Publications
Group highlights
(For a full list of publications, see Google Scholar)
Ecosystem-scale predictions of deadwood turnover and carbon storage should account for the impact of wood traits on decomposer communities. In tropical Australia, termite-driven decay was lower than expected for native wood on the ground. Even if termites are present, they may not always increase decomposition rates of fallen native wood in tropical forests. Our study shows how the drivers of wood decay differ between Australian tropical rainforest and savanna; further research should test whether such differences apply world-wide.
Stephanie Law, Habacuc Flores-Moreno, Alexander W. Cheesman, Rebecca Clement, Marc Rosenfield, Abbey Yatsko, Lucas A. Cernusak, James W. Dalling, Thomas Canam, Isra Abo Iqsaysa, Elizabeth S. Duan, Steven D. Allison, Paul Eggleton, Amy E. Zanne
Although changes in plant phenology are largely attributed to changes in climate, the roles of other factors such as genetic constraints, competition, and self-compatibility are underexplored. Spring precipitation and other climate-related factors were dominant predictors of phenological variance. Our results emphasize the strong effect of precipitation on phenology, especially in the moisture-limited habitats preferred by Leavenworthia. Among the many factors that determine phenology, climate is the dominant influence, indicating that the effects of climate change on phenology are expected to increase.
Kelsey B. Bartlett, Matthew W. Austin, James B. Beck, Amy E. Zanne, Adam B. Smith
American Journal of Botany (2023)
Despite host-fungal symbiotic interactions being ubiquitous in all ecosystems, understanding how symbiosis has shaped the ecology and evolution of fungal spores that are involved in dispersal and colonization of their hosts has been ignored in life-history studies. In this study, symbiotic status explained more variation than climatic variables in the current distribution of spore sizes of plant-associated fungi at a global scale while the dispersal potential of their spores is more restricted compared to free-living fungi. Our work advances life-history theory by highlighting how the interaction between symbiosis and offspring morphology shapes the reproductive and dispersal strategies among living forms.
Carlos A. Aguilar- Trigueros, Franz-Sebastian Krah, William K. Cornwell, Amy E. Zanne, et al.
Decomposition rates vary with temperature and precipitation, in part because of the effects of climate on decomposer organisms. Although microbes are widely recognized as decomposers, animals such as insects also play a key role in tropical systems. This global study quantifies climate-related variation in wood decomposition by both microbes and termites. Climate influenced both microbial and termite decomposition, but termite presence and activity were more sensitive to temperature. Termites may thus play a larger role in global wood decomposition as the climate warms.
Amy E. Zanne, Habacuc Flores-Moreno, Jeff R. Powell, William K. Cornwell, et al.
Microbial community structure varied more strongly with wood traits than with spatial locations, mirroring the relative role of these factors on decay rates on the same pieces of wood even after 5 years. Co‐occurring fungal and bacterial communities persistently influenced one another independently from their shared environmental conditions.
Marissa R. Lee, Brad Oberle, Wendy Olivas, Darcy F. Young, Amy E. Zanne
Environmental Microbiology (2020)
In response to the goals proposed in the draft post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) made public by the CBD, we urge negotiators to consider three points that are critical if the agreed goals are to stabilize or reverse nature’s decline.
S Díaz, N Zafra-Calvo, A Purvis, PH Verburg, D Obura, P Leadley, R Chaplin-Kramer, L De Meester, E Dulloo, B Martín-López, MR Shaw, P Visconti, W Broadgate, MW Bruford, ND Burgess, J Cavender-Bares, F DeClerck, JM Fernández-Palacios, LA Garibaldi, SLL Hill, F Isbell, CK Khoury, CB Krug, J Liu, M Maron, PJK McGowan, HM Pereira, V Reyes-García, J Rocha, C Rondinini, L Shannon, YJ Shin, PVR Snelgrove, EM Spehn, B Strassburg, SM Subramanian, JJ Tewksbury, JEM Watson, AE Zanne
We decomposed green leaves and naturally senesced leaf litter of nine species representing a wide range of leaf functional traits. We evaluated the ability of traits associated with leaf and litter physiology, N biochemistry and carbon quality to predict litter decomposition.
Marc V. Rosenfield, Jason K. Keller, Catrina Clausen, Kimberlee Cyphers, Jennifer L. Funk
To understand linear and nonlinear relationships between angiosperm structure and biogeographic distributions, we integrated large datasets of growth habits, conduit sizes, leaf phenologies, evolutionary histories, and environmental limits.
Amy E. Zanne, William D. Pearse, William K. Cornwell, Daniel J. McGlinn, Ian J. Wright, Josef C. Uyeda
We implemented a three-way factorial experiment in Fraxinus americana, (white ash), an iconic North American species threatened by an invasive beetle.
Brad Oberle, Kristofer R. Covey, Kevin M. Dunham, Edgar J. Hernandez, Maranda L. Walton, Darcy F. Young, Amy E. Zanne
We examine how increasing grazing pressures on the Mongolian steppe affect Diptera diversity and abundance. We observed that fly family diversity decreased in heavily grazed sites and that diptera communities at sites with intense grazing have proportionally higher prevalence of taxa from the families Muscidae, Sepsidae, Ephydridae, Chloropidae, and Tachinidae, two of which are often associated with animal waste.
Rebecca A. Clement, Paul B. Frandsen, Tristan McKnight, C Riley Nelson
Journal of Insect Conservation (2018)
To draw together our current understanding of wood function, we identify and collate data on the major wood functional traits, including the largest wood density database to date (8412 taxa), mechanical strength measures and anatomical features, as well as clade‐specific features such as secondary chemistry.
Jerome Chave, David Coomes, Steven Jansen, Simon L. Lewis, Nathan G. Swenson, Amy E. Zanne