Acts in what Hutchinson (1965) has called the 'ecological theatre' are played out on various scales of space and time. To understand the drama, we must view it on the appropriate scale. Plant ecologists long ago recognized the importance of sampling scale in their descriptions of the dispersion or d

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus

One view of pollination systems is that they tend toward specialization. This view is implicit in many discussions of angiosperm evolution and plant—pollinator coevolution and in the long—standing concept of pollination syndromes. But actual pollination systems often are more generalized and dynamic

A comprehensive analysis of warming-induced changes in soil carbon stocks is presented by assembling data from 49 field experiments, finding that the effects of warming are contingent on the size of the initial soil carbon stock, with considerable losses occurring in high-latitude areas.

It is shown that RUE decreases across biomes as mean annual precipitation increases, and during the driest years at each site, there is convergence to a common maximum RUE (RUEmax) that is typical of arid ecosystems.

Here, there, and everywhere No place is safe from plastic pollution. Brahney et al. show that even the most isolated areas in the United States—national parks and national wilderness areas—accumulate microplastic particles after they are transported there by wind and rain (see the Perspective by Roc

The timing of life history traits is central to lifetime fitness and nowhere is this more evident or well studied as in the phenology of flowering in governing plant reproductive success. Recent changes in the timing of environmental events attributable to climate change, such as the date of snowmel

The study of elevational diversity gradients dates back to the foundation of biogeography. Although elevational patterns of plant and animal diversity have been studied for centuries, such patterns have not been reported for microorganisms and remain poorly understood. Here, in an effort to assess t

A prospective overview of social network analysis' general utility for the study of animal social behaviour is provided and relevance and constraints of some network measures are highlighted.

Nitrogen Overload The cycling of essential nutrients in terrestrial ecosystems has been altered by human activities. Elser et al. (p. 835 ) report a comparative analysis of lakes in Norway, Sweden, and in the United States that suggests that this is also true in aquatic ecosystems such as lakes. Dep

The inadequacy of dispersal data obtained directly by traditional methods using population studies of marked individuals is highlighted by comparing the resulting distributions with dispersal estimates obtained by radio-tracking and by using genetic estimates of gene flow.

raise global mean temperature over the next century by 1.0–3.5 °C (Houghton et al. 1995, 1996). Ecologists from around the world have begun experiments to investigate the effects of global warming on terrestrial ecosystems, the aspect of global climate change that attracts the most public attention

Phenology affects nearly all aspects of ecology and evolution. Virtually all biological phenomena—from individual physiology to interspecific relationships to global nutrient fluxes—have annual cycles and are influenced by the timing of abiotic events. Recent years have seen a surge of interest in t

Biome-wide relationships between temperature, moisture and seven key plant functional traits across the tundra and over time show that community height increased with warming across all sites, whereas other traits lagged behind predicted rates of change.

It is demonstrated how earlier emergence from hibernation and earlier weaning of young has led to a longer growing season and larger body masses before hibernation, and this helps explain how a shift in phenology can cause simultaneous phenotypic and demographic changes.

Community structure and ecosystem processes often vary along elevational gradients. Their responses to elevation are commonly driven by changes in temperature, and many community- and ecosystem-level variables therefore frequently respond similarly to elevation across contrasting gradients. There ar

Calendar date of the beginning of the growing season at high altitude in the Colorado Rocky Mountains is variable but has not changed significantly over the past 25 years. This result differs from growing evidence from low altitudes that climate change is resulting in a longer growing season, earlie

1. Animals produce sounds for diverse biological functions such as defending territories, attracting mates, deterring predators, navigation, finding food and maintaining contact with members of their social group. Biologists can take advantage of these acoustic behaviours to gain valuable insights i

The way in which floral parameters, such as interplant distances, nectar rewards, flower morphology, and floral color affect constancy is considered, and the implications of pollinator constancy for plant evolution are discussed.