A few studies in the past have shown that plant diversity in terms of species richness and functional composition can modify plant defense chemistry. However, it is not yet clear to what extent genetic differentiation of plant chemotypes or phenotypic plasticity in response to diversity-induced variation in growth conditions or a combination of both is responsible for this pattern. We collected seed families of ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata) from six-year old experimental grasslands of varying...

Herbivores do not forage uniformly across landscapes, but select for patches of higher nutrition and lower predation risk. Macrotermes mounds contain higher concentrations of soil nutrients and support grasses of higher nutritional value than the surrounding savanna matrix, attracting mammalian grazers that preferentially forage on termite mound vegetation. However, little is known about the spatial extent of such termite influence on grazing patterns and how it might differ in time and space. We measured grazing...

1. Soil carbon (C) storage is a key ecosystem service. Soil C stocks play a vital role in soil fertility and climate regulation, but the factors that control these stocks at regional and national scales are unknown, particularly when their composition and stability are considered. As a result, their mapping relies on either unreliable proxy measures or laborious direct measurements. 2. Using data from an extensive national survey of English grasslands, we show that surface...

1. Phylogenies are increasingly incorporated into ecological studies on the basis that evolutionary relatedness broadly correlates with trait similarity. However, phylogenetic approaches have rarely been applied to monitoring long-term community change or guiding management. 2. We analysed a 25-year resampling data set (1976–2001) of 41 tallgrass prairie remnants (Illinois, USA) to test for phylogenetic signals of plant community structure, change, environmental associations, fire management and functional traits. A community phylogeny was constructed using GenBank sequences...