A method of predicting two forest stand structure attrithe ability of the regression equations to predict the stem butes, basal area and aboveground biomass, from meamap plot’s stand structure attributes was then evaluated. surements of forest vertical structure was developed and The QMCH was found to explain the most variance in tested using field and remotely sensed canopy structure the chron...

The role of exotic plants in regulating soil microbial community structure and activity following invasion chronosequence remains unclear. We investigated soil microbial community structure and microbial respiration following Spartina alterniflora invasion in a chronosequence of 6-, 10-, 17-, and 20-year-old by comparing with bare flat in a coastal wetland of China. S. alterniflora invasion sig...

Although we understand the ecological processes eliciting changes in plant community composition during secondary succession, we do not understand whether co-occurring changes in plant detritus shape saprotrophic microbial communities in soil. In this study, we investigated soil microbial composition and function across an old-field chronosequence ranging from 16 to 86 years following agricultu...

Rates of change in tree communities following major disturbances are determined by a complex set of interactions between local site factors, landscape history and structure, regional species pools and species life histories. Our analysis focuses on vegetation change following abandonment of agricultural fields or pastures, as this is the most extensive form of major disturbance in Neotropical f...

Accelerated by global climate changing, retreating glaciers leave behind soil chronosequences of primary succession. Current knowledge of primary succession is mainly from studies of vegetation dynamics, whereas information about belowground microbes remains unclear. Here, we combined shifts in community assembly processes with microbial primary succession to better understand mechanisms govern...

We propose a novel multivariate method to analyse biodiversity data based on the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model. LDA, a probabilistic model, reduces assemblages to sets of distinct component communities. It produces easily interpretable results, can represent abrupt and gradual changes in composition, accommodates missing data and allows for coherent estimates of uncertainty. We illust...

The resorption of nutrients by plants before litter fall and the mineralization from plant soil processes are both important pathways supporting primary productivity. While positive relationship between biodiversity productivity is widely accepted for natural ecosystems, roles nutrient in mediating that remains largely unknown. Here, we quantified relative importance nitrogen (N) N driving comm...

Introductions of mammalian herbivores to remote islands without predators provide a natural experiment to ask how temporal and spatial variation in herbivory intensity alter feedbacks between plant and soil processes. We investigated ecosystem effects resulting from introductions of Rangifer tarandus (hereafter “Rangifer”) to native mammalian predatorand herbivorefree islands in the Aleutian ar...

Question: Are direct and indirect trait-based approaches similar in their usefulness to synthesize species responses to successional stages? Location: Northern hardwood forests, Québec, Canada (451010–451080N; 731580–741210W). Methods: Two different trait-based approaches were used to relate plant functional traits to succession on an oldfield – deciduous forest chronosequence: (i) a frequently...

Pervasive forest mortality is expected to increase in future decades as a result of increasing temperatures. Climate-induced forest dieback can have consequences on ecosystem services, potentially mediated by changes in forest structure and understory community composition that emerge in response to tree death. Although many dieback events around the world have been documented in recent years, ...