In the context of a recent massive increase in research on plant root functions and their
impact on the environment, root ecologists currently face many important challenges to keep …

Recent studies have shown that accounting for intraspecific trait variation (ITV) may better
address major questions in community ecology. However, a general picture of the relative …

Functional traits offer a rich quantitative framework for develo** and testing theories in
evolutionary biology, ecology and ecosystem science. However, the potential of functional …

A rich body of knowledge links biodiversity to ecosystem functioning (BEF), but it is primarily
focused on small scales. We review the current theory and identify six expectations for scale …

Metacommunity ecology links smaller-scale processes that have been the provenance of
population and community ecology—such as birth-death processes, species interactions …

One of ecology's grand challenges is develo** general rules to explain and predict highly
complex systems. Understanding and predicting ecological processes from species' traits …

Multiple stressors, such as warming and invasions, often occur together and have
nonadditive effects. Most studies to date assume that stressors operate in perfect synchrony …

Plant functional traits directly affect ecosystem functions. At the species level, trait
combinations depend on trade-offs representing different ecological strategies, but at the …

Trait-based approaches are increasingly recognized as a tool for understanding ecosystem
re-assembly and function under intensifying global change. Here we synthesize trait-based …

There is growing concern over tip** points arising in ecosystems because of the crossing
of environmental thresholds. Tip** points lead to abrupt and possibly irreversible shifts …