Compensatory Growth of Scots Pine Seedlings Mitigates Impacts of Multiple Droughts Within and Across Years.

Tree seedling resistance to and recovery from abiotic stressors such as drought and warming are crucial for forest regeneration and persistence. Selection of more resilient provenances and their use in forest management programs might alleviate pressures of climate change on forest ecosystems. Scots pine forests in particular have suffered frequent drought-induced mortality, suggesting high vulnerability to extreme events.

Contrasting Hydraulic Architectures of Scots Pine and Sessile Oak at Their Southernmost Distribution Limits.

Many temperate European tree species have their southernmost distribution limits in the Mediterranean Basin. The projected climatic conditions, particularly an increase in dryness, might induce an altitudinal and latitudinal retreat at their southernmost distribution limit. Therefore, characterizing the morphological and physiological variability of temperate tree species under dry conditions is essential to understand species' responses to expected climate change.

Diverging Drought Resistance of Scots Pine Provenances Revealed by Infrared Thermography.

With recent climate changes, Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forests have been affected by die-off events. Assisted migration of adapted provenances mitigates drought impacts and promotes forest regeneration.

Above-Ground Dimensions and Acclimation Explain Variation in Drought Mortality of Scots Pine Seedlings from Various Provenances.

Seedling establishment is a critical part of the life cycle, thus seedling survival might be even more important for forest persistence under recent and future climate change. Scots pine forests have been disproportionally more affected by climate change triggered forest-dieback. Nevertheless, some Scots pine provenances might prove resilient to future drought events because of the species' large distributional range, genetic diversity, and adaptation potential.

How to catch more prey with less effective traps: explaining the evolution of temporarily inactive traps in carnivorous pitcher plants.

Carnivorous Nepenthes pitcher plants capture arthropods with specialized slippery surfaces. The key trapping surface, the pitcher rim (peristome), is highly slippery when wetted by rain, nectar or condensation, but not when dry. As natural selection should favour adaptations that maximize prey intake, the evolution of temporarily inactive traps seems paradoxical.

Interaction complexity matters: disentangling services and disservices of ant communities driving yield in tropical agroecosystems.

Owing to complex direct and indirect effects, impacts of higher trophic levels on plants is poorly understood. In tropical agroecosystems, ants interact with crop mutualists and antagonists, but little is known about how this integrates into the final ecosystem service, crop yield. We combined ant exclusion and introduction of invasive and native-dominant species in cacao agroecosystems to test whether (i) ant exclusion reduces yield, (ii) dominant species maximize certain intermediate ecosystem services (e.