Plant species, plant community diversity and microbial interactions can significantly impact soil microbial communities, yet there are few data on the interactive effects of plant species and plant community diversity on soil bacterial communities. We hypothesized that plant species and plant community diversity affect soil bacterial communities by setting the context in which bacterial interac...

BACKGROUND Over the past two decades many studies have demonstrated that plant species diversity promotes primary productivity and stability in grassland ecosystems. Additionally, soil community characteristics have also been shown to influence the productivity and composition of plant communities, yet little is known about whether soil communities also play a role in stabilizing the productivi...

The existence of general characteristics of plant invasiveness is still debated. One reason we may not have found these characteristics is because we do not yet understand how processes underlying population dynamics contribute to community composition in invaded communities. Here I modify Ricker stock-recruitment models to parameterize processes important to community dynamics in an invaded gr...

Atmospheric and climatic change can alter plant biomass production and plant community composition. However, we know little about how climate change-induced alterations in biomass production affect plant species composition. To better understand how climate change will alter both individual plant species and community biomass, we manipulated atmospheric [CO2], air temperature, and precipitation...

Plant chemical composition and the soil community are known to influence litter and soil organic matter decomposition. Although these two factors are likely to interact, their mechanisms and outcomes of interaction are not well understood. Studies of their interactive effects are rare and usually focus on carbon dynamics of litter, while nutrient dynamics in the underlying soil have been ignore...

Moist and temperate Caspian forests are associated with a diversity of soil types and topography.  Although, natural history and ecological attributes of the Caspian vegetation is well-documented, little is known about mycorrhizae of the Caspian (Hyrcanian) flora. Samples of herbaceous plant species were collected from 4 pre-determined altitudes (-13 upto about 1500m above sea level, appro...

Moist and temperate Caspian forests are associated with a diversity of soil types and topography.  Although, natural history and ecological attributes of the Caspian vegetation is well-documented, little is known about mycorrhizae of the Caspian (Hyrcanian) flora. Samples of herbaceous plant species were collected from 4 pre-determined altitudes (-13 upto about 1500m above sea level, appro...

Phylogenetic community structure can provide insight into the ecological dynamics that drive species co-occurrence and community assembly patterns. Understanding these patterns is important for predicting future community composition in the context of climate change and other anthropogenic disturbances. However, we know little about how these environmental stressors might change interspecific i...

Soil pathogens are believed to be major contributors to negative plant-soil feedbacks that regulate plant community dynamics and plant invasions. While the theoretical basis for pathogen regulation of plant communities is well established within the plant-soil feedback framework, direct experimental evidence for pathogen community responses to plants has been limited, often relying largely on i...