Insights into the ecology of historic invasions by introduced species can be gained by studying long-term patterns of invasions by native species. In this paper, we review literature in palaeo-ecology, forest-stand simulation modelling, and historical studies of plant species invasions to illustrate the relevance of biological inertia in plant communities to invasion ecology. Resistance to inva...

Most herbivorous arthropods are specialists that feed on one or a few related plant species. To understand why this is so, both mechanistic and functional studies have been carried out, predominantly restricted to bitrophic aspects. Host-selection behaviour of herbivorous arthropods has been intensively studied and this has provided ample evidence for the role of secondary plant chemicals as so...

1 Plant Ecology, Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 2 Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), Berlin, Germany, GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany, Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity, Berlin, Germany, 5 Botanischer Garten und Botan...

In Thoreau's time, people were already planting trees to restore landscapes. Throughout this century, public and private organizations as well as countless landowners have worked to restore plant communities to sites that have been disturbed by natural disasters, and by human activities such as mining, road construction, clear cutting, and agriculture. Over the last 20 years, restoration ecolog...

1 Institute of Integrative Biology – Plant Ecology, ETH Zurich, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland 2 Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi 1, Tartu 51014, Estonia 3 Biology Department, John Carroll University, University Heights, OH 44118, USA 4 Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, 07745 Jena, Germany 5 IFM Biology, Division of Eco...

Plant functional traits vary both along environmental gradients and among species occupying similar conditions, creating a challenge for the synthesis of functional and community ecology. We present a trait-based approach that provides an additive decomposition of species' trait values into alpha and beta components: beta values refer to a species' position along a gradient defined by community...

An important goal in ecology is developing general theory on how the species composition of ecosystems is related to ecosystem properties and functions. Progress on this front is limited partly because of the need to identify mechanisms controlling functions that are common to a wide range of ecosystem types. We propose that one general mechanism, rooted in the evolutionary ecology of all speci...

Ecologists hold two views about the role of herbivory in ecosystem dynamics. First, from a food web perspective in population/community ecology, consumption by herbivores reduces plant abundance. Second, from a nutrient cycling perspective in ecosystem ecology, herbivory sometimes slows down cycling, which decreases plant abundance, but at other times speeds up cycling, which possibly increases...

1. By the end of this decade, the majority of people will live in cities and suburban areas. Urban areas, including suburbs and exurbs, are expanding rapidly worldwide. 2. Plant ecology has largely ignored cities, or has primarily focused on the discrete urban green spaces within cities. 3. Plant ecology is increasingly engaging urban ecosystems as integrated natural-human systems, in which hum...

a Geography Department, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany b Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1598, USA c Faculty of Silviculture and Forest Engineering, Transilvania University of Brasov, Sirul Beethoven, No. 1, 500123 Brasov, Romania d Institute of Landscape Ecology, Slovak A...