Molybdenum (Mo) is critical for the function of enzymes related to nitrogen cycling. Concentrations of Mo are very low in sandy, acidic soils, and biologically available Mo is only a small fraction of the total pool. While several methods have been proposed to measure plant-available Mo, there has not been […]
No-till agriculture represents a relatively widely adopted management system that aims to reduce soil erosion, decrease input costs, and sustain long-term crop productivity. However, its impacts on crop yields are variable, and an improved understanding of the factors limiting productivity is needed to support evidence-based management decisions. We conducted a […]
In the tundra, mosses play an important functional role regulating belowground and ecosystem processes, but there is still considerable uncertainty about how tundra moss communities will respond to climate change. We examined the effects of 5 years of in situ air and soil warming on net primary productivity (NPP), carbon (C) […]
Phylogeny is an ecologically meaningful way to classify plants and animals, as closely related taxa frequently have similar ecological characteristics, functional traits and effects on ecosystem processes. For bacteria, however, phylogeny has been argued to be an unreliable indicator of an organism’s ecology owing to evolutionary processes more common to microbes such as […]
Invasive species alter ecosystems, threaten native and endangered species, and have negative economic impacts. Knowing where invading individuals are from and when they arrive to a new site can guide management. Here, we evaluated how well the stable hydrogen isotope composition (δ2H) records the recent origin and time since arrival […]
Invasive, non-native plant species can alter soil microbial communities in ways that contribute to their persistence. While most studies emphasize mycorrhizal fungi, invasive plants also may influence communities of dark septate fungi (DSF), common root endophytes that can function like mycorrhizas. We tested the hypothesis that a widespread invasive plant […]
Ecological restoration has grown rapidly and now encompasses not only classic ecological theory but also utilitarian concerns, such as preparedness for climate change and provisioning of ecosystem services. Three dominant perspectives compete to influence the science and practice of river restoration. A strong focus on channel morphology has led to […]
Leaf litter decomposition plays a major role in nutrient dynamics in forested streams. The chemical composition of litter affects its processing by microorganisms, which obtain nutrients from litter and from the water column. The balance of these fluxes is not well known, because they occur simultaneously and thus are difficult […]
One of the primary challenges of our time is to feed a growing and more demanding world population with reduced external inputs and minimal environmental impacts, all under more variable and extreme climate conditions in the future1, 2, 3, 4. Conservation agriculture represents a set of three crop management principles […]
Alexander Fleming famously warned that the ignorant may someday misuse his life-saving discovery—penicillin—and select for resistant bacteria (1). This was prescient given the widespread use of subtherapeutic antibiotics by food-animal producers today. According to the findings of Van Boeckel et al. (2) in PNAS, the proliferation of ignorance is only […]