I'm super excited to share that this article was published today in Science! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
All made possible by the fantastic group of donors, volunteers and scientists at The American Chestnut Foundation (tacf.org), HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, and our collaborators.
Also very grateful to Sedgwick Reserve and the staff who make working there such a delight. The annual plants tell us a lot about species interactions in general but are also part of a truly special and interesting ecosystem! (8/8)
Huge thanks to everyone who worked on this project including co-authors Haylee Oyler, Jonathan Levine, and @nathanjbkraft.bsky.social. (7/8)
Our results highlight the importance of spatial structure for competition in diverse plant communities. Because aggregation is common and competitive hierarchies are widespread, the effects of clustering on competition may be an underappreciated driver of biodiversity patterns in nature. (6/8)
Plot shows the competitive differences between species predicted the effects of spatial clustering. Inset: posterior distribution of slopes.
The effects of clustering could also be predicted by a competitive hierarchy among our species. The bigger the difference in competitive ability, the more the spatial clustering mattered. (5/8)
Plot shows that differences in competitor size and traits across spatial treatments were correlated with differences in focal seed production across the treatments. Inset: posterior distribution of slopes.
The effects of clustering varied across species combinations. In fact, the strongest effects of clustering on focal fecundity occurred for the background species that had the biggest differences in size and/or functional traits when they were clustered with themselves vs mixed with others. (4/8)
Figure with histograms showing differences in focal plant seed production between clustered and mixed treatments across background species combinations.
We found that focal plants generally produced more seeds when the species around them were clustered, suggesting that mixed communities of competitors have more negative effects on other species. (3/8)
The figure about the experimental design shows clustered and mixed competitor treatments with purple and green circles representing competitors and yellow stars representing focal plants. The photographs show examples of these treatments.
We set up a field experiment with annual plants at UCSB's Sedgwick Reserve to study how clustered versus mixed competitors impact individual focal plants in terms of their fecundity (seed production). (2/8)
Our new paper in @pnas.org (co-led by @theogibbs.bsky.social) demonstrates that spatial patterns can modify interactions in plant communities of more than two species! (1/8)
Relationship between fire severity (dNBR, x axis) and early postfire recovery (y axis) for the different vegetation types affected in the Bermeja, Culebra and Hurdes wildfires (Spain). A: based on the Spanish Forest Map (MFE) data; B: based on the Spanish National Inventory (IFN). Dashed lines correspond to global means.
Pine plantations burn more severely & recover more slowly than other vegetation types. This is observed using the forest map (L) or the forest inventory (R), Spain
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
jgpausas.blogs.uv.es/2025/10/16/p...
🧪🌎🔥🍁🌳🔥 wildfire @jappliedecology.bsky.social
Happy to share our research on traditional farming landscapes in northwest Himalaya is out in Science Advances! Thanks to my advisor Tulja & all the wonderful collaborators- Ale @ornithoale.bsky.social, Katie @kasolari.bsky.social, Akshata, Kullu, Rinchen, Lamaji. 1/7 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🔥🔥🔥 Why are wildfires more severe in private industrial forests?
Our new paper in @globalchangebio.bsky.social has the answers:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
🧵 Thread below
(A) A conceptual diagram of interspecific and intraspecific higher-order interactions among annual plants. (B) Conceptual diagrams (along with pictures of actual annual plants) of two different spatial arrangements of competitors to manipulate the relative frequecy of inter to intraspecific higher-order interactions.
Happy to share a new preprint! W/ @zachgold.bsky.social, Haylee Oyler, Jonathan Levine and @nathanjbkraft.bsky.social. We use a spatially explicit experimental design to ask:
do higher-order interactions structure the dynamics of annual plant communities?
Link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵
Good luck with this year's planting! Will be curious to see what the hummocks look like in a few months