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 …

Understanding the context dependence of ecosystem responses to global changes requires
the development of new conceptual frameworks. Here we propose a framework for …

The leaf economics spectrum (LES) provides a useful framework for examining species
strategies as shaped by their evolutionary history. However, that spectrum, as originally …

Although interactions between plants and microbes at the plant–soil interface are known to
be important for plant nutrient acquisition, relatively little is known about how root exudates …

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 …

The controls on aboveground community composition and diversity have been extensively
studied, but our understanding of the drivers of belowground microbial communities is …

Functional trait research has led to greater understanding of the impacts of biodiversity in
ecosystems. Yet, functional trait approaches have not been widely applied to …

Manipulating community assemblages to achieve functional targets is a key component of
restoring degraded ecosystems. The response‐and‐effect trait framework provides a …

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is increasingly being chosen by researchers as a
framework for gaining scientific insights from the quantitative analyses of data. New ideas …

Synthesizing trait observations and knowledge across the Tree of Life remains a grand
challenge for biodiversity science. Species traits are widely used in ecological and …