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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Decadal Effects Of Thinning On Understory Light Environments And Plant Community Structure In A Subtropical Forest, Ho-Chen Tsai, Jyh-Min Chiang, Ryan Mcewan, Teng-Chiu Lin
Decadal Effects Of Thinning On Understory Light Environments And Plant Community Structure In A Subtropical Forest, Ho-Chen Tsai, Jyh-Min Chiang, Ryan Mcewan, Teng-Chiu Lin
Biology Faculty Publications
Canopy-opening disturbance such as thinning has immediate and substantive effects on understory microclimate and therefore the establishment and growth of understory plants. A large number of studies have reported the effects of thinning on tree growth, but few studies have examined long-term effects of thinning on understory light environments and species and functional diversity of understory plants. Even less is known whether the change in understory plant community structure observed following canopy disturbance is short-lived and would diminish as the canopy closes or a long lasting due to legacy effects. We examined the effects of an experimental removal of 25% …
Multiple Facets Of Biodiversity Drive The Diversity-Stability Relationship, Dylan Craven, Nico Eisenhauer, William D. Pearse, Yann Hautier, Christiane Roscher, Forest Isbell, Michael Bahn, Carl Beierkuhnlein, Gerhard Bönisch, Nina Buchmann, Chaeho Byun, Jane A. Catford, Bruno E.L. Cerabolini, J. Hans C. Cornelissen, Joseph M. Craine, Enrica De Luca, Anne Ebeling, John N. Griffin, Andy Hector, Jes Hines, Anke Jentsch, Jens Kattge, Jürgen Kreyling, Vojtech Lanta, Nathan Lemoine, Sebastian T. Meyer, Vanessa Minden, Vladimir Onipchenko, H. Wayne Polley, Peter B. Reich, Jasper Van Ruijven, Brandon Schamp, Melinda D. Smith, Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia, David Tilman, Alexandra Weigelt, Brian Wilsey, Peter Manning
Multiple Facets Of Biodiversity Drive The Diversity-Stability Relationship, Dylan Craven, Nico Eisenhauer, William D. Pearse, Yann Hautier, Christiane Roscher, Forest Isbell, Michael Bahn, Carl Beierkuhnlein, Gerhard Bönisch, Nina Buchmann, Chaeho Byun, Jane A. Catford, Bruno E.L. Cerabolini, J. Hans C. Cornelissen, Joseph M. Craine, Enrica De Luca, Anne Ebeling, John N. Griffin, Andy Hector, Jes Hines, Anke Jentsch, Jens Kattge, Jürgen Kreyling, Vojtech Lanta, Nathan Lemoine, Sebastian T. Meyer, Vanessa Minden, Vladimir Onipchenko, H. Wayne Polley, Peter B. Reich, Jasper Van Ruijven, Brandon Schamp, Melinda D. Smith, Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia, David Tilman, Alexandra Weigelt, Brian Wilsey, Peter Manning
Biology Faculty Publications
A significant body of evidence has demonstrated that biodiversity stabilizes ecosystem functioning over time in grassland ecosystems. However, the relative importance of different facets of biodiversity underlying the diversity–stability relationship remains unclear. Here we used data from 39 biodiversity experiments and structural equation modeling to investigate the roles of species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and both the diversity and community-weighted mean of functional traits representing the ‘fast–slow’ leaf economics spectrum in driving the diversity–stability relationship. We found that high species richness and phylogenetic diversity stabilize biomass production via enhanced asynchrony. Contrary to our hypothesis, low phylogenetic diversity also enhances ecosystem stability …
A Mega-Diverse Water Beetle Genus (Coleoptera: Hydraenidae: Hydraena Kugelann) Commonly Overlooked In Southeast Asia And Its Potential Use For Environmental Biomonitoring, Hendrik Freitag
Biology Faculty Publications
This study summarizes the current knowledge of the water beetle genus Hydraena Kugelann in Southeast Asia. The surprising species diversity and endemism rates in Hydraenopsis Janssens, the only subgenus present in Southeast Asia, are discussed. Data of five published Hydraena surveys from the Philippines and Singapore are used to evaluate species richness and the occurrence of species assemblages that are subject to the presence and quality of forests. Species richness was found to be generally higher in old grown forests. Some species appeared to be confined to near-natural forests. The denomination of indicator species is impeded by adequate sampling data, …
Opposing Mechanisms Drive Richness Patterns Of Core And Transient Bird Species, Jessica R. Coyle, Allen H. Hurlbert, Ethan P. White
Opposing Mechanisms Drive Richness Patterns Of Core And Transient Bird Species, Jessica R. Coyle, Allen H. Hurlbert, Ethan P. White
Biology Faculty Publications
Studies of biodiversity typically assume that all species are equivalent. However, some species in a community maintain viable populations in the study area, while others occur only occasionally as transient individuals. Here we show that North American bird communities can reliably be divided into core and transient species groups and that the richness of each group is driven by different processes. The richness of core species is influenced primarily by local environmental conditions, while the richness of transient species is influenced primarily by the heterogeneity of the surrounding landscape. This demonstrates that the well-known effects of the local environment and …
Sensitivity Of Grassland Plant Community Composition To Spatial Vs. Temporal Variation In Precipitation, Elsa E. Cleland, Scott L. Collins, Timothy L. Dickson, Emily C. Farrer, Katherine L. Gross, Laureano A. Gherardi, Lauren M. Hallett, Richard J. Hobbs, Joanna S. Hsu, Laura Turnball, Katharine N. Suding
Sensitivity Of Grassland Plant Community Composition To Spatial Vs. Temporal Variation In Precipitation, Elsa E. Cleland, Scott L. Collins, Timothy L. Dickson, Emily C. Farrer, Katherine L. Gross, Laureano A. Gherardi, Lauren M. Hallett, Richard J. Hobbs, Joanna S. Hsu, Laura Turnball, Katharine N. Suding
Biology Faculty Publications
Climate gradients shape spatial variation in the richness and composition of plant communities. Given future predicted changes in climate means and variability, and likely regional variation in the magnitudes of these changes, it is important to determine how temporal variation in climate influences temporal variation in plant community structure. Here, we evaluated how species richness, turnover, and composition of grassland plant communities responded to interannual variation in precipitation by synthesizing long-term data from grasslands across the United States. We found that mean annual precipitation (MAP) was apositive predictor of species richness across sites, but a positive temporal relationship between annual …
Soil Nematodes And Their Prokaryotic Prey Along An Elevation Gradient In The Mojave Desert (Death Valley National Park, California, Usa), Amy M. Treonis, Kelsey Sutton, Brendan Kavanaugh, Archana Narla, Timothy Mcllarky, Jasmine Felder, Cecilia O'Leary, Megan Riley, Alyxandr Pikus, Sarah Thomas
Soil Nematodes And Their Prokaryotic Prey Along An Elevation Gradient In The Mojave Desert (Death Valley National Park, California, Usa), Amy M. Treonis, Kelsey Sutton, Brendan Kavanaugh, Archana Narla, Timothy Mcllarky, Jasmine Felder, Cecilia O'Leary, Megan Riley, Alyxandr Pikus, Sarah Thomas
Biology Faculty Publications
We characterized soil communities in the Mojave Desert across an elevation gradient. Our goal was to test the hypothesis that as soil quality improved with increasing elevation (due to increased productivity), the diversity of soil prokaryotes and nematodes would also increase. Soil organic matter and soil moisture content increased with elevation as predicted. Soil salinity did not correlate to elevation, but was highest at a mid-gradient, alluvial site. Soil nematode density, community trophic structure, and diversity did not show patterns related to elevation. Similar results were obtained for diversity of bacteria and archaea. Relationships between soil properties, nematode communities, and …
Intra-Guild Compensation Regulatesspecies Richness In Desert Rodents: Reply, J. R. Goheen, Ethan P. White, S.K. Morgan Ernest, J. H. Brown
Intra-Guild Compensation Regulatesspecies Richness In Desert Rodents: Reply, J. R. Goheen, Ethan P. White, S.K. Morgan Ernest, J. H. Brown
Biology Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Intra-Guild Compensation Regulates Species Richness In Desert Rodents: Reply, J. R. Goheen, Ethan P. White, S.K. Morgan Ernest, J. H. Brown
Intra-Guild Compensation Regulates Species Richness In Desert Rodents: Reply, J. R. Goheen, Ethan P. White, S.K. Morgan Ernest, J. H. Brown
Biology Faculty Publications
Null models have had a long and contentious history in community ecology (Connor and Simberloff 1979, Harvey et al. 1983, Gotelli and Graves 1996, Graves and Rahbek 2005). Much of this debate has arisen because multiple strategies for null models can be used to address a particular question of interest, and the present exchange is no exception. To assess constancy in species richness through time in a desert rodent community, Nichols et al. (2006) have proposed a Markov Chain model as an alternative to the random-walk model we developed (Goheen et al. 2005). While both null models simulate stochastic local …
Intra-Guild Compensation Regulatesspecies Richness In Desert Rodents, J. Goheen, Ethan P. White, S.K. Morgan Ernest, J. H. Brown
Intra-Guild Compensation Regulatesspecies Richness In Desert Rodents, J. Goheen, Ethan P. White, S.K. Morgan Ernest, J. H. Brown
Biology Faculty Publications
Evidence from numerous studies suggests that species richness is an emergent property of local communities. The maintenance of species richness, despite changes in species composition and environmental conditions, requires compensatory colonization and extinction events with species coming from a regional pool. Using long-term data from a rodent community in the Chihuahuan Desert, we use randomization methods to test the null hypothesis that changes in species richness occur randomly. We find that the dynamics of species richness differ significantly from a random process, and that these nonrandom dynamics occur largely within the most speciose guild. Finally, we propose a general framework …
Effects Of Range Size On Species–Area Relationships, Andrew P. Allen, Ethan P. White
Effects Of Range Size On Species–Area Relationships, Andrew P. Allen, Ethan P. White
Biology Faculty Publications
It has been known for some time that the slope of the species–area relationship increases asymptotically at broad spatial scales when richness is plotted against area on logarithmic axes. At continental to global scales, species–area relationships are determined to a large extent by the abundance and size distribution of species ranges. Here we present an analytical model that explicitly quantifies the effects of range size on species–area relationships. The model shows how range size and plot area interact to control the form of species–area relationships at broad spatial scales. It also demonstrates how changes in spatial scale affect biodiversity patterns …