http://www.journalofecology.org current issue RSS Feed http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/740211/Towards_a_more_exact_definition_of_the_importance_of_competition_x2013_a_reply_t.html 1. Freckleton, Watkinson & Rees (2009) criticize a recent paper by ourselves in this journal (Brooker & Kikvidze 2008) as well as our earlier work on competition importance (Brooker et al. 2005). In response, here we clarify our ideas with the aim of defining more clearly the key points of scientific debate, specifically (i) the definition of the importance of competition and (ii) its measurement. 2. Freckleton, Watkinson & Rees (2009) interpret the classic paper by Welden & Slauson (1986)... 2010-04-23T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/740215/The_use_of_chronosequences_in_studies_of_ecological_succession_and_soil_developm.html 1. Chronosequences and associated space-for-time substitutions are an important and often necessary tool for studying temporal dynamics of plant communities and soil development across multiple time-scales. However, they are often used inappropriately, leading to false conclusions about ecological patterns and processes, which has prompted recent strong criticism of the approach. Here, we evaluate when chronosequences may or may not be appropriate for studying community and ecosystem... 2010-04-23T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/686137/Interactions_of_multiple_disturbances_in_shaping_boreal_forest_dynamics_a_spatia.html 1. Mixed-wood boreal forests are often considered to undergo directional succession from shade-intolerant to shade-tolerant species. It is thus expected that overstorey gaps should lead to the recruitment of shade-tolerant conifers into the canopy in all stand development stages and that the recruitment of shade-intolerant hardwoods would be minimal except in the largest gaps. 2. We analysed short-term gap dynamics over a large 6-km2 spatial area of mixed-wood boreal forest across a gradient... 2010-03-12T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/686143/Interactions_of_multiple_disturbances_in_shaping_boreal_forest_dynamics_a_spatia.html 1. Mixed-wood boreal forests are often considered to undergo directional succession from shade-intolerant to shade-tolerant species. It is thus expected that overstorey gaps should lead to the recruitment of shade-tolerant conifers into the canopy in all stand development stages and that the recruitment of shade-intolerant hardwoods would be minimal except in the largest gaps. 2. We analysed short-term gap dynamics over a large 6-km2 spatial area of mixed-wood boreal forest across a gradient... 2010-03-12T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/686133/Plant_functional_traits_in_Australian_subtropical_rain_forest_partitioning_withi.html 1. Plant functional traits are dimensions of ecological strategy variation and provide insights into the assembly of plant communities. For woody rain forest vegetation of northern coastal New South Wales, Australia, we quantified four continuous traits (leaf size, seed size, wood density and maximum height) for 231 freestanding woody species and documented community composition for 216 plots. Using trait-gradient analysis, we partitioned species trait values between alpha (within-site) and... 2010-03-10T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/686135/Plant_functional_traits_in_Australian_subtropical_rain_forest_partitioning_withi.html 1. Plant functional traits are dimensions of ecological strategy variation and provide insights into the assembly of plant communities. For woody rain forest vegetation of northern coastal New South Wales, Australia, we quantified four continuous traits (leaf size, seed size, wood density and maximum height) for 231 freestanding woody species and documented community composition for 216 plots. Using trait-gradient analysis, we partitioned species trait values between alpha (within-site) and... 2010-03-10T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/555401/Matrix_projection_models_meet_variation_in_the_real_world.html 1. Projection matrices have become the dominant modelling approach in plant demography because they (i) are relatively easy to formulate, (ii) compile complex data in a structured and analytically tractable manner, (iii) provide numerous parameters with direct biological meaning, (iv) allow the investigator to address broad or specific, experimental and/or theoretical, ecological and evolutionary questions, and (v) produce uniform outputs, enabling direct comparisons between the results of... 2010-01-25T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/555397/Matrix_projection_models_meet_variation_in_the_real_world.html 1. Projection matrices have become the dominant modelling approach in plant demography because they (i) are relatively easy to formulate, (ii) compile complex data in a structured and analytically tractable manner, (iii) provide numerous parameters with direct biological meaning, (iv) allow the investigator to address broad or specific, experimental and/or theoretical, ecological and evolutionary questions, and (v) produce uniform outputs, enabling direct comparisons between the results of... 2010-01-25T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/555403/Demographic_effects_of_extreme_weather_events_on_a_shortlived_calcareous_grassla.html 1. Life table response experiment (LTRE) analyses have been widely used to examine the sources of differences in the long-term deterministic growth rate (r = log λ) of stage-structured populations that live in spatially distinct habitats or under distinct experimental conditions. However, existing methods for LTRE analysis ignore the fact that persistent temporal variation in matrix elements results in a long-term stochastic growth rate (a = log λs) that is different from the deterministic... 2010-01-25T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/555405/Demographic_effects_of_extreme_weather_events_on_a_shortlived_calcareous_grassla.html 1. Life table response experiment (LTRE) analyses have been widely used to examine the sources of differences in the long-term deterministic growth rate (r = log λ) of stage-structured populations that live in spatially distinct habitats or under distinct experimental conditions. However, existing methods for LTRE analysis ignore the fact that persistent temporal variation in matrix elements results in a long-term stochastic growth rate (a = log λs) that is different from the deterministic... 2010-01-25T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/555399/Journal_of_Ecology_News.html 2010-01-11T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/555393/Journal_of_Ecology_News.html 2010-01-11T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/492831/Hybridization_dynamics_of_invasive_cattail_Typhaceae_stands_in_the_Western_Great.html 1. By increasing vigour and broadening ecological tolerances, hybridization between native and introduced species may serve as a primary driver of invasiveness. 2. Cattails (Typha, Typhaceae) are clonal wetland graminoids that are known to hybridize where anthropogenic influences have resulted in distributional overlap. 3. In order to gauge the relative performance of hybrid vs. pure Typha, we characterized hybridization and clonal growth where native Typha latifolia and introduced Typha... 2009-11-04T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/492837/Functional_traits_of_alien_plants_across_contrasting_climatic_and_landuse_regime.html 1 Two main views have been put forward to explain whether coexisting alien and resident plant species should show converging or diverging functional attributes. According to the 'try-harder' hypothesis, successful aliens should differ from resident species with traits that allow them to deal better with the local conditions than resident species. On the other hand, the 'join-the-locals' hypothesis stresses the importance of filtering by environmental factors and predicts strong functional... 2009-11-04T00:00:00Z http://www.journalofecology.org/details/journalArticle/492827/Measuring_the_importance_of_competition_a_new_formulation_of_the_problem.html 1. Currently, there is a debate among plant ecologists on the concepts of the intensity of competition and the importance of competition, which is central to many issues of modern plant population ecology and plant community ecology. 2. It is problematic that the current measures of intensity and importance of competition, typically, are reported as dimensionless indices because they hide the fact that both indices are functions of plant density and the level of the environmental gradient.... 2009-10-28T00:00:00Z