Featured
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New publication from Bröcher et al. in Basic and Applied Ecology: The positive plant diversity/consumer relationship is independent of grassland age
Plant diversity is an important driver of many ecosystem processes within and among trophic levels. There is growing evidence that the strength of plant diversity effects depends on the biotic…
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New publication from Zheng et al. in Nature Communications: Effects of plant diversity on productivity strengthen over time due to trait-dependent shifts in species overyielding
Plant diversity effects on community productivity often increase over time. Whether the strengthening of diversity effects is caused by temporal shifts in species-level overyielding (i.e., higher species-level productivity in diverse…
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New publication from Dietrich et al. in Global Change Biology: Plant diversity and community age stabilize ecosystem multifunctionality
It is well known that biodiversity positively affects ecosystem functioning, leading to enhanced ecosystem stability. However, this knowledge is mainly based on analyses using single ecosystem functions, while studies focusing…
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New publication from de Souza et al. in Environmental Microbiome: The seeds of Plantago lanceolata comprise a stable core microbiome along a plant richness gradient
Seed endophytic bacteria are beneficial to plants. They improve seedling growth by enhancing plant nutrient uptake, modulating stress-related phytohormone production, and targeting pests and pathogens with antibiotics. Seed endophyte composition…
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Deciphering nature’s climate shield: Plant diversity stabilises soil temperature
Based on a media release of Leipzig University A new study has revealed a natural solution to mitigate the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather events. Researchers from…
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New publication from Eisenhauer et al. in npj Biodiversity: Reply: Functional similarity is more appropriate than functional redundancy
Replying to Felícia M. Fischer and Francesco de Bello npj Biodiversity https://doi.org/10.1038/s44185-023-00029-z (2023) In our Comment, we outlined that the term functional redundancy (1) may have been overused from an…
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New publication from Ristok et al. in Ecology and Evolution: Plant diversity and soil legacy independently affect the plant metabolome and induced responses following herbivory
Plant and soil biodiversity can have significant effects on herbivore resistance mediated by plant metabolites. Here, we disentangled the independent effects of plant diversity and soil legacy on constitutive and…
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The Jena Experiment is seeking PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and technical staff
Within the DFG Research Unit FOR 5000 (Biotic interactions, community assembly, and eco-evolutionary dynamics as drivers of long-term biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships), nine four-year PhD positions, a three-year postdoctoral position, and…
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Funding new research in the Jena Experiment – focus on ecosystem stability
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) to fund Research Unit for another four years Joint media release from iDiv, Leipzig University and Friedrich Schiller University Jena Jena/Leipzig. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) is to…
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New publication from Hennecke et al. in New Phytologist: Responses of rhizosphere fungi to the root economics space in grassland monocultures of different age
Recent studies on root traits have shown that there are two axes explaining trait variation belowground: the collaboration axis with mycorrhizal partners and the conservation (‘fast – slow’) axis. However,…
