authors":"Risto Virtanen, Elizabeth T. Borer, Mick Crawley, Anne Ebeling, W. Stanley Harpole, Anita C. Risch, Christiane Roscher, Martin Schütz, Eric W. Seabloom, Anu Eskelinen","doi":"10.1111/1365-2745.70052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.70052","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;h2&gt;1 INTRODUCTION&lt;/h2&gt;\u0000&lt;p&gt;Ecological theory predicts that nutrient addition should cause plant diversity loss (Tilman, &lt;span&gt;1982&lt;/span&gt;), and this has been shown experimentally in many studies of plant communities worldwide (Borer, Seabloom, et al., &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;; Harpole et al., &lt;span&gt;2016&lt;/span&gt;; Seabloom, Batzer, et al., &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;). Furthermore, theoretical and empirical work shows that nutrient-induced losses in plant diversity may be mitigated when herbivores increase light at ground level (Borer, Seabloom, et al., &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;; Olff &amp; Ritchie, &lt;span&gt;1998&lt;/span&gt;). Experimental tests of drivers of plant diversity in terrestrial systems typically focus on vascular plants (VP), while non-vascular plants (NVP; here bryophytes), are usually ignored, even though NVPs can commonly represent 20%–40% of total plant diversity in grassland communities (Dengler et al., &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;; Klaus &amp; Müller, &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;; Löbel et al., &lt;span&gt;2006&lt;/span&gt;; Lyons et al., &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;; Tansley &amp; Adamson, &lt;span&gt;1925&lt;/span&gt;). It is therefore not known whether the response of NVP diversity to nutrient addition or grazing is consistent with that of VPs, in which case VP responses could predict NVP responses. However, NVPs could react differently (e.g. decrease to a greater or lesser degree), in which case their inclusion would refine our understanding of plant diversity loss in terrestrial systems.&lt;/p&gt;\u0000&lt;p&gt;In grassland ecosystems, NVPs consist mainly of two clades of land plants (Bryophyta (mosses) and Marchantiophyta (liverworts)) that contribute to many ecosystem functions and properties. Bryophytes often make up a large proportion of above-ground biomass (Boch et al., &lt;span&gt;2018&lt;/span&gt;; Hejcman et al., &lt;span&gt;2010&lt;/span&gt;; Wielgolaski, &lt;span&gt;1972&lt;/span&gt;), regulate the microclimate (Jaroszynska et al., &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;), hydrology (Michel et al., &lt;span&gt;2013&lt;/span&gt;), carbon and nutrient cycling (O'Neill, &lt;span&gt;2000&lt;/span&gt;; Turetsky, &lt;span&gt;2003&lt;/span&gt;), nitrogen fixation (Lindo et al., &lt;span&gt;2013&lt;/span&gt;), and affect seed germination of native and exotic vascular plants (Dollery et al., &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;), soil micro-organism diversity (Xiao et al., &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;) and soil multifunctionality (Xiao et al., &lt;span&gt;2024&lt;/span&gt;). Therefore, the presence and diversity of NVPs in terrestrial systems can have far-reaching ecological repercussions even in VP-dominated ecosystems. Important differences between NVPs and VPs, which may affect their ecological role, include that NVPs are an order-of-magnitude shorter than VPs, lack efficient conducting tissues, roots and stomata, and have relatively low photosynthetic rates (Rydin, &lt;span&gt;2009&lt;/span&gt;). Their small stature makes NVPs poor competitors for light, for which reason NVPs likely experience higher species loss rates than VPs, when increased nutrient supply intensifies competition for light (Rydin, &lt;span&gt;2009&lt;/span&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;\u0000&lt;p&gt;A handful of empirical studies over the past few decades","PeriodicalId":191,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ecology","volume":"265 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143846650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}