Mark E. Ritchie

TL;DR: Functional composition and functional diversity were the principal factors explaining plant productivity, plant percent nitrogen, plant total nitrogen, and light penetration in grassland plots.

TL;DR: The role of herbivores in controlling plant species richness is a critical issue in the conservation and management of grassland biodiversity and recent syntheses and models suggest that herbivore effects on plant diversity should vary across environmental gradients of soil fertility and precipitation.

TL;DR: Experimental reductions in grassland plant richness increase ecosystem vulnerability to invasions by plant species, enhance the spread of plant fungal diseases, and alter the richness and structure of insect communities, suggesting that the loss of basal species may have profound effects on the integrity and functioning of ecosystems.

TL;DR: Results of a direct experimental test of the dependence of animal diversity on plant diversity suggest that local herbivore diversity is also maintained by, and in turn maintains, a diversity of parasites and predators.

TL;DR: Grazer effects on SOC are highly context-specific and imply that grazers in different regions might be managed differently to help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, according to a multifactorial meta-analysis.