Duane A. Peltzer

TL;DR: This paper conducted a meta-analysis of the relative extent of ITV within and among plant communities worldwide, using a data set encompassing 629 communities (plots) and 36 functional traits.

TL;DR: There was evidence that P limitation and retrogressive forests developed on old soils, but N limitation on very young soils was not apparent because of inputs from an abundant N-fixing shrub.

TL;DR: A review of the literature on ecosystem retrogression can be found in this paper, where the authors synthesize the findings from studies of long-term chronosequences that include retrogressive stages for systems spanning the boreal, temperate, and subtropical zones.

TL;DR: How enzyme activity and efficiency changed with successional time in organic and mineral soils taken from the 120 000-year-old Franz Josef soil development sequence, New Zealand, is examined to suggest that activity patterns for C-, N- and S-hydrolyzing enzymes were obscured by simultaneous and opposing changes in enzyme efficiency and microbial biomass.

TL;DR: The strength and direction of inter- and intraspecific plant community trait responses along a 900 m elevation gradient spanning alpine and subalpine plant communities in southern New Zealand are quantified to reveal highly complex plastic responses of plants to environmental changes, and highlight the need for greater consideration of the role that intrapecific variation plays in community-level processes.