Journal ArticleDOI
The Influence of Island Area on Ecosystem Properties
David A. Wardle,Olle Zackrisson,Olle Zackrisson,Greger Hörnberg,Greger Hörnberg,Christiane Gallet,Christiane Gallet +6 more
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In this article, the authors found a significant relationship between island area and plant species composition, which was found to be a major factor in determining several ecosystem-level properties of these islands, including standing biomass, plant litter decomposition, nitrogen mineralization, terrestrial carbon partitioning, humus accumulation, and plant nitrogen acquisition.Abstract:
Island area is frequently a major determinant of the species composition of biological communities; community structure, in turn, often has important effects on ecosystem-level properties. Fifty islands of varying area were selected in an archipelago in the northern Swedish boreal forest zone, in which larger islands burn more frequently than smaller ones through wildfire arising from lightning strike, thus inducing a significant relationship between island area and plant species composition. This relationship was found to be a major factor in determining several ecosystem-level properties of these islands, including standing biomass, plant litter decomposition, nitrogen mineralization, terrestrial carbon partitioning, humus accumulation, and plant nitrogen acquisition.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning: a consensus of current knowledge
D. U. Hooper,F. S. Chapin,John J. Ewel,Andy Hector,P. Inchausti,Sandra Lavorel,John H. Lawton,David M. Lodge,Michel Loreau,Shahid Naeem,Bernhard Schmid,Heikki Setälä,Amy J. Symstad,John Vandermeer,David A. Wardle,David A. Wardle +15 more
TL;DR: Understanding this complexity, while taking strong steps to minimize current losses of species, is necessary for responsible management of Earth's ecosystems and the diverse biota they contain.
Journal ArticleDOI
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning: Current Knowledge and Future Challenges
Michel Loreau,Shahid Naeem,Pablo Inchausti,Jan Bengtsson,J. P. Grime,Andy Hector,David U. Hooper,Michael A. Huston,Dave Raffaelli,Bernhard Schmid,David Tilman,David A. Wardle +11 more
TL;DR: Larger numbers of species are probably needed to reduce temporal variability in ecosystem processes in changing environments and to determine how biodiversity dynamics, ecosystem processes, and abiotic factors interact.
Journal ArticleDOI
Vive la différence: plant functional diversity matters to ecosystem processes
Sandra Díaz,Marcelo Cabido +1 more
TL;DR: Crossfertilization between approaches based on species richness on the one hand, and on functional traits and types on the other, is a promising way of gaining mechanistic insight into the links between plant diversity and ecosystem processes and contributing to practical management for the conservation of diversity andcosystem services.
Journal ArticleDOI
Effects of fire on properties of forest soils: a review
TL;DR: This work is a review of the up-to-date literature dealing with changes imposed by fires on properties of forest soils, and ecological implications of these changes are described.
Journal ArticleDOI
Benefits of plant diversity to ecosystems: immediate, filter and founder effects
TL;DR: It is predicted that a progressive loss of ecosystem functions will arise from the decline in the precision with which dominants can engage in the re-assembly and relocation of ecosystems.
References
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Plant Strategies and Vegetation Processes
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present plant strategies in the established phase and the regenerative phase in the emerging phase, respectively, and discuss the relationship between the two phases: primary strategies and secondary strategies.
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Chloroform fumigation and the release of soil nitrogen: A rapid direct extraction method to measure microbial biomass nitrogen in soil
TL;DR: In this paper, a direct extraction method for measuring soil microbial biomass nitrogen (biomass N) is described, which is based on CHC13 fumigation, followed by immediate extraction with 0.5 M K2SO4 and measurement of total N released by CHC 13 in the soil extracts.
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Resource Availability and Plant Antiherbivore Defense
TL;DR: Resource availability in the environment is proposed as the major determinant of both the amount and type of plant defense, and theories on the evolution of plant defenses are compared with other theories.
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Nitrogen and Lignin Control of Hardwood Leaf Litter Decomposition Dynamics
TL;DR: The effects of initial nitrogen and lignin contents of six species of hardwood leaves on their decomposition dynamics were studied at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest by inverse linear relationships between the percentage of original mass remaining and the nitrogen concentration in the residual material.