Ant‐hill heterogeneity and grassland management by King, TJ

“…It is so frequent and abundant that it must be regarded as a keystone species. Grassland restoration projects frequently attempt to re-introduce grasslands on abandoned arable fields. …”

Plant ecology of ant-hills in grassland by King, T

Subjects: “…Grassland ecology…”

Andean grasslands are as productive as tropical cloud forests by Oliveras, I, Girardin, C, Doughty, C, Cahuana, N, Arenas, C, Oliver, V, Huaraca Huasco, W, Malhi, Y

“…We aim to assess net primary productivity (NPP) and carbon cycling in Andean tropical alpine grasslands (puna) and compare it with NPP of tropical montane cloud forests. …”

Legal dramas on the Amdo grasslands: abolition, transformation or survival? by Pirie, F

Nature or nurture: the ambiguity of C-4 grasslands in Madagascar by Willis, K, Gillson, L, Virah-Sawmy, M

Nature or nuture: the ambiguity of C4 grasslands in Madagascar by Willis, K, Gillson, L, Virah-Sawmy, M

Biology, chance, or history? The predictable reassembly of temperate grassland communities. by Petermann, J, Fergus, A, Roscher, C, Turnbull, L, Weigelt, A, Schmid, B

“…Using natural dispersal and deliberate seed addition into grassland communities with different compositional and richness histories, we show that invaders establish in a nonrandom manner due to negative effects of resident functional groups on invading species from the same functional group. …”

Experimental drought reduces the productivity and stability of a calcareous grassland by Jackson, J, Middleton, S, Lawson, C, Jardine, E, Hawes, N, Maseyk, C, Salguero-Gomez, R, Hector, A

“…1. Grasslands, which encompass 40% of terrestrial ecosystems, hold global significance for food production, carbon storage, and other ecosystem services. …”

Deciphering the stability of grassland productivity in response to rainfall manipulation experiments by Silveira Matos, I, Oliveras Menor, I, Rifai, SW, Pimentel Rosado, BH

“…Here, we gathered articles reporting results of experimental droughts on the above‐ground biomass of grasslands to identify which indices have been used to assess stability, to evaluate the overall grassland responses to drought and to quantify the relative importance of drought characteristics and climatic conditions for explaining variation in stability. …”

The sustainable use of species-rich grasslands for forage and biogas production by French, K

“…<p>The rapid loss of species-rich grasslands in the UK may have profound environmental and socio-economic ramifications. …”

The persistence of Lasius flavus ant-hills and their influence on biodiversity in grasslands by King, T

“…The allogenic ecological engineer Lasius flavus (F.) is a keystone species in many grasslands, increasing their heterogeneity, creating microhabitats for many other species and considerably influencing soil ecology between the mounds. …”

Oldest evidence of toolmaking hominins in a grassland-dominated ecosystem by Plummer, TW, Ditchfield, PW, Bishop, LC, Kingston, JD, Ferraro, JV, Braun, DR, Hertel, F, Potts, R

“…These document repeated hominin activities within a grassland-dominated ecosystem.</p> <p><strong>Conclusions/Significance</strong> These data demonstrate what hitherto had been speculated based on indirect evidence: that grassland-dominated ecosystems did in fact exist during the Plio-Pleistocene, and that early Homo was active in open settings. …”

Janzen-Connell effects are widespread and strong enough to maintain diversity in grasslands. by Petermann, J, Fergus, A, Turnbull, L, Schmid, B

“…In a controlled greenhouse experiment with 24 plant species and using soils from established field monocultures, we reveal community-wide soil-based Janzen-Connell effects between the three major functional groups of plants in temperate European grasslands. The effects are much stronger and more prevalent if plants are grown in interspecific competition. …”

General destabilizing effects of eutrophication on grassland productivity at multiple spatial scales by Hautier, Y, Zhang, P, Loreau, M, Wilcox, KR, Seabloom, EW, Borer, ET, Byrnes, JEK, Koerner, SE, Komatsu, KJ, Lefcheck, JS, Hector, A, Adler, PB, Alberti, J, Arnillas, CA, Bakker, JD, Brudvig, LA, Bugalho, MN, Cadotte, M, Caldeira, MC, Carroll, O, Crawley, M, Collins, SL, Daleo, P, Dee, LE, Eisenhauer, N, Eskelinen, A, Fay, PA, Gilbert, B, Hansar, A, Isbell, F, Knops, JMH, MacDougall, AS, McCulley, RL, Moore, JL, Morgan, JW, Mori, AS, Peri, PL, Pos, ET, Power, SA, Price, JN, Reich, PB, Risch, AC, Roscher, C, Sankaran, M, Schütz, M, Smith, M, Stevens, C, Tognetti, PM, Virtanen, R, Wardle, GM

“…Our findings suggest that preserving grassland functional stability requires conservation of plant diversity within and among ecological communities.…”

Conversion of grassland to arable decreases microbial diversity and alters community composition by French, K, Tkacz, A, Turnbull, L

“…The conservation of species-rich grasslands and their associated microbial diversity could therefore be a key resource for sustainable agriculture in the future.…”

Responses of soil microbiota and nematodes to application of organic and inorganic fertilizers in grassland columns by Ikoyi, I, Egeter, B, Chaves, C, Ahmed, M, Fowler, A, Schmalenberger, A

Belowground nitrogen partitioning in experimental grassland plant communities of varying species richness. by von Felten, S, Hector, A, Buchmann, N, Niklaus, P, Schmid, B, Scherer-Lorenzen, M

“…In experimental communities of one, three, and six temperate grassland species in the field, we tested whether increasing species richness (1) decreases niche breadths of individual species, (2) decreases niche overlap among species, and (3) increases niche breadth of whole communities. …”

Plant diversity effects on grassland productivity are robust to both nutrient enrichment and drought by Craven, D, Isbell, F, Manning, P, Connolly, J, Bruelheide, H, Ebeling, A, Roscher, C, van Ruijven, J, Weigelt, A, Wilsey, B, Beierkuhnlein, C, de Luca, E, Griffin, J, Hautier, Y, Hector, A, Jentsch, A, Kreyling, J, Lanta, V, Loreau, M, Meyer, S, Mori, A, Naeem, S, Palmborg, C, Polley, H, Reich, P, Schmid, B, Siebenkäs, A, Seabloom, E, Thakur, M, Tilman, D, Vogel, A, Eisenhauer, N

“…Our results indicate that diversity and the complementarity of species are important regulators of grassland ecosystem productivity, regardless of changes in other drivers of ecosystem function.…”

Do grassland plant communities profit from N partitioning by soil depth? by Von Felten, S, Niklaus, P, Scherer-Lorenzen, M, Hector, A, Buchmann, N

“…Recent biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments in temperate grasslands have shown that productivity positively correlates with plant species richness. …”

Palaeoecology and gis modeling reveal historic grasslands as “Hotspots” of biodiversity and plant genetic resources by French, K

“…Here, I combine palaeoecological data and modern vegetation surveys to determine the origin of species-rich grassland in Oxfordshire, England and long-term temporal and spatial changes in grassland biodiversity over time. …”