Increases in nitrogen (N) inputs to the biosphere can exacerbate the introduction and spread of invasive non-native plant species. Often, with elevated soil N levels, invasive plants establish and further enrich soil N pools, changing overall ecosystem function. This study examined the relationship between soil N cycling and an increasingly prevalent, invasive plant species, tall oatgrass ( Arrhenatherum elatius subsp. elatius...

Soils derived from ultramafic parent materials (hereafter serpentine) provide habitat for unique plant communities containing species with adaptations to the low nutrient levels, high magnesium : calcium ratios, and high metal content (Ni, Zn) that characterize serpentine. Plants on serpentine have long been studied in evolution and ecology, and plants adapted to serpentine contribute disproportionately to plant diversity in m...

To determine whether phylogenetic relatedness predicts ecological niche differences and community assembly in the field, we transplanted 16 focal plant species into field niches of species of increasing phylogenetic relatedness, manipulated the presence of plant neighbors, and measured environmental covariates. We found that plant survivorship declined with increasing phylogenetic distance in the presence of neighbors, but wit...

We examined whether plant‐soil feedback and plant‐field abundance were phylogenetically conserved. For 57 co‐occurring native and exotic plant species from an old field in Canada, we collected a data set on the effects of three soil biota treatments on plant growth: net whole‐soil feedback (combined effects of mutualists and antagonists), feedback with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi ( AMF ) collected from soils of conspecific pl...

Aim The global species richness patterns of birds and mammals are strongly congruent. This could reflect similar evolutionary responses to the Earth’s history, shared responses to current climatic conditions, or both. We compare the geographical and phylogenetic structures of both richness gradients to evaluate these possibilities. Location Global. Methods Gridded bird and mammal distribution databases were used to compare the...

The diversity of life is ultimately generated by evolution, and much attention has focused on the rapid evolution of ecological traits. Yet, the tendency for many ecological traits to instead remain similar over time [niche conservatism (NC)] has many consequences for the fundamental patterns and processes studied in ecology and conservation biology. Here, we describe the mounting evidence for the importance of NC to major top...