Knowledge gaps about mixed forests: What do European forest managers want to know and what answers can science provide?

Coll, L., Ameztegui, A., Collet, C., Löf, M., Mason, B., Pach, M., Verheyen, K., Abrudan, I., Barbati, A., Barreiro, S., Bielak, K., Bravo-Oviedo, A., Ferrari, B., Govedar, Z., Kulhavy, J., Lazdina, D., Metslaid, M., Mohren, F., Pereira, M., Peric, S., Rasztovits, E., Short, I., Spathelf, P., Sterba, H., Stojanovic, D., Valsta, L., Zlatanov, T., Ponette, Q. (2018) Knowledge gaps about mixed forests: What do European forest managers want to know and what answers can science provide?. Forest Ecology and Management. 407: 106-115.
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Doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2017.10.055

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Weed suppression greatly increased by plant diversity in intensively managed grasslands: A continental-scale experiment

Connolly, J., Sebastià, M.-T., Kirwan, L., Finn, J.A., Llurba, R., Suter, M., Collins, R.P., Porqueddu, C., Helgadóttir, Á., Baadshaug, O.H., Bélanger, G., Black, A., Brophy, C., Čop, J., Dalmannsdóttir, S., Delgado, I., Elgersma, A., Fothergill, M., Frankow-Lindberg, B.E., Ghesquiere, A., Golinski, P., Grieu, P., Gustavsson, A.-M., Höglind, M., Huguenin-Elie, O., Jørgensen, M., Kadziuliene, Z., Lunnan, T., Nykanen-Kurki, P., Ribas, A., Taube, F., Thumm, U., De Vliegher, A., Lüscher, A. (2018) Weed suppression greatly increased by plant diversity in intensively managed grasslands: A continental-scale experiment. Journal of Applied Ecology. 55: 852-862.
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Doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.12991

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Correction to: Spatial Variation of Soil CO2, CH4 and N2O Fluxes Across Topographical Positions in Tropical Forests of the Guiana Shield (Ecosystems, (2018), (1-14), 10.1007/s10021-018-0232-6)

Courtois E.A., Stahl C., Van den Berge J., Bréchet L., Van Langenhove L., Richter A., Urbina I., Soong J.L., Peñuelas J., Janssens I.A. (2018) Correction to: Spatial Variation of Soil CO2, CH4 and N2O Fluxes Across Topographical Positions in Tropical Forests of the Guiana Shield (Ecosystems, (2018), (1-14), 10.1007/s10021-018-0232-6). Ecosystems. : 0-0.
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Doi: 10.1007/s10021-018-0281-x

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This paper was published with several formatting errors. It will be republished with corrections in place. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

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Spatial Variation of Soil CO2, CH4 and N2O Fluxes Across Topographical Positions in Tropical Forests of the Guiana Shield

Courtois E.A., Stahl C., van Den Berge J., Bréchet L., van Langenhove L., Richter A., Urbina I., Soong J.L., Peñuelas J., Janssens I.A. (2018) Spatial Variation of Soil CO2, CH4 and N2O Fluxes Across Topographical Positions in Tropical Forests of the Guiana Shield. Ecosystems. : 1-14.
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Doi: 10.1007/s10021-018-0232-6

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The spatial variation of soil greenhouse gas fluxes (GHG; carbon dioxide—CO2, methane—CH4 and nitrous oxide—N2O) remains poorly understood in highly complex ecosystems such as tropical forests. We used 240 individual flux measurements of these three GHGs from different soil types, at three topographical positions and in two extreme hydric conditions in the tropical forests of the Guiana Shield (French Guiana, South America) to (1) test the effect of topographical positions on GHG fluxes and (2) identify the soil characteristics driving flux variation in these nutrient-poor tropical soils. Surprisingly, none of the three GHG flux rates differed with topographical position. CO2 effluxes covaried with soil pH, soil water content (SWC), available nitrogen and total phosphorus. The CH4 fluxes were best explained by variation in SWC, with soils acting as a sink under drier conditions and as a source under wetter conditions. Unexpectedly, our study areas were generally sinks for N2O and N2O fluxes were partly explained by total phosphorus and available nitrogen concentrations. This first study describing the spatial variation of soil fluxes of the three main GHGs measured simultaneously in forests of the Guiana Shield lays the foundation for specific studies of the processes underlying the observed patterns. © 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

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Isotopic evidence for oligotrophication of terrestrial ecosystems

Craine J.M., Elmore A.J., Wang L., Aranibar J., Bauters M., Boeckx P., Crowley B.E., Dawes M.A., Delzon S., Fajardo A., Fang Y., Fujiyoshi L., Gray A., Guerrieri R., Gundale M.J., Hawke D.J., Hietz P., Jonard M., Kearsley E., Kenzo T., Makarov M., Marañón-Jiménez S., McGlynn T.P., McNeil B.E., Mosher S.G., Nelson D.M., Peri P.L., Roggy J.C., Sanders-DeMott R., Song M., Szpak P., Templer P.H., Van der Colff D., Werner C., Xu X., Yang Y., Yu G., Zmudczyńska-Skarbek K. (2018) Isotopic evidence for oligotrophication of terrestrial ecosystems. Nature ecology & evolution. 2: 1735-1744.
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Doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0694-0

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Human societies depend on an Earth system that operates within a constrained range of nutrient availability, yet the recent trajectory of terrestrial nitrogen (N) availability is uncertain. Examining patterns of foliar N concentrations and isotope ratios (δ15N) from more than 43,000 samples acquired over 37 years, here we show that foliar N concentration declined by 9% and foliar δ15N declined by 0.6-1.6‰. Examining patterns across different climate spaces, foliar δ15N declined across the entire range of mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation tested. These results suggest declines in N supply relative to plant demand at the global scale. In all, there are now multiple lines of evidence of declining N availability in many unfertilized terrestrial ecosystems, including declines in δ15N of tree rings and leaves from herbarium samples over the past 75-150 years. These patterns are consistent with the proposed consequences of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide and longer growing seasons. These declines will limit future terrestrial carbon uptake and increase nutritional stress for herbivores.

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Climate change and interconnected risks to sustainable development in the Mediterranean

Cramer W., Guiot J., Fader M., Garrabou J., Gattuso J.-P., Iglesias A., Lange M.A., Lionello P., Llasat M.C., Paz S., Peñuelas J., Snoussi M., Toreti A., Tsimplis M.N., Xoplaki E. (2018) Climate change and interconnected risks to sustainable development in the Mediterranean. Nature Climate Change. 8: 972-980.
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Doi: 10.1038/s41558-018-0299-2

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Recent accelerated climate change has exacerbated existing environmental problems in the Mediterranean Basin that are caused by the combination of changes in land use, increasing pollution and declining biodiversity. For five broad and interconnected impact domains (water, ecosystems, food, health and security), current change and future scenarios consistently point to significant and increasing risks during the coming decades. Policies for the sustainable development of Mediterranean countries need to mitigate these risks and consider adaptation options, but currently lack adequate information — particularly for the most vulnerable southern Mediterranean societies, where fewer systematic observations schemes and impact models are based. A dedicated effort to synthesize existing scientific knowledge across disciplines is underway and aims to provide a better understanding of the combined risks posed. © 2018, Springer Nature Limited.

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Erratum to: Crowther et al. reply (Nature, (2018), 554, 7693, (E7-E8), 10.1038/nature25746)

Crowther T.W., Machmuller M.B., Carey J.C., Allison S.D., Blair J.M., Bridgham S.D., Burton A.J., Dijkstra F.A., Elberling B., Estiarte M., Larsen K.S., Laudon H., Lupascu M., Marhan S., Mohan J., Niu S., Peñuelas J.J., Schmidt I.K., Templer P.H., Kröel-Dulay G., Frey S., Bradford M.A. (2018) Erratum to: Crowther et al. reply (Nature, (2018), 554, 7693, (E7-E8), 10.1038/nature25746). Nature. 560: 0-0.
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Doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0192-1

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In this Brief Communications Arising Reply, the affiliation for author P. H. Templer was incorrectly listed as ‘Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92697, USA’ instead of ‘Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA’. This has been corrected online. © 2018, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., part of Springer Nature.

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Effects of chronic anthropogenic disturbance and rainfall on the specialization of ant-plant mutualistic networks in the Caatinga, a Brazilian dry forest

Câmara T., Leal I.R., Blüthgen N., Oliveira F.M.P., Queiroz R.T., Arnan X. (2018) Effects of chronic anthropogenic disturbance and rainfall on the specialization of ant-plant mutualistic networks in the Caatinga, a Brazilian dry forest. Journal of Animal Ecology. : 0-0.
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Doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.12820

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Anthropogenic disturbance and climate change might negatively affect the ecosystem services provided by mutualistic networks. However, the effects of such forces remain poorly characterized. They may be especially important in dry forests, which (1) experience chronic anthropogenic disturbances (CADs) as human populations exploit forest resources, and (2) are predicted to face a 22% decline in rainfall under climate change. In this study, we investigated the separate and combined effects of CADs and rainfall levels on the specialization of mutualistic networks in the Caatinga, a seasonally dry tropical forest typical of north-eastern Brazil. More specifically, we examined interactions between plants bearing extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) and ants. We analysed whether differences in network specialization could arise from environmentally mediated variation in the species composition, namely via the replacement of specialist by generalist species. We characterized these ant-plant networks in 15 plots (20 × 20 m) that varied in CAD intensity and mean annual rainfall. We quantified CAD intensity by calculating three indices related to the main sources of disturbance in the Caatinga: livestock grazing (LG), wood extraction (WE) and miscellaneous resource use (MU). We determined the degree of ant-plant network specialization using four metrics: generality, vulnerability, interaction evenness and H2'. Our results indicate that CADs differentially influenced network specialization: we observed positive, negative, and neutral responses along LG, MU and WE gradients, respectively. The pattern was most pronounced with LG. Rainfall also shaped network specialization, markedly increasing it. While LG and rainfall were associated with changes in network species composition, this trend was not related to the degree of species specialization. This result suggests that shifts in network specialization might be related to changes in species behaviour, not species composition. Our study highlights the vulnerability of such dry forest ant-plant networks to climate change. Moreover, dry forests experience highly heterogeneous anthropogenic disturbances, creating a geographic mosaic of selective forces that may shape the co-evolution of interactions between ants and EFN-bearing plants. © 2018 British Ecological Society.

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Sobre el intercambio de datos de vegetación: El estándar ‘Veg-X’ y el paquete de R ‘VegX’

De Cáceres M. (2018) Sobre el intercambio de datos de vegetación: El estándar ‘Veg-X’ y el paquete de R ‘VegX’. Ecosistemas. 27: 128-129.
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Doi: 10.7818/ECOS.1570

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[No abstract available]

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Global overview of plot-based vegetation classification approaches

De Cáceres M., Franklin S.B., Hunter J.T., Landucci F., Dengler J., Roberts D.W. (2018) Global overview of plot-based vegetation classification approaches. Phytocoenologia. 48: 101-112.
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Doi: 10.1127/phyto/2018/0256

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While classification of vegetation can be conducted in many ways, international homogenization of procedures and typologies is desirable for human societies that are highly connected in terms of sharing biodiversity information. This Special Issue of Phytocoenologia includes 12 papers that document several of the plot-based classification approaches currently used throughout the world. The issue includes approaches from five continents, but noticeable gaps are South America, middle-eastern countries, northern Africa and southeastern Asia. We include in this editorial a brief synthesis of the papers included in the Special Issue, with respect to (1) the amount of vegetation-plot data and characteristics of the classification systems developed in different areas and (2) the concepts and procedures of classification approaches. One of the most important common attributes among the classification approaches is the need to define vegetation units at a low level of abstraction. 'Association' (and perhaps 'alliance' too) may be a classification level for which international homogenization of procedures would be most easy to achieve, perhaps establishing different consistent classification sections depending on ecological conditions. Several papers in this issue demonstrate that multiple approaches may coexist for higher levels, as long as they abstract vegetation from the same low level units by focusing on a specific set of concepts and defined from the perspective of applications. © 2017 Gebrüder Borntraeger, 70176 Stuttgart, Germany.

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