Ecological literacy and beyond: Problem-based learning for future professionals.

Ecological science contributes to solving a broad range of environmental problems. However, lack of ecological literacy in practice often limits application of this knowledge. In this paper, we highlight a critical but often overlooked demand on ecological literacy: to enable professionals of various careers to apply scientific knowledge when faced with environmental problems. Current university courses on ecology often fail to persuade students that ecological science provides important tools for environmental problem solving. We propose problem-based learning to improve the understanding of ecological science and its usefulness for real-world environmental issues that professionals in careers as diverse as engineering, public health, architecture, social sciences, or management will address. Courses should set clear learning objectives for cognitive skills they expect students to acquire. Thus, professionals in different fields will be enabled to improve environmental decision-making processes and to participate effectively in multidisciplinary work groups charged with tackling environmental issues.

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 communities compared with monocultures) remains unclear. Here, using data from 65 grassland and forest biodiversity experiments, we show that the temporal strength of diversity effects at the community scale is underpinned by temporal changes in the species that yield. These temporal trends of species-level overyielding are shaped by plant ecological strategies, which can be quantitatively delimited by functional traits. In grasslands, the temporal strengthening of biodiversity effects on community productivity was associated with increasing biomass overyielding of resource-conservative species increasing over time, and with overyielding of species characterized by fast resource acquisition either decreasing or increasing. In forests, temporal trends in species overyielding differ when considering above- versus belowground resource acquisition strategies. Overyielding in stem growth decreased for species with high light capture capacity but increased for those with high soil resource acquisition capacity. Our results imply that a diversity of species with different, and potentially complementary, ecological strategies is beneficial for maintaining community productivity over time in both grassland and forest ecosystems.

RecruitNet: A global database of plant recruitment networks.

Plant recruitment interactions (i.e., what recruits under what) shape the composition, diversity, and structure of plant communities. Despite the huge body of knowledge on the mechanisms underlying recruitment interactions among species, we still know little about the structure of the recruitment networks emerging in ecological communities. Modeling and analyzing the community-level structure of plant recruitment interactions as a complex network can provide relevant information on ecological and evolutionary processes acting both at the species and ecosystem levels. We report a data set containing 143 plant recruitment networks in 23 countries across five continents, including temperate and tropical ecosystems. Each network identifies the species under which another species recruits. All networks report the number of recruits (i.e., individuals) per species. The data set includes >850,000 recruiting individuals involved in 118,411 paired interactions among 3318 vascular plant species across the globe. The cover of canopy species and open ground is also provided. Three sampling protocols were used: (1) The Recruitment Network (RN) protocol (106 networks) focuses on interactions among established plants ("canopy species") and plants in their early stages of recruitment ("recruit species"). A series of plots was delimited within a locality, and all the individuals recruiting and their canopy species were identified; (2) The paired Canopy-Open (pCO) protocol (26 networks) consists in locating a potential canopy plant and identifying recruiting individuals under the canopy and in a nearby open space of the same area; (3) The Georeferenced plot (GP) protocol (11 networks) consists in using information from georeferenced individual plants in large plots to infer canopy-recruit interactions. Some networks incorporate data for both herbs and woody species, whereas others focus exclusively on woody species. The location of each study site, geographical coordinates, country, locality, responsible author, sampling dates, sampling method, and life habits of both canopy and recruit species are provided. This database will allow researchers to test ecological, biogeographical, and evolutionary hypotheses related to plant recruitment interactions. There are no copyright restrictions on the data set; please cite this data paper when using these data in publications.

Functional Diversity and Invasive Species Influence Soil Fertility in Experimental Grasslands.

Ecosystem properties can be positively affected by plant functional diversity and compromised by invasive alien plants. We performed a community assembly study in mesocosms manipulating different functional diversity levels for native grassland plants (communities composed by 1, 2 or 3 functional groups) to test if functional dispersion could constrain the impacts of an invasive alien plant (Solidago gigantea) on soil fertility and plant community biomass via complementarity. Response variables were soil nutrients, soil water nutrients and aboveground biomass. We applied linear mixed-effects models to assess the effects of functional diversity and S. gigantea on plant biomass, soil and soil water nutrients. A structural equation model was used to evaluate if functional diversity and invasive plants affect soil fertility directly or indirectly via plant biomass and soil pH. Invaded communities had greater total biomass but less native plant biomass than uninvaded ones. While functional diversity increased nutrient availability in the soil solution of uninvaded communities, invasive plants reduced nutrient concentration in invaded soils. Functional diversity indirectly affected soil water but not soil nutrients via plant biomass, whereas the invader reduced native plant biomass and disrupted the effects of diversity on nutrients. Moreover, invasive plants reduced soil pH and compromised phosphate uptake by plants, which can contribute to higher phosphate availability and its possible accumulation in invaded soils. We found little evidence for functional diversity to constrain invasion impacts on nutrients and plant biomass. Restoration of such systems should consider other plant community features than plant trait diversity to reduce establishment of invasive plants.

The role of nurse successional stages on species-specific facilitation in drylands: Nurse traits and facilitation skills.

Plant establishment is a challenge in semiarid environments due to intense and frequent drought periods. The presence of neighboring trees (nurses) can increase the establishment of seedlings (targets) by improving resource availability and microclimate. The nurse effect, however, might vary depending on nurse-target species combinations but factors that predict this specificity are poorly known. We used a multispecies experiment to investigate the facilitation potential of trees from a range of successional stages, focusing on how nurse functional traits can predict species-specific interaction outcomes. We conducted a factorial field experiment in a Brazilian semiarid tropical forest during a severe drought period. Sixty pairs of interacting tree species, 20 potential nurses, and three targets were used. Seedlings of all targets were planted both under and far from the nurse canopy, in a randomized block design replicated five times. Target growth and survival were monitored for 275 days from the beginning of the dry season, and interaction outcomes were calculated using the Relative Interaction Intensity (RII) index. Nurse functional traits such as successional stage, height, wood density, and canopy diameter were used as explanatory variables to predict RII values. The average effect of nurse species on target plants was in general positive, that is, seedling survival and growth increased under the nurse canopy. However, for growth pairwise interactions were significantly species specific. Successional stage was the only functional trait explaining RII values, with pioneer tree species being stronger facilitators than later successional trees. However, the explanation power of this variable was low, and positive, negative, or neutral interactions were found among nurse trees of all successional stages. Because seedling mortality during drought in semiarid systems is high, future studies should investigate how nurse traits related to water use could influence nurse facilitation skills.

Seed Mass and the Evolution of Early-Seedling Etiolation.

The influence of seed mass on the evolution of seedling-foraging strategies for light acquisition under deep shade was assessed in a comparative study of etiolation behavior. This was done across 50 Australian species varying in seed reserve mass by eight orders of magnitude during the first week after germination. Proportional increase in hypocotyl length in shade compared to light was similar across the range of seed reserve mass. Etiolation did not lead to increase in hypocotyl length per wet mass, in other words, etiolated hypocotyls were not thinner. However, hypocotyl length per dry mass did increase, more so in smaller-seeded species. Thus, part of the hypocotyl elongation was because of increased water content, which would increase vulnerability to loss of turgor. There was also reallocation of dry matter from root to hypocotyl, again more so in smaller-seeded species, which would decrease anchorage strength and increase vulnerability to soil drying. Results were very similar when considered as correlated evolutionary divergences, compared to the cross-species patterns. The higher-risk etiolation behavior of smaller-seeded species can be understood through their having little to lose. Because they hold less reserve resource uncommitted and attempt a faster initial growth rate, their chances of sustained longevity in shade below the compensation point are very low.