W.H. van der Putten

TL;DR: The results show that the simultaneous operation of trait-based assembly rules and species-level priority effects drives community assembly, making it both deterministic and historically contingent, but at different levels of community organization.

TL;DR: It is reported here that soil-borne diseases may contribute to the succession of foredune plant species and the different sensitivities of plant species for the soil-bourne pathogens could be an evolutionary response to selection pressures of the succession stage.

TL;DR: Evidence is presented showing that the invasion of black cherry into north-western Europe is facilitated by the soil community, which enhances the growth of its seedlings and improves the ability to predict and counteract plant invasions.

TL;DR: It is proposed that understanding, predicting and counteracting consequences of enhanced global homogenization of natural communities through introducing exotic plants, animals and microbes will require future studies on how pathogenic, symbiotic and decomposer soil microbes interact, how they are influenced by higher trophic level organisms and how their combined effects are influencing the composition and functioning of ecosystems.

TL;DR: Results of the 2-year study showed that diverse plant species mixtures were more effective at reducing the number of natural colonisers than the average low-diversity treatment, however, the effect of enhanced species diversity strongly depended on the species composition of the low-Diversity treatments used for comparison.