Richard McFarland, S Peter Henzi, Andrea Fuller, Robyn S Hetem, Christopher Young, Louise Barrett This is a plain language summary for a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Although you might expect a mother to do everything she can to look after her unborn baby, monkey mothers don’t always put their babies first. When times are tough, mothers need to look after … Continue reading Monkeys hedge their bets when making babies
Alan K. Knapp, Kathleen V. Condon, Christine C. Folks, Matthew A. Sturchio, Robert J. Griffin-Nolan, Steven A. Kannenberg, Amy S. Gill, Olivia L. Hajek, J. Alexander Siggers, Melinda D. Smith This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology Calow-Grace Review which can be found here. Drought, as one of the most common natural disasters impacting terrestrial ecosystems globally, has been studied extensively by … Continue reading What have we learned, and what more can we learn, from drought experiments?
Katja Springer, Thibault Coquery, Vera Holland, Patrick S. Fitze, J.F. Scheepens, Martí March-Salas This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Precipitation predictability is the predictability with which precipitation events occur over time and is independent of the total amount of precipitation. Under global climate change, precipitation predictability tends to decrease, meaning that it becomes less … Continue reading Lower predictability in rainfall causes plants to evolve their drought strategies
Indra Boving, Joe Celebrezze, Ryan Salladay, Aaron Ramirez, Leander DL Anderegg, Max Moritz This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Wildfire severity is largely related to the presence and characteristics of plants, which, in turn, are impacted by drought and local water availability. This is especially true in the fire-prone chapparal ecosystems that exist in … Continue reading Plant tissue flammability mirrors wildfire patterns found at the landscape level
Wentao Luo,Yuan Shi, Kate Wilkins, Lin Song, Niwu Te, Jiaqi Chen, Hongxiang Zhang, Qiang Yu, Zhengwen Wang, Xingguo Han, Scott L. Collins This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Global climate change is expected to increase rainfall variability, potentially increasing the frequency of extreme drought events during this century. In most water-limited ecosystems such as … Continue reading Plant traits drive ANPP stability during drought and recovery
Lina Aoyama, E. Ashley Shaw, Caitlin T. White, Katherine N. Suding, Lauren M. Hallett This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Plants have varying leaf, shoot, and root characteristics depending on the species. This diversity in form, called “functional diversity,” influences how plants take up resources and put on biomass. Prior research in grassland ecosystems … Continue reading Root diversity in grasslands buffers biomass production under drought
F. Curtis Lubbe, Martin Bitomský, Michael Bartoš, Iveta Marešová, Jana Martínková, Jitka Klimešová This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Plants store carbon belowground in specialized storage organs such as rhizomes (horizontal stems) as different types of carbohydrates. There are two contrasting explanations for carbohydrate storage, the first one explains it as an adaptation to … Continue reading Trash or Treasure: Rhizome conservation during drought
Terry J. Ord This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. With the increasing frequency and severity of environmental change occurring with the climate crisis, animals that invest in building costly refuges are especially vulnerable because of their limited capacity to move to more favourable locations. The large, complex ground nests of the Australian meat ant … Continue reading Ants migrate nests to mitigate the impacts of Australia’s worst recorded drought
Beatriz Argüelles−Marrón, Jorge A. Meave, Isolda Luna−Vega, Doris B. Crispin-DelaCruz, Paul Szejner, Fressia N. Ames-Martínez, Ernesto C. Rodríguez−Ramírez This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Climate change is one of the main factors affecting the adaptive capacity of species sensitive to climatic variations, such as endangered tree species, in moist environments such as tropical montane … Continue reading How are cloud forest oaks adapting to drought?
Daniel Nelson, Michelle H. Busch, Darin A. Kopp, Daniel C. Allen This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Climate warming and changes in streamflow patterns are two global change stressors affecting stream ecosystems worldwide. In particular, warming stream temperatures and stream drying are predicted to alter the metabolism of stream ecosystems. Stream ecosystem metabolism is … Continue reading Drought may pose a greater threat to stream ecosystems than climate warming
Functional Ecology: Plain Language Summaries 