Despite their extent and socio‐ecological importance, a comprehensive biogeographical
synthesis of drylands is lacking. Here we synthesize the biogeography of key organisms …

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 …

Relationships between biodiversity and multiple ecosystem functions (that is, ecosystem
multifunctionality) are context-dependent. Both plant and soil microbial diversity have been …

The effects of plants on the biosphere, atmosphere and geosphere are key determinants of
terrestrial ecosystem functioning. However, despite substantial progress made regarding …

Approximately 25 years ago, ecologists became increasingly interested in the question of
whether ongoing biodiversity loss matters for the functioning of ecosystems. As such, a new …

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 …

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 …

The insurance hypothesis, stating that biodiversity can increase ecosystem stability, has
received wide research and political attention. Recent experiments suggest that climate …

Drylands, comprising semi‐arid, arid, and hyperarid regions, cover approximately 41% of
the Earth's land surface and have expanded considerably in recent decades. Even under …

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