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.

Assessing the spatial scale of synchrony in forest tree population dynamics.

Populations of forest trees exhibit large temporal fluctuations, but little is known about the synchrony of these fluctuations across space, including their sign, magnitude, causes and characteristic scales. These have important implications for metapopulation persistence and theoretical community ecology. Using data from permanent forest plots spanning local, regional and global spatial scales, we measured spatial synchrony in tree population growth rates over sub-decadal and decadal timescales and explored the relationship of synchrony to geographical distance.

Fluorescently probing anaerobic digester sludge: Measuring single-cell anabolic activity in methanogens (Methanosarcina and Methanothermobacter) with deuterium-labeled Raman analysis.

This study addresses the challenge of obtaining in situ information on substrate utilization rates for individual microbial species in complex microbial communities such as anaerobic digester sludge. To overcome this hurdle, a novel approach combining doubly-labelled deuterium, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and Raman microspectroscopy was developed. The method enables quantitative determination of anabolic heavy hydrogen incorporation into FISH-targeted, exemplified by methanogenic cells from the genera Methanosarcina and Methanothermobacter.