Exploring the link between above- and belowground biodiversity has been a major theme of recent ecological research, due in large part to the increasingly well-recognized role that soil microorganisms play in driving plant community processes. In this study, we utilized a field-based tree experiment in Minnesota, USA, to assess the effect of changes in plant species richness and phylogenetic di...

Rhizosphere microbial communities are critically important for soil nitrogen cycling and plant productivity. There is evidence that plant species and genotypes select distinct rhizosphere communities, however, knowledge of the drivers and extent of this variation remains limited. We grew 11 annual species and 11 maize (Zea mays subsp. mays) inbred lines in a common garden experiment to assess t...

Understanding the functional consequences of biodiversity loss is a major goal of ecology. Animal-mediated pollination is an essential ecosystem function and service provided to mankind. However, little is known how pollinator diversity could affect pollination services. Using a substitutive design, we experimentally manipulated functional group (FG) and species richness of pollinator communiti...

The detrimental effects of invasive plant species on ecosystems are well documented. While much research has focused on discovering ecological influences associated with invasiveness, it remains unclear how these influences interact, causing some introduced exotic species to become invasive threats. Here we develop a framework that incorporates the influences of propagule pressure, frequency in...

The two main assembly processes claimed to structure plant communities are habitat filtering and competitive interactions. The set of species growing in fire-prone communities has been filtered in such a way that species without fire-persistence traits have not successfully entered the community. Because plant traits are evolutionarily conserved and fire traits are correlated with other plant t...