Author: curtislubbe

Ranjan Muthukrishnan, St. Olaf College in the USA, discusses his article: Warming conditions reduce the impacts of an aquatic invasive macrophyte across a latitudinal gradient A dense patch of starry stonewort (Nitellopsis obtusa) in Lake Koronis growing nearly to the surface adjacent to a patch of water lilies. Photo by Ranjan Muthukrishnan. The challenge Climate […]

Toyo Vignal, Okinawan Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, discusses her article: Surviving the winds through pattern formation: Mathematical modelling of heather stripes in Scotland. In some remote areas of the Scottish highlands, one can encounter intriguing vegetation patterns consisting of regularly arranged plants and bare soil. The first time I encountered such patterns […]

Fia Bengtsson, Lund University and Norwegian Institute of Nature Research, discusses her article: Rapid shifts in bryophyte phenology revealed by airborne eDNA Most of us walk past mosses and liverworts without really noticing them. But these small plants, known as bryophytes, are vital to ecosystems, including in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. They retain water, regulate […]

Sebastian Neun, Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, discusses his article: Light spectrum matters: Interactive effects of light and nutrients on phytoplankton communities and trophic transfer Where is the rainbow? All lakes are characterised by a tightly linked network of food chains, and phytoplankton forms […]

Kauane Bordin, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, discusses her article: Growth–survival trade-off in temperate trees is weak and restricted to late-successional stages Temperate forests, such as those in the U.S. and Europe, are a huge part of Earth’s lungs. They provide habitat for countless species, store massive amounts of carbon that help […]

Ethan E. Butler, Peter B. Reich, Neha Mohanbabu, and Forest Isbell from the University of Minnesota, USA, Zhong Wang from the Wuhan University inChina, and Xiujuan Qiao from the Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, discuss their article: Elevated CO2 and enriched nitrogen proportionally decrease species richness most at small spatial scales in a […]

Alice Ardichvili, Sorbonne University, discusses her article: Spatial context allows the evolution of the control of nitrification by plants Once upon a time The project began a long time ago, in the late 1990s, when my PhD advisor J-C was still a carefree and enthusiastic individual. He and his colleagues observed that a common grass […]

Amanda Gallinat, Colby College, USA, and Theresa Crimmins, USA National Phenology Network, discuss their article: Combined volunteer and ecological network observations show broad-scale temperature-sensitivity patterns for deciduous plant flowering and leaf-out times across the Eastern USA Around the globe, the timing of seasonal activity in plants and animals – termed phenology – is shifting substantially […]

Chao Guo and Hans Cornelissen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, discuss their article: Using traits to integrate non-additive effects of species mixtures across ecosystem processes Imagine you want to make a campfire outside your tent in the woods. You have some big wood blocks available, but they are hard to get going. You know from your parents’ […]

Miaojun Ma, Gansu Gannan Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, discusses his article: Asynchronous phenological responses to warming affect biomass production contrastingly in flowering functional groups Background Plant phenology and productivity changes represent two of the most critical climate-induced changes […]