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Article
Open AccessFacilitation and competition deconstructed: a mechanistic modelling approach to the stress gradient hypothesis applied to drylands
Facilitative interactions among species are key in plant communities. While experimental tests support the Stress Gradient Hypothesis (SGH) as an association between facilitation and stress, whether the shape ...
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Article
Open AccessA global analysis of how human infrastructure squeezes sandy coasts
Coastal ecosystems provide vital services, but human disturbance causes massive losses. Remaining ecosystems are squeezed between rising seas and human infrastructure development. While shoreline retreat is in...
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Article
Open AccessModelling how negative plant–soil feedbacks across life stages affect the spatial patterning of trees
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 spatial organisation of tro...
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Article
Open AccessAntigonon leptopus invasion is associated with plant community disassembly in a Caribbean island ecosystem
Invasions by non-native plant species are widely recognized as a major driver of biodiversity loss. Globally, (sub-)tropical islands form important components of biodiversity hotspots, while being particularly...
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Article
Chemical contamination-mediated regime shifts in planktonic systems
Abrupt transitions leading to algal blooms are quite well known in aquatic ecosystems and have important implications for the environment. These ecosystem shifts have been largely attributed to nutrient dynami...
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Article
Open AccessEarly Warning Signals for Rate-induced Critical Transitions in Salt Marsh Ecosystems
Intertidal ecosystems are important because of their function as coastal protection and ecological value. Sea level rise may lead to submergence of salt marshes worldwide. Salt marshes can exhibit critical tra...
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Article
Open AccessCombined Grazing and Drought Stress Alter the Outcome of Nurse: Beneficiary Interactions in a Semi-arid Ecosystem
Positive interspecific plant–plant interactions in (semi-)arid ecosystems are crucial for supporting ecosystem diversity and stability, but how interactions respond to grazing combined with temporal variation ...
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Article
Open AccessSoil Water Repellency: A Potential Driver of Vegetation Dynamics in Coastal Dunes
Coastal dunes are valuable and complex ecosystems, meaning that predicting their response to anthropogenic pressure is challenging. A potential driver of complexity that links soil, water, and vegetation dynam...
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Article
Open AccessRevealing patterns of local species richness along environmental gradients with a novel network tool
How species richness relates to environmental gradients at large extents is commonly investigated aggregating local site data to coarser grains. However, such relationships often change with the grain of analy...
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Article
New perspectives on the use of nucleic acids in pharmacological applications: inhibitory action of extracellular self-DNA in biological systems
The research for new products against pathogens, parasites and infesting species, in both agriculture and medicine, implies huge and increasing scientific, industrial and economic efforts. Traditional approach...
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Article
Open AccessComplexity and coexistence in a simple spatial model for arid savanna ecosystems
Tree–grass coexistence is broadly observed in tropical savannas. Recent studies indicate that, in arid savannas, such coexistence is stable and related to water availability. The role of different factors (fro...
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Article
Feedbacks between vegetation pattern and resource loss dramatically decrease ecosystem resilience and restoration potential in a simple dryland model
Conceptual frameworks of dryland degradation commonly include ecohydrological feedbacks between landscape spatial organization and resource loss, so that decreasing cover and size of vegetation patches result ...
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Article
Open AccessBistability and regular spatial patterns in arid ecosystems
A variety of patterns observed in ecosystems can be explained by resource–concentration mechanisms. A resource–concentration mechanism occurs when organisms increase the lateral flow of a resource toward them,...
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Article
Early-warning signals for critical transitions
Many complex systems, ranging from ecosystems to financial markets and the climate, can have critical thresholds or tip** points where a sudden shift from one stable state to a contrasting regime may occur. ...
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Article
Open AccessLinking habitat modification to catastrophic shifts and vegetation patterns in bogs
Paleoecological studies indicate that peatland ecosystems may exhibit bistability. This would mean that these systems are resilient to gradual changes in climate, until environmental thresholds are passed. The...
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Article
Islands of fertility induce co-occurring negative and positive plant-soil feedbacks promoting coexistence
Positive plant-soil feedback by “ecosystem engineers” is an important driver for the structuring and organization of resource-limited ecosystems. Although ample evidence demonstrates that plant-soil feedbacks ...
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Article
Open AccessRegular Surface Patterning of Peatlands: Confronting Theory with Field Data
Regular spatial patterns of sharply bounded ridges and hollows are frequently observed in peatlands and ask for an explanation in terms of underlying structuring processes. Simulation models suggest that spati...
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Article
Spatial vegetation patterns and imminent desertification in Mediterranean arid ecosystems
Arid ecosystems cover about 40% of Earth's land area and are home to over two billion people, yet they remain vulnerable to climate change and human actions. Using numerical simulations, and data from Mediterr...
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Article
High solar radiation hinders tree regeneration above the alpine treeline in northern Ecuador
Many tropical alpine treelines lie below their climatic potential, because of natural or anthropogenic causes. Forest extension above the treeline depends on the ability of trees to establish in the alpine env...
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Article
Negative Plant–Soil Feedback and Positive Species Interaction in a Herbaceous Plant Community
Increasing evidence shows that facilitative interaction and negative plant–soil feedback are driving factors of plant population dynamics and community processes. We studied the intensity and the relative impa...
