Andy Hector

TL;DR: This work examines the precision of a priori classifications used in 10 experimental grassland systems in Europe and the United States that have found evidence for a significant role of functional plant diversity in governing ecosystem function and suggests that a more nuanced understanding of how the diversity of functional traits of species in an assemblage affects ecosystem functioning is needed.

TL;DR: A positive relationship between production in monoculture and dominance in mixtures as predicted by the Sampling Effect Hypothesis is found and a new general framework for overyielding analysis is presented where every monocculture provides a potential comparison and from which the most relevant tests can be selected.

TL;DR: It is found that high species richness and phylogenetic diversity stabilize biomass production via enhanced asynchrony in the performance of co-occurring species and enhances ecosystem stability directly, albeit weakly.

TL;DR: The SAFE Project represents an opportunity for ecologists across disciplines to participate in a large initiative designed to generate a broad understanding of the ecological impacts of tropical forest modification.

TL;DR: The results are consistent with the view that naturally uncommon species may be unaffected by (or even benefit from) the presence of a large naturally common species, and that uncommon plants may have little ability to increase productivity in the absence of such a species.