Journal of Ecology

23/01/2025

🌼A pan-European citizen science study reveals surprising deviations of floral morph ratios in cowslips & explores the consequences of environmental change on this pollination-related trait!
👀 https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2745.14477

21/01/2025

On the blog🔎
🔥Bérangère Leys et al. explore how specific plant traits – such as leaf size, seed mass, & leaf nitrogen content contribute to a plant’s ability to either resist or recover from fire:

Bérangère Leys, UMR AMAP (Montpellier, France), discusses her article: Functional responses of Mediterranean flora to fire: A community-scale perspective A fire scar on a Corsican black pine (Pines…

16/01/2025

🌱Plant phylogeny, traits & fungal community composition as drivers of plant–soil feedbacks:

Our results suggest that plant traits and phylogenetic relatedness are poor predictors of plant–soil feedbacks (PSFs) among temperate grassland plant species. Hence, despite known effects of these fa...

16/01/2025

🌳Why are oak acorns so large? This study shows that large seeds are a defensive strategy to tolerate partial damage from animal foraging, aiding dispersal & regeneration

15/01/2025

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🗓️ 16 January | 7-10am BST | 3-6pm CST

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14/01/2025

On the blog🔎
Clara Espinosa del Alba et al. investigate how microclimatic gradients modify germination phenology to predict the resilience of alpine plant communities to climate change:

Clara Espinosa del Alba, Biodiversity Research Institute (IMIB, University of Oviedo – CSIC – Principality of Asturias), part of the Vegetation and Biodiversity Lab, discusses her article: Microcli…

14/01/2025

Research suggests that deep roots are beneficial for temperate grassland species subjected to longer periods without rainfall, when plant-available water is lacking in shallow soil layers but remaining in deep soil layers:

Temperate grassland species were exposed to different durations without precipitation. Specific leaf area seemed to be related to alternative drought survival strategies rather than drought sensitivi...

13/01/2025

On the blog🔎
Genetic differentiation able to develop even in “jack-of-all-trades” weeds:

Aaron Millar, from the University of Canterbury discusses his article: Altitudinal Differentiation Occurs Alongside High Plasticity in a General-Purpose Genotype Invasive Plant In 1965, Herbert Bak…

13/01/2025

🪻New data from old samples: a near-infrared spectroscopy-based resurvey study uncovers long-term functional plant trait responses to eutrophication during the 20th century using herbarium samples

Plant communities of agricultural habitats in Central Europe are directly impacted by management intensification. Using spectroscopic methods, leaf functional trait data were non-destructively derive...

10/01/2025

🏔️Understanding the long-term dynamics of vegetation since 1953 in high- regions:

Alpine ecosystems show complex shifts in species ranges and community structures due to climate, land use, geomorphology, and species interactions. Over 70 years, vegetation patterns in an alpine to ...

10/01/2025

💦While precipitation events (drought & wet events) do not necessarily directly impact primary productivity, they may still cryptically influence productivity resilience via shifts in resilience-promoting plant community properties:

By exploring the impacts of both drought and wet extremes, our work uncovers how precipitation events, which may not necessarily impact productivity directly, could still cryptically influence resili...

09/01/2025

📚January issue alert!
On the cover: Campylopus introflexus moss found in Blois forest, France. Below forest canopies, vascular plants & bryophytes often experience a less extreme, buffered microclimate temperature
📸Eva Gril

Journal of Ecology publishes original research on all aspects of the plant ecology (including algae), in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

09/01/2025

Testing the biogeochemical niche hypothesis using leaves, stems & roots of 62 Artemisia species across China:

Biogeochemical niches of extant Artemisia populations are determined mostly by short-term phenotypic responses to current environmental conditions and/or genotypic variation, while the recently evolv...

09/01/2025

🔥Fire regimes in Mediterranean climates are shifting towards more frequent/severe events. A study in S. France shows strong links between fire, plant traits & community response. Fire impacts traits like seed mass, leaf area, & wood density at the community level

Fire influences plant traits differently at community versus species levels. Communities with low leaf nitrogen content. (LNC) and specific leaf area (SLA, not shown) are more fire-adapted, while lar...

09/01/2025

🌱 Study reveals how plant diversity boosts ecosystem function by synchronizing aboveground & belowground activity! Diversity drives year-round growth in plant height, root expansion, & detritivore activity, with effects shifting by season:

Plant diversity modulates above-ground–below-ground interdependence through intricate phenological dynamics, with the degree of synchrony fluctuating in response to the varying combination of process...

09/01/2025

Plastic particles and their additives promote plant invasion through physicochemical mechanisms on seed germination:

Plastic particles and additives promote plant invasion by negatively affecting seed germination of native species while having neutral effects on invasive species. The delayed germination of natives ...

09/01/2025

🌲More species, more trees: The role of tree packing in promoting forest productivity

The effect of tree species richness on maximum stand density in forest plots had been suspected before, but it had hardly ever been taken into account in biodiversity–ecosystem–functioning studies. H...

09/01/2025

🌎 A global synthesis of the ecological effects of co-invasions:
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2745.14475?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2Ro5tMqUeMXO31INTaLKhBZsQG_KBLjO40OBQHOWyntHFQykaAuFQ9DDg_aem_fN57w_3sxqoAJQJu4Cxzzw

Despite the widespread invasion by co-occurring alien species (i.e. co-invasion), most quantitative syntheses have focused on the impacts of individual invasive species. Through a global quantitative...