Global plant trait studies have revealed fundamental trade-offs in plant resource economics. We evaluated such trait trade-offs during secondary succession in two species-rich tropical ecosystems that contrast in precipitation: dry deciduous and wet evergreen forests of Mexico. Species turnover with succession in dry forest largely relates to increasing water availability and in wet forest to d...

Strong spatial correlation may exist in the spatial succession of biological communities, and the spatial succession can be mathematically described. It was confirmed by our study on spatial succession of both plant and arthropod communities along a linear transect of natural grassland. Both auto-correlation and cross-correlation analyses revealed that the succession of plant and arthropod comm...

Ecologists have documented the process of plant succession for centuries, yet the successional patterns exhibited by microbial communities have received relatively little attention. We examine recent work on microbial succession and show how, despite some key differences, studies of plant succession can serve as a template for understanding microbial succession. We divide the broad range of pat...

Ecological succession itself could be a theoretical reference for ecosystem restoration and reconstruction. Glacier forelands are ideal places for investigating plant succession because there are representative ecological succession records at long temporal scales. Based on field observations and experimental data on the foreland of Baishui number 1 Glacier on Mt. Yulong, the succession and dis...

Current theories about vegetation succession and food web assembly are poorly compatible, as food webs are generally viewed to be static, and succession is usually analyzed without the inclusion of higher trophic levels. In this study we present results from a detailed analysis of ecosystem assembly rules over a chronosequence of 100 years of salt marsh succession. First, using 13 yearlong obse...

The relative importance of plant facilitation and competition during primary succession depends on the development of ecosystem nutrient pools, yet the interaction of these processes remains poorly understood. To explore how these mechanisms interact to drive successional dynamics, we devised a stoichiometric ecosystem-level model that considers the role of nitrogen and phosphorus limitation in...