Impacts of large herbivores on terrestrial ecosystems

RM Pringle, JO Abraham, TM Anderson, TC Coverdale… - Current Biology, 2023 - cell.com
Large herbivores play unique ecological roles and are disproportionately imperiled by
human activity. As many wild populations dwindle towards extinction, and as interest grows …

When do Janzen–Connell effects matter? A phylogenetic meta‐analysis of conspecific negative distance and density dependence experiments

X Song, JY Lim, J Yang, MS Luskin - Ecology Letters, 2021 - Wiley Online Library
Abstract The Janzen–Connell (J‐C) hypothesis suggests that specialised natural enemies
cause distance‐or density‐dependent mortality among host plants and is regarded as an …

ForestGEO: Understanding forest diversity and dynamics through a global observatory network

SJ Davies, I Abiem, KA Salim, S Aguilar, D Allen… - Biological …, 2021 - Elsevier
ForestGEO is a network of scientists and long-term forest dynamics plots (FDPs) spanning
the Earth's major forest types. ForestGEO's mission is to advance understanding of the …

Unveiling the transition from niche to dispersal assembly in ecology

LHL Loke, RA Chisholm - Nature, 2023 - nature.com
A central goal in ecology is to understand what maintains species diversity in local
communities. Classic ecological theory, posits that niches dictate the maximum number of …

Pervasive within-species spatial repulsion among adult tropical trees

M Kalyuzhny, JK Lake, SJ Wright, AM Ostling - Science, 2023 - science.org
For species to coexist, performance must decline as the density of conspecific individuals
increases. Although evidence for such conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD) …

Is variation in conspecific negative density dependence driving tree diversity patterns at large scales?

L Hülsmann, RA Chisholm, F Hartig - Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2021 - cell.com
Half a century ago, Janzen and Connell hypothesized that the high tree species diversity in
tropical forests is maintained by specialized natural enemies. Along with other mechanisms …

Modelling how negative plant–soil feedbacks across life stages affect the spatial patterning of trees

A Iuorio, MB Ep**a, M Baudena, F Veerman… - Scientific Reports, 2023 - nature.com
In this work, we theoretically explore how litter decomposition processes and soil-borne
pathogens contribute to negative plant–soil feedbacks, in particular in transient and stable …

The Forests of Barro Colorado Island and the Neutral Theory of Biodiversity

R Chisholm - 2024 - smithsonian.figshare.com
Neutral theory in ecology came to prominence with the publication of Stephen Hubbell's
2001 book, in which applications to the forests of Barro Colorado Island (BCI) were central …

Closing the gap in the Janzen–Connell hypothesis: What determines pathogen diversity?

M Bruijning, CJE Metcalf, MD Visser - Ecology letters, 2024 - Wiley Online Library
The high tree diversity in tropical forests has long been a puzzle to ecologists. In the 1970s,
Janzen and Connell proposed that tree species (hosts) coexist due to the stabilizing actions …

The functional form of specialised predation affects whether Janzen–Connell effects can prevent competitive exclusion

DJB Smith - Ecology Letters, 2022 - Wiley Online Library
Abstract Janzen–Connell effects (JCEs), specialised predation of seeds and seedlings near
conspecific trees, are hypothesised to maintain species richness. While previous studies …