The complexities of the relationships between plant and soil microbial communities remain unresolved. We determined the associations between plant aboveground and belowground (root) distributions and the communities of soil fungi and bacteria found across a diverse tropical forest plot. Soil microbial community composition was correlated with the taxonomic and phylogenetic structure of the abov...

This study was executed to determine the plant species of herbaceous cover in a skid road subjected to soil compaction due to timber skidding in a beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky.) stand. Our previous studies have shown that ground based timber skidding destroys the soils extremely, and degradations on ecosystem because of the timber skidding limit recovery and growth of plant cover on skid road...

the objectives of this study were to determine and compare the chemical composition and ruminal degradability of dry matter (dm), crude protein (cp), neutral detergent fiber (ndf) and acid detergent fiber (adf) of ten pasture forage species dominant in the west provinces of iran. duplicate nylon bags of pasture samples were suspended in the rumen of four wethers for up to 96 h. the chemical com...

Network modularity (community structure) is a wellstudied large-scale connectivity pattern in networks [1,2], with several detection algorithms described in the literature (for a review, see [2]). A comparative study of module assignment accuracy by the different algorithms using benchmark networks showed that algorithm performance varies according to network size and the level of intermodule m...

Understanding the drivers of plant-insect interactions is still a key issue in terrestrial ecology. Here, we used 30 well-defined plant-herbivore assemblages to assess the effects of host plant phylogenetic isolation and origin (native vs. exotic) on the species richness, composition and specialization of the insect herbivore fauna on co-occurring plant species. We also tested for differences i...

Interactions between vascular plants and bryophytes determine plant community composition in many ecosystems. Yet, little is known about the importance of interspecific differences between bryophytes with respect to their effects on vascular plants. We compared the extent to which species-specific bryophyte effects on vascular plant generative recruitment depend on the following underlying mech...

Globally the area in forest plantations is rising by 2% annually, increasing the importance of plantations for production of human goods and services and for ecological functions such as carbon storage and biodiversity conservation. Specifically in the Great Lakes states and provinces of Midwestern North America, thousands of hectares of pine plantations were established in the early and mid-19...

DE STEVEN, D. (USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research, Stoneville, MS 38776) AND J. M. GRAMLING (Department of Biology, The Citadel, Charleston, SC 29409). Multiple factors influence the vegetation composition of Southeast U.S. wetlands restored in the Wetlands Reserve Program. J. Torr. Bot. Soc. 140: 453–464. 2013.—Degradation of wetlands on ag...