Deborah Schäfer

TL;DR: Comparing data from real-world grassland plant communities with data from two of the largest and longest-running grassland biodiversity experiments in terms of their taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity and functional-trait composition shows that plant communities of biodiversity experiments cover almost all of the multivariate variation of the real- world communities, while also containing community types that are not currently observed in the real world.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors measured multiple microbial functions, bacterial and fungal biomass and abiotic soil properties at two time intervals 3 years apart, and found that plant traits, particularly leaf phosphorus, and soil pH were the best predictors of change in soil microbial function, as well as fungal and bacterial biomass.

TL;DR: In this article, the influence of local and landscape-level land use on more than 4,000 above- and belowground taxa, spanning 20 trophic groups, was investigated.

TL;DR: Comparing data from two of the largest and longest-running grassland biodiversity experiments globally to related real-world grassland plant communities in terms of their taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity and functional-trait composition proves the validity of inferences from biodiversity experiments, a key step in translating their results into specific recommendations for real- world biodiversity management.

TL;DR: The authors' analyses of individual species’ reaction clearly demonstrate that species responding negatively to high LUI display little tolerance towards intensive fertilization and mowing, leading to plant diversity loss; whereas grazing partly thwarts these effects by creating new habitat niches and promoting ruderal species.