It has been hypothesized that invasive plant species with extended leaf phenology (ELP) elevate generalist herbivore populations, increasing herbivory on native plants (apparent competition). This hypothesis assumes that consumption of the invasive is associated with periods of ELP, the invasive is a major component of the herbivore's diet, and that it is more nutritious than native plants duri...

Theoretically, induced defenses should be prevalent within low resource environments like the forest understory where constitutive defenses would be costly. Also, the induced response should be stronger when the herbivore is a generalist rather than a specialist, which often have mechanisms to avoid or overcome plant defenses. These ideas have been previously tested for herbaceous species, and ...

AIM The global spread of woody plants into grasslands is predicted to increase over the coming century. While there is general agreement regarding the anthropogenic causes of this phenomenon, its ecological consequences are less certain. We analyzed how woody vegetation of differing cover affects plant diversity (richness and evenness) and multiple ecosystem functions (multifunctionality) in gl...

The factors responsible for maintaining diverse groundcover plant communities of high conservation value in frequently burned wet pine savannas are poorly understood. While most management involves manipulating extrinsic factors important in maintaining species diversity (e.g., fire regimes), most ecological theory (e.g., niche theory and neutral theory) examines how traits exhibited by the spe...

Mapping vegetation cover is critical for understanding and monitoring ecosystem functions in semi-arid biomes. As existing estimates tend to underestimate the woody cover in areas with dry deciduous shrubland and woodland, we present an approach to improve the regional estimation of woody and herbaceous fractional cover in the East Asia steppe. This developed approach uses Random Forest models ...

Woody plants host diverse communities of associated organisms, including wood-inhabiting fungi. In this group, host effects on species richness and interaction network structure are not well understood, especially not at large geographical scales. We investigated ecological, historical and evolutionary determinants of fungal species richness and network modularity, that is, subcommunity structu...

Animal pollination is essential for the reproductive success of many wild and crop plants. Loss and isolation of (semi-)natural habitats in agricultural landscapes can cause declines of plants and pollinators and endanger pollination services. We investigated the independent effects of these drivers on pollination of young cherry trees in a landscape-scale experiment. We included (i) isolation ...

Poplar is not only an important resource for the production of paper, timber and other wood-based products, but it has also emerged as an ideal model system for studying woody plants. To better understand the biological processes underlying various traits in poplar, e.g., wood development, a comprehensive functional gene interaction network is highly needed. Here, we constructed a genome-wide f...

Clematis flammula var. maritima is a woody lianoid plant that grows on coastal sand dunes in the Mediterranean region. Older perennial stems are present as extensive underground axes. These generate surface growth of shorter-lived stems producing monospecific trellises above the surface of the sand. Despite its sand dune habitat and shortage of host support plants, this variety of Clematis show...

To elucidate climate-driven changes in leaf-out phenology and their implications for species invasions, we observed and experimentally manipulated leaf out of invasive and native woody plants in Concord, MA, USA. Using observations collected by Henry David Thoreau (1852-1860) and our own observations (2009-2013), we analyzed changes in leaf-out timing and sensitivity to temperature for 43 woody...