Hydroethanolic Extract: Chemical Profile, Antibacterial Activity, Cytotoxicity, and Gel Formulation Development.

(Tul.) Gagnon & G.P.

Key concepts and a world-wide look at plant recruitment networks.

Plant-plant interactions are major determinants of the dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems. There is a long tradition in the study of these interactions, their mechanisms and their consequences using experimental, observational and theoretical approaches. Empirical studies overwhelmingly focus at the level of species pairs or small sets of species.

Effects of plant diversity on productivity strengthen over time due to trait-dependent shifts in species overyielding.

Plant diversity effects on community productivity often increase over time. Whether the strengthening of diversity effects is caused by temporal shifts in species-level overyielding (i.e.

RecruitNet: A global database of plant recruitment networks.

Plant recruitment interactions (i.e., what recruits under what) shape the composition, diversity, and structure of plant communities.

Functional Diversity and Invasive Species Influence Soil Fertility in Experimental Grasslands.

Ecosystem properties can be positively affected by plant functional diversity and compromised by invasive alien plants. We performed a community assembly study in mesocosms manipulating different functional diversity levels for native grassland plants (communities composed by 1, 2 or 3 functional groups) to test if functional dispersion could constrain the impacts of an invasive alien plant ( ) on soil fertility and plant community biomass via complementarity. Response variables were soil nutrients, soil water nutrients and aboveground biomass.

The role of nurse successional stages on species-specific facilitation in drylands: Nurse traits and facilitation skills.

Plant establishment is a challenge in semiarid environments due to intense and frequent drought periods. The presence of neighboring trees (nurses) can increase the establishment of seedlings (targets) by improving resource availability and microclimate. The nurse effect, however, might vary depending on nurse-target species combinations but factors that predict this specificity are poorly known.

Ecological literacy and beyond: Problem-based learning for future professionals.

Ecological science contributes to solving a broad range of environmental problems. However, lack of ecological literacy in practice often limits application of this knowledge. In this paper, we highlight a critical but often overlooked demand on ecological literacy: to enable professionals of various careers to apply scientific knowledge when faced with environmental problems.

Seed Mass and the Evolution of Early-Seedling Etiolation.

The influence of seed mass on the evolution of seedling-foraging strategies for light acquisition under deep shade was assessed in a comparative study of etiolation behavior. This was done across 50 Australian species varying in seed reserve mass by eight orders of magnitude during the first week after germination. Proportional increase in hypocotyl length in shade compared to light was similar across the range of seed reserve mass.