ALBERT

Description: Human alterations to nutrient cycles and herbivore communities are affecting global biodiversity dramatically. Ecological theory predicts these changes should be strongly counteractive: nutrient addition drives plant species loss through intensified competition for light, whereas herbivores prevent competitive exclusion by increasing ground-level light, particularly in productive systems. Here we use experimental data spanning a globally relevant range of conditions to test the hypothesis that herbaceous plant species losses caused by eutrophication may be offset by increased light availability due to herbivory. This experiment, replicated in 40 grasslands on 6 continents, demonstrates that nutrients and herbivores can serve as counteracting forces to control local plant diversity through light limitation, independent of site productivity, soil nitrogen, herbivore type and climate. Nutrient addition consistently reduced local diversity through light limitation, and herbivory rescued diversity at sites where it alleviated light limitation. Thus, species loss from anthropogenic eutrophication can be ameliorated in grasslands where herbivory increases ground-level light.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Borer, Elizabeth T -- Seabloom, Eric W -- Gruner, Daniel S -- Harpole, W Stanley -- Hillebrand, Helmut -- Lind, Eric M -- Adler, Peter B -- Alberti, Juan -- Anderson, T Michael -- Bakker, Jonathan D -- Biederman, Lori -- Blumenthal, Dana -- Brown, Cynthia S -- Brudvig, Lars A -- Buckley, Yvonne M -- Cadotte, Marc -- Chu, Chengjin -- Cleland, Elsa E -- Crawley, Michael J -- Daleo, Pedro -- Damschen, Ellen I -- Davies, Kendi F -- DeCrappeo, Nicole M -- Du, Guozhen -- Firn, Jennifer -- Hautier, Yann -- Heckman, Robert W -- Hector, Andy -- HilleRisLambers, Janneke -- Iribarne, Oscar -- Klein, Julia A -- Knops, Johannes M H -- La Pierre, Kimberly J -- Leakey, Andrew D B -- Li, Wei -- MacDougall, Andrew S -- McCulley, Rebecca L -- Melbourne, Brett A -- Mitchell, Charles E -- Moore, Joslin L -- Mortensen, Brent -- O'Halloran, Lydia R -- Orrock, John L -- Pascual, Jesus -- Prober, Suzanne M -- Pyke, David A -- Risch, Anita C -- Schuetz, Martin -- Smith, Melinda D -- Stevens, Carly J -- Sullivan, Lauren L -- Williams, Ryan J -- Wragg, Peter D -- Wright, Justin P -- Yang, Louie H -- England -- Nature. 2014 Apr 24;508(7497):517-20. doi: 10.1038/nature13144. Epub 2014 Mar 9.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA. ; Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. ; Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA. ; Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, Carl-von- Ossietzky University, 26382 Wilhelmshaven, Oldenburg, Germany. ; Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322, USA. ; Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET), Mar del Plata 7600 , Argentina. ; Department of Biology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109, USA. ; School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. ; Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture, Fort Collins, Colorado 80526, USA. ; Deptartment of Forest, Rangeland and Watershed Stewardship, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA. ; Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA. ; 1] ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Queensland 4072, Australia [2] School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland. ; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto Scarborough, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada. ; State Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-Ecosystems, Research Station of Alpine Meadow and Wetland Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000 Gansu, China. ; Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA. ; Department of Biology, Imperial College at Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK. ; Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA. ; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder Colorado 80309, USA. ; US Geological Survey, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA. ; Queensland University of Technology, Biogeosciences, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia. ; Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA. ; Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK. ; School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA. ; Berkeley Initiative for Global Change Biology, University of California, Berkeley 94704, USA. ; Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, llinois 61820, USA. ; Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada. ; Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40546, USA. ; Australian Research Center for Urban Ecology, c/o School of Botany, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia, and School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia. ; Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA. ; CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Wembley, West Australia 6913, Australia. ; Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Birmensdorf 8903, Switzerland. ; Lancaster Environment Center, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK. ; Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA. ; Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24670649" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Dobson, Andrew P -- Borner, Markus -- Sinclair, Anthony R E -- Hudson, Peter J -- Anderson, T Michael -- Bigurube, Gerald -- Davenport, Tim B B -- Deutsch, James -- Durant, Sarah M -- Estes, Richard D -- Estes, Anna B -- Fryxell, John -- Foley, Charles -- Gadd, Michelle E -- Haydon, Dan -- Holdo, Ricardo -- Holt, Robert D -- Hopcraft, J Grant C -- Hilborn, Ray -- Jambiya, George L K -- Laurenson, M Karen -- Melamari, Lota -- Morindat, Alais Ole -- Ogutu, Joseph O -- Schaller, George -- Wolanski, Eric -- England -- Nature. 2010 Sep 16;467(7313):272-3. doi: 10.1038/467272a.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University, New Jersey 08544, USA. dobson@Princeton.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20844519" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: How ecosystem productivity and species richness are interrelated is one of the most debated subjects in the history of ecology. Decades of intensive study have yet to discern the actual mechanisms behind observed global patterns. Here, by integrating the predictions from multiple theories into a single model and using data from 1,126 grassland plots spanning five continents, we detect the clear signals of numerous underlying mechanisms linking productivity and richness. We find that an integrative model has substantially higher explanatory power than traditional bivariate analyses. In addition, the specific results unveil several surprising findings that conflict with classical models. These include the isolation of a strong and consistent enhancement of productivity by richness, an effect in striking contrast with superficial data patterns. Also revealed is a consistent importance of competition across the full range of productivity values, in direct conflict with some (but not all) proposed models. The promotion of local richness by macroecological gradients in climatic favourability, generally seen as a competing hypothesis, is also found to be important in our analysis. The results demonstrate that an integrative modelling approach leads to a major advance in our ability to discern the underlying processes operating in ecological systems.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Grace, James B -- Anderson, T Michael -- Seabloom, Eric W -- Borer, Elizabeth T -- Adler, Peter B -- Harpole, W Stanley -- Hautier, Yann -- Hillebrand, Helmut -- Lind, Eric M -- Partel, Meelis -- Bakker, Jonathan D -- Buckley, Yvonne M -- Crawley, Michael J -- Damschen, Ellen I -- Davies, Kendi F -- Fay, Philip A -- Firn, Jennifer -- Gruner, Daniel S -- Hector, Andy -- Knops, Johannes M H -- MacDougall, Andrew S -- Melbourne, Brett A -- Morgan, John W -- Orrock, John L -- Prober, Suzanne M -- Smith, Melinda D -- England -- Nature. 2016 Jan 21;529(7586):390-3. doi: 10.1038/nature16524. Epub 2016 Jan 13.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉US Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, 700 Cajundome Boulevard, Lafayette, Louisiana 70506, USA. ; Department of Biology, 206 Winston Hall, Wake Forest University, Box 7325 Reynolda Station, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109, USA. ; Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 1987 Upper Buford Circle, St Paul, Minnesota 55108, USA. ; Department of Wildland Resources and the Ecology Center, Utah State University, 5230 Old Main, Logan, Utah 84322, USA. ; Department of Physiological Diversity, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research - UFZ, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany. ; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Deutscher Platz 5e, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany. ; Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Am Kirchtor 1, 06108 Halle (Saale), Germany. ; Ecology and Biodiversity Group, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, Utrecht 3584 CH, The Netherlands. ; Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment, University of Oldenburg, Schleusenstrasse 1, Wilhelmshaven D-26381, Germany. ; Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Lai 40, Tartu 51005, Estonia. ; School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Box 354115, Seattle, Washington 98195-4115, USA. ; School of Natural Sciences, Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland. ; Department of Biological Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK. ; Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA. ; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UCB 334, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA. ; Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, 808 East Blackland Road, Temple, Texas 76502, USA. ; #15 Queensland University of Technology, School of Earth, Environment and Biological Sciences, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia. ; Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, 4112 Plant Sciences, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. ; Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK. ; School of Biological Sciences, 348 Manter Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA. ; Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada. ; Department of Ecology, Environment, and Evolution, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia. ; CSIRO Land and Water, Private Bag 5, Wembley, Western Australia, 6913, Australia. ; Department of Biology, Colorado State University, 1878 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, Colorado 80526, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26760203" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉