{"title":"A Guide to 23 Global Syntheses of Plant Diversity Effects: Unpacking Consensus and Incongruence across Trophic Levels","authors":"K. D. Holmes, C. Blubaugh","doi":"10.1086/726687","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726687","url":null,"abstract":"Plant diversity drives the trophic ecology of arthropod communities, and is the focus of thousands of studies and a growing field of meta-analysis. Although syntheses of plant diversity studies have yielded valuable insights, their sheer number and complexity limits broader interpretation. Here we scrutinize 23 syntheses published over three decades to identify common themes and contrasting results. We find that plant diversity consistently attracts more abundant and diverse communities of predators. Herbivore diversity tends to increase in response to plant diversity treatments, while herbivore abundance and plant damage generally decrease. Yet, these net effects often mask nuanced responses to plant diversity that depend on ecosystem, scale, and specialization. For instance, specialist herbivores often respond negatively to plant diversity, while generalists more often mount positive or neutral responses. Studies conducted at greater spatial scales show a dilution of effects on herbivores, but reveal conflicting effects on predators. Despite complexity in outcomes, syntheses show that diversifying plant communities holds great promise for enhancing the resilience of managed ecosystems. A closer examination of how insect diet breadth, spatial scale, and plant arrangement interactively determine the strength of trophic cascades will improve reliability and precision in how we leverage biodiversity for conservation and biocontrol.","PeriodicalId":54517,"journal":{"name":"Quarterly Review of Biology","volume":"98 1","pages":"121 - 148"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42109984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction to Listings of Bird Books","authors":"","doi":"10.1086/726509","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726509","url":null,"abstract":"families. Three pages focus on theuniquely designed snake skull and dentition, including differentiating various types of fangs. Structural and functional features of snake scalation, sense organs, and locomotion are discussed, with descriptive photographs of each. In the locomotion section, a paradise flying snake of Southeast Asia is shown gliding through the air by expanding its ribs. Several pages are devoted to reproduction. Courtship, including male combat documented in some species, and mating are discussed, as well as oviparity and viviparity, with an accompanying chart of which families lay eggs and which are live bearers. In the diet and defense sections, a discussion of strategies used by an organism with an elongate, limbless body to capture prey and avoid predation is fascinating and informative. The conservation section addresses the numerous threats to snakes both globally and in specific localities. Habitat destruction, highways, and cultural attitudes are the major contributors to a decline of snake species in most regions. The remaining three-quarters of the volume consists primarily of oneor two-page descriptive accounts of each family or subfamily, with stunning photographs of representative species. Longer overviews are given of a few families that have numerous genera and species, including pythons (Pythonidae), boas (Boidae), watersnakes and garter snakes (Natricidae), cobras and sea snakes (Elapidae), vipers (Viperidae), and the almost globally distributed Colubridae with 90 genera and 760 species. At the beginning of each family account is a shaded map of its continental distribution, a listing of all genera, and a summary of habitats, ranges in body size, general and specialized diets, type of reproduction and maximum egg or litter size, and activity patterns. For both professionals and amateurs, the volume offers valuable information about and stunning pictures of these intriguing animals. From an academic perspective, the educational value of Snakes of the World is unsurpassed. J. Whitfield Gibbons, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Aiken, South Carolina","PeriodicalId":54517,"journal":{"name":"Quarterly Review of Biology","volume":"98 1","pages":"173 - 173"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42339605","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":":Antibiofilm Strategies: Current and Future Applications to Prevent, Control and Eradicate Biofilms. Springer Series on Biofilms, Volume 11","authors":"Fabrizio Spagnolo","doi":"10.1086/726501","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726501","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54517,"journal":{"name":"Quarterly Review of Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47690702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":":Writing Gaia: The Scientific Correspondence of James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis","authors":"M. Ruse","doi":"10.1086/726486","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726486","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54517,"journal":{"name":"Quarterly Review of Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44573782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":":Crayfishes of Alabama","authors":"J. Gibbons","doi":"10.1086/726493","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726493","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54517,"journal":{"name":"Quarterly Review of Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43518065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":":The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World","authors":"Stephen F. Poropat","doi":"10.1086/726497","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726497","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54517,"journal":{"name":"Quarterly Review of Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44749228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":":Duel Without End: Mankind’s Battle with Microbes","authors":"","doi":"10.1086/726515","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726515","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54517,"journal":{"name":"Quarterly Review of Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45222121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":":Competition Theory in Ecology. Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution","authors":"M. McPeek","doi":"10.1086/726483","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726483","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54517,"journal":{"name":"Quarterly Review of Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42632642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":":Birds of Belize. Princeton Field Guide","authors":"","doi":"10.1086/726520","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/726520","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54517,"journal":{"name":"Quarterly Review of Biology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42979854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}