Kelly E. Mason

TL;DR: The extent of the trait data compiled in TRY is evaluated and emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness are analyzed to conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements.

TL;DR: It is shown in grassland mesocosms that drought promotes destabilising properties in soil bacterial, but not fungal, co-occurrence networks, and that changes in bacterial communities link more strongly to soil functioning during recovery than do changes in fungal communities.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that microbial biomass and carbon use efficiency are reduced in human-impacted near-neutral pH soils, whereas in acidic soils, microbial growth is a bigger constraint on decomposition rates.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that grassland plant species form specific associations with soil community members and that information on plant species distributions can improve predictions of soil community composition, indicating that specific associations between plant species and complex soil communities are key determinants of biodiversity patterns in grassland soils.

TL;DR: This study shows that plant species with resource-acquisitive traits, such as high shoot nitrogen concentrations and thin roots, attract diverse communities of putative fungal pathogens and specialist saprotrophs, and a lower diversity of mycorrhizal fungi, resulting in strong plant growth suppression on soil occupied by the same species.