Ascertaining Elk Impacts on Plant Communities

Climate Change Impacts on Native Plant Communities in Melanesia

Climate impacts on bird and plant communities from altered animal--plant interactions

The contribution of climate change to declining populations of organisms remains a question of outstanding concern1–3. Much attention to declining populations has focused on how changing climate drives phenological mismatches between animals and their food4–6. Effects of climate on plant communities may provide an alternative, but particularly powerful, influence on animal populations because p...

Hemiparasitic plant impacts animal and plant communities across four trophic levels.

Understanding the impact of species on community structure is a fundamental question in ecology. There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that both subdominant species and parasites can have disproportionately large effects on other organisms. Here we report those impacts for a species that is both subdominant and parasitic, the hemiparasite Rhinanthus minor. While the impact of parasi...

Nutrient enrichment alters impacts of Hydrocotyle vulgaris invasion on native plant communities

Nutrients may affect the invasiveness of alien plants and the invasibility of native plant communities. We performed a greenhouse experiment to investigate the interactive effect of invasion by a clonal herb Hydrocotyle vulgaris and nutrient enrichment on biomass and evenness of native plant communities. We established three types of plant communities (H. vulgaris alone, native plant communitie...

Browsing rates and ratios provide reliable indices of ungulate impacts on forest plant communities

Ungulate browsing affects many plant species, shifting patterns of relative abundance, plant community diversity, and ecosystem processes. Despite the strength and diversity of ungulate impacts, we lack comprehensive methods and a unified network for tracking and comparing ungulate impacts across the Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes Network Office (GLN) of the National Park Service has ident...