Category: Plain language summary

Not in the eye of the beholder: climate change effects on alpine plant communities

Posted on January 25, 2020January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Andreas Futschik, Manuela Winkler, Klaus Steinbauer, Andrea Lamprecht, Sabine B. Rumpf, Peter Barančok, Andrej Palaj, Michael Gottfried & Harald Pauli

Vegetation changes between 1994 (left panel), 2004 (middle) and 2014 (right) in a plot on Schrankogel, Austria (Central Alps).

Plant indicators for Folic Histosols in mountain forests of the Calcareous Alps

Posted on January 21, 2020January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Michelangelo Olleck, Birgit Reger & Jörg Ewald

“Black beauty on the white rock”: The soil profile of a Folic Histosol (Wetterstein Mountains, southern Germany, at an altitude of 1,850 m a. s. l.) shows the typical dark brown to black forest floor overlying white calcareous bedrock.

Classification of the Hyrcanian forest vegetation, northern Iran

Posted on January 19, 2020January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Hamid Gholizadeh, Alireza Naqinezhad & Milan Chytrý

Hyrcanian relict forests of Northern Iran, Javaherdasht area of Gilan province. Photo: Hamid Gholizadeh

The Hyrcanian forests, unlike the arid and semiarid landscape throughout most of Iran, is one of the remnants of ancient natural deciduous forests which form a vegetation belt in the southern shores of the Caspian Sea.…

Ready for change: seed traits contribute to the high adaptability of mudflat species to their unpredictable habitat

Posted on December 6, 2019January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Shyam S. Phartyal, Sergey Rosbakh, Christian Ritz & Peter Poschlod

Recently drained fish ponds making a typical muddy habitat for mudflat plants in southern Germany. Photos credit: Peter Poschlod

Do we fully understand what role regeneration traits play in plant community assembly?…

Diversity of functional trade-offs enhances survival after fire in Neotropical savanna species

Posted on October 9, 2019January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Marina Corrêa Scalon, Fabricius Maia Chaves Bicalho Domingos, Wesley Jonatar Alves da Cruz, Ben Hur Marimon Júnior, Beatriz Schwantes Marimon & Imma Oliveras

Figure 1. Photos representing the four resprouting categories of Cerrado trees after fire: (a) aerial, (b) stem, (c) basal, and (d) underground.

Bryophyte and macrolichen diversity show contrasting elevation relationships and are negatively affected by disturbances in laurel forests of Madeira island

Posted on September 7, 2019January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Steffen Boch, Anabela Martins, Sara Ruas, Susana Fontinha, Palmira Carvalho, Fábio Reis, Ariel Bergamini & Manuela Sim-Sim

The unique laurel forest of Madeira island is a bryophyte and lichen diversity hotspot. Photo credit: Ariel Bergamini.

Madeira Island belongs to the Madeira Archipelago (Portugal) and is located 600 km northwest of the Western African coast in the Atlantic Ocean.…

Unifying facilitation and recruitment networks

Posted on September 5, 2019January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Julio M. Alcántara, José L. Garrido, Alicia Montesinos‐Navarro, Pedro J. Rey, Alfonso Valiente‐Banuet and Miguel Verdú

The legume tree *Prosopis laevigata* facilitating a group of cacti: *Myrtillocactus geometrizans*, *Opuntia pilifera*, and several species of *Mammillaria* in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley, Mexico.

Diverging shifts in spring phenology in response to biodiversity loss in a subtropical forest

Posted on August 24, 2019January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Yanjun Du, Bo Yang, Si‐Chong Chen & Keping Ma

The first author, Yanjun Du (right), monitoring phenology in one of the experimental plots in the Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning Experiment of China (BEF-China), located in Jiangxi Province, China (117°55′E, 29°60′N). Photo credit: Bo Yang.

Pollination and dispersal trait spectra recover faster than growth form spectrum during the spontaneous succession in sandy old-fields

Posted on August 9, 2019January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Edy Fantinato, Judit Sonkoly, Giulia Silan, Orsolya Valkó, Béla Tóthmérész, Balázs Deák, András Kelemen, Tamás Miglécz, Silvia Del Vecchio, Francesca Bettiol, Gabriella Buffa & Péter Török

Forest-steppe mosaic in the Kiskunság sand region, Hungary. Photo credit: Balázs Deák.

The widespread abandonment of agricultural areas and croplands is making large areas available to test techniques for the restoration of grassland habitats.…

Alien plants alter the growth form ratio and structure of Australian grasslands

Posted on July 26, 2019January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Greg R. Guerin, Irene Martín‐Forés, Samantha E.M. Munroe, Ben Sparrow & Andrew J. Lowe

Mokota Conservation Park, a remnant grassland in the mid-north region of South Australia (approximately 160 km north of Adelaide). Photo by Greg Guerin.

Loads of evidence suggests particular invasive weed species wreak havoc in native plant communities by out-competing, or rendering the local environment unsuitable for, natives.…