Purpose of review Forests are frequently exposed to natural disturbances, which are likely to
increase with global change, and may jeopardize the delivery of ecosystem services. Mixed …

Inferring biotic interactions from functional, phylogenetic and geographical proxies remains
one great challenge in ecology. We propose a conceptual framework to infer the backbone …

Plant‐soil feedback (PSF) theory provides a powerful framework for understanding plant
dynamics by integrating growth assays into predictions of whether soil communities stabilise …

A substantial body of evidence has demonstrated that biodiversity stabilizes ecosystem
functioning over time in grassland ecosystems. However, the relative importance of different …

Forests in virtually all regions of the world are being affected by invasions of non-native
insects. We conducted an in-depth review of the traits of successful invasive forest insects …

High biodiversity aboveground tends to increase the stability of ecosystem functioning when
faced with a changing environment. However, whether and how soil biota affect ecosystem …

Pathogens play an important part in shaping the structure and dynamics of natural
communities, because species are not affected by them equally,. A shared goal of ecology …

Hyperdiverse forests occur in the lowland tropics, whereas the most species‐rich shrublands
are found in regions such as south‐western Australia (kwongan) and South Africa (fynbos) …

Tropical tree communities present one of the most challenging systems for studying the
processes underlying community assembly. Most community assembly hypotheses consider …

Pest regulation is an important ecosystem service provided by biodiversity, as plants
growing in species‐rich communities often experience associational resistance to …