Foundation species define ecosystems, control the biological diversity of associated
species, modulate critical ecosystem processes, and often have important cultural values …

Functional ecology is the branch of ecology that focuses on various functions that species
play in the community or ecosystem in which they occur. This accessible guide offers the …

Scenario-based modelling is a powerful tool to describe relationships between plausible
trajectories of drivers, possible policy interventions, and impacts on biodiversity and …

Biotic responses to global change include directional shifts in organismal traits. Body size,
an integrative trait that determines demographic rates and ecosystem functions, is thought to …

Revealing the role of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning (BEF) has been a major focus of
ecological research over recent decades. In general, results from artificially assembled …

Ample evidence suggests positive effects of species diversity on ecosystem functioning and
services in natural and agricultural landscapes. Less obvious and even contested are the …

Niche complementarity, mass-ratio, and vegetation quantity effects have been identified as
major drivers of the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships. However, their …

Ecologists often invoke interspecific facilitation to help explain positive biodiversity–
ecosystem function relationships in plant communities, but seldom test how it occurs. One …

Landscape appearance is controlled by a range of different environmental and human-
induced factors, although there is still a lack of knowledge about the significance of …

Species-rich plant communities can produce twice as much aboveground biomass as
monocultures, but the mechanisms remain unresolved. We tested whether plant-soil …