Ecology Letters (2011) 14: 1170–1181
Interactions among species drive the ecological and evolutionary processes in ecological communities. These interactions are effectively key components of ...biodiversity. Studies that use a network approach to study the structure and dynamics of communities of interacting species have revealed many patterns and associated processes. Historically these studies were restricted to trophic interactions, although network approaches are now used to study a wide range of interactions, including for example the reproductive mutualisms. However, each interaction type remains studied largely in isolation from others. Merging the various interaction types within a single integrative framework is necessary if we want to further our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of communities. Dividing the networks up is a methodological convenience as in the field the networks occur together in space and time and will be linked by shared species. Herein, we outline a conceptual framework for studying networks composed of more than one type of interaction, highlighting key questions and research areas that would benefit from their study.
Organisms throughout the tree of life accumulate chemical resources, in particular forms or compartments, to secure their availability for future use. Here we review microbial storage and its ...ecological significance by assembling several rich but disconnected lines of research in microbiology, biogeochemistry, and the ecology of macroscopic organisms. Evidence is drawn from various systems, but we pay particular attention to soils, where microorganisms play crucial roles in global element cycles. An assembly of genus-level data demonstrates the likely prevalence of storage traits in soil. We provide a theoretical basis for microbial storage ecology by distinguishing a spectrum of storage strategies ranging from surplus storage (storage of abundant resources that are not immediately required) to reserve storage (storage of limited resources at the cost of other metabolic functions). This distinction highlights that microorganisms can invest in storage at times of surplus and under conditions of scarcity. We then align storage with trait-based microbial life-history strategies, leading to the hypothesis that ruderal species, which are adapted to disturbance, rely less on storage than microorganisms adapted to stress or high competition. We explore the implications of storage for soil biogeochemistry, microbial biomass, and element transformations and present a process-based model of intracellular carbon storage. Our model indicates that storage can mitigate against stoichiometric imbalances, thereby enhancing biomass growth and resource-use efficiency in the face of unbalanced resources. Given the central roles of microbes in biogeochemical cycles, we propose that microbial storage may be influential on macroscopic scales, from carbon cycling to ecosystem stability.
Summary
It is increasingly acknowledged that plant–soil feedbacks may play an important role in driving the composition of plant communities and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. However, the ...mechanistic understanding of plant–soil feedbacks, as well as their roles in natural ecosystems in proportion to other possible drivers, is still in its infancy. Such knowledge will enhance our capacity to determine the contribution of plant–soil feedback to community and ecosystem responses under global environmental change.
Here, we review how plant–soil feedbacks may develop under extreme drought and precipitation events, CO2 and nitrogen enrichment, temperature increase, land use change and plant species loss vs. gain. We present a framework for opening the ‘black box of soil’ considering the responses of the various biotic components (enemies, symbionts and decomposers) of plant–soil feedback to the global environmental changes, and we discuss how to integrate these components to understand and predict the net effects of plant–soil feedbacks under the various scenarios of change.
To gain an understanding of how plant–soil feedback plays out in realistic settings, we also use the framework to discuss its interaction with other drivers of plant community composition, including competition, facilitation, herbivory, and soil physical and chemical properties.
We conclude that understanding the role that plant–soil feedback plays in shaping the responses of plant community composition and ecosystem processes to global environmental changes requires unravelling the individual contributions of enemies, symbionts and decomposers. These biotic factors may show different response rates and strengths, thereby resulting in different net magnitudes and directions of plant–soil feedbacks under various scenarios of global change. We also need tests of plant–soil feedback under more realistic conditions to determine its contribution to changes in patterns and processes in the field, both at ecologically and evolutionary relevant time‐scales.
Lay Summary
In agricultural and natural systems researchers have demonstrated large effects of plant–soil feedback (PSF) on plant growth. However, the concepts and approaches used in these two types of systems ...have developed, for the most part, independently. Here, we present a conceptual framework that integrates knowledge and approaches from these two contrasting systems. We use this integrated framework to demonstrate (i) how knowledge from complex natural systems can be used to increase agricultural resource-use efficiency and productivity and (ii) how research in agricultural systems can be used to test hypotheses and approaches developed in natural systems. Using this framework, we discuss avenues for new research toward an ecologically sustainable and climate-smart future.
PSF has been extensively studied in both agricultural and natural systems, with increased activity in recent years, but a framework for integrating the concepts and principles developed in these systems is lacking.
Interactions between soil biota and plant leaf and root traits have become an important tool in understanding PSF in wild plants, but this understanding has not yet been utilized in agricultural crop rotations.
Soil inoculations with microbial strains are increasingly being used for steering the soil microbiome in agriculture but might also offer a promising method of restoration of degraded systems, and for controlling the spread of invasive species.
Increasing evidence shows that PSF can play important roles in mediating ecosystem responses to forecasted climate change and extreme weather events.
Plant–soil feedback (PSF) is an important driver of plant community dynamics. Many studies have emphasized the role of pathogens and symbiotic mutualists in PSFs; however, less is known about the ...contribution of decomposing litter, especially that of roots.
We conducted a PSF experiment, where soils were conditioned by living early- and mid-successional grasses and forbs with and without decomposing roots of conspecific species (conditioning phase). These soils were used to test growth responses of conspecific and heterospecific plant species (feedback phase).
The addition of the roots of conspecifics decreased the biomass of both early- and mid-successional plant species in the conditioning phase. In the feedback phase, root addition had positive effects on the biomass of early-successional species and neutral effects on mid-successional species, except when mid-successional grasses were grown in soils conditioned by conspecifics, where effects were negative. Biomass of early- and mid-successional forbs was generally reduced in soils conditioned by conspecifics.
We conclude that root decomposition may increase short-term negative PSF effects, but that the effects can become neutral to positive over time, thereby counteracting negative components of PSF. This implies that root decomposition is a key element of PSF and needs to be included in future studies.
Social connectedness theory posits that the brain processes social rejection as a threat to survival. Recent electrophysiological evidence suggests that midfrontal theta (4–8Hz) oscillations in the ...EEG provide a window on the processing of social rejection. Here we examined midfrontal theta dynamics (power and inter-trial phase synchrony) during the processing of social evaluative feedback. We employed the Social Judgment paradigm in which 56 undergraduate women (mean age=19.67 years) were asked to communicate their expectancies about being liked vs. disliked by unknown peers. Expectancies were followed by feedback indicating social acceptance vs. rejection. Results revealed a significant increase in EEG theta power to unexpected social rejection feedback. This EEG theta response could be source-localized to brain regions typically reported during activation of the saliency network (i.e., dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, insula, inferior frontal gyrus, frontal pole, and the supplementary motor area). Theta phase dynamics mimicked the behavior of the time-domain averaged feedback-related negativity (FRN) by showing stronger phase synchrony for feedback that was unexpected vs. expected. Theta phase, however, differed from the FRN by also displaying stronger phase synchrony in response to rejection vs. acceptance feedback. Together, this study highlights distinct roles for midfrontal theta power and phase synchrony in response to social evaluative feedback. Our findings contribute to the literature by showing that midfrontal theta oscillatory power is sensitive to social rejection but only when peer rejection is unexpected, and this theta response is governed by a widely distributed neural network implicated in saliency detection and conflict monitoring.
•Midfrontal theta oscillatory dynamics are examined during social feedback processing.•Theta power reacts most strongly to unexpected social rejection feedback.•Inter-trial theta phase synchrony is sensitive to both prediction error and rejection feedback.•Source-localization of theta power yielded the ACC as main probable source.•Theta power during unexpected rejection feedback was localized to sources within the saliency network.
Most reviews of IVF ovarian stimulation protocols have insufficiently accounted for various patient populations, such as ovulatory women, women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or women with ...poor ovarian response, and have included studies in which the agonist or antagonist was not the only variable between the compared study arms.
The aim of the current study was to compare GnRH antagonist protocols versus standard long agonist protocols in couples undergoing IVF or ICSI, while accounting for various patient populations and treatment schedules.
The Cochrane Menstrual Disorders and Subfertility Review Group specialized register of controlled trials and Pubmed and Embase databases were searched from inception until June 2016. Eligible trials were those that compared GnRH antagonist protocols and standard long GnRH agonist protocols in couples undergoing IVF or ICSI. The primary outcome was ongoing pregnancy rate. Secondary outcomes were: live birth rate, clinical pregnancy rate, number of oocytes retrieved and safety with regard to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). Separate comparisons were performed for the general IVF population, women with PCOS and women with poor ovarian response. Pre-planned subgroup analyses were performed for various antagonist treatment schedules.
We included 50 studies. Of these, 34 studies reported on general IVF patients, 10 studies reported on PCOS patients and 6 studies reported on poor responders. In general IVF patients, ongoing pregnancy rate was significantly lower in the antagonist group compared with the agonist group (RR 0.89, 95% CI 0.82-0.96). In women with PCOS and in women with poor ovarian response, there was no evidence of a difference in ongoing pregnancy between the antagonist and agonist groups (RR 0.97, 95% CI 0.84-1.11 and RR 0.87, 95% CI 0.65-1.17, respectively). Subgroup analyses for various antagonist treatment schedules compared to the long protocol GnRH agonist showed a significantly lower ongoing pregnancy rate when the oral hormonal programming pill (OHP) pretreatment was combined with a flexible protocol (RR 0.74, 95% CI 0.59-0.91) while without OHP, the RR was 0.84, 95% CI 0.71-1.0. Subgroup analysis for the fixed antagonist schedule demonstrated no evidence of a significant difference with or without OHP (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.79-1.12 and RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.83-1.05, respectively). Antagonists resulted in significantly lower OHSS rates both in the general IVF patients and in women with PCOS (RR 0.63, 95% CI 0.50-0.81 and RR 0.53, 95% CI 0.30-0.95, respectively). No data on OHSS was available from trials in poor responders.
In a general IVF population, GnRH antagonists are associated with lower ongoing pregnancy rates when compared to long protocol agonists, but also with lower OHSS rates. Within this population, antagonist treatment prevents one case of OHSS in 40 patients but results in one less ongoing pregnancy out of every 28 women treated. Thus standard use of the long GnRH agonist treatment is perhaps still the approach of choice for prevention of premature luteinization. In couples with PCOS and poor responders, GnRH antagonists do not seem to compromise ongoing pregnancy rates and are associated with less OHSS and therefore could be considered as standard treatment.
Plant–soil feedback (PSF) and diversity–productivity relationships are important research fields to study drivers and consequences of changes in plant biodiversity. While studies suggest that ...positive plant diversity–productivity relationships can be explained by variation in PSF in diverse plant communities, key questions on their temporal relationships remain. Here, we discuss three processes that change PSF over time in diverse plant communities, and their effects on temporal dynamics of diversity–productivity relationships: spatial redistribution and changes in dominance of plant species; phenotypic shifts in plant traits; and dilution of soil pathogens and increase in soil mutualists. Disentangling these processes in plant diversity experiments will yield new insights into how plant diversity–productivity relationships change over time.
Plant diversity–productivity relationships often become stronger over time, but we know little about what biotic mechanisms may drive temporal dynamics of diversity–productivity relationships.Recent advances in plant-soil feedback (PSF) research can help gain new mechanistic insights into temporal dynamics of diversity–productivity relationships.We suggest three processes driving temporal changes in PSF of individual plants in diverse plant communities: spatial redistribution and changes in the dominance of plant species; phenotypic shifts in plant traits; and dilution of soil pathogens and increase in soil mutualists.These three processes reduce the strength of negative feedback in the absence of external disturbances and make diverse plant communities more productive over time.
Preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) has increasingly been used in the past decade. Here we present a systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs on the effect of PGS on the probability of live ...birth after IVF.
PubMed and trial registers were searched for RCTs on PGS. Trials were assessed following predetermined quality criteria. The primary outcome was live birth rate per woman, secondary outcomes were ongoing pregnancy rate, miscarriage rate, multiple pregnancy rate and pregnancy outcome.
Nine RCTs comparing IVF with and without PGS were included in our meta-analysis. Fluorescence in situ hybridization was used in all trials and cleavage stage biopsy was used in all but one trial. PGS significantly lowered live birth rate after IVF for women of advanced maternal age (risk difference: -0.08; 95% confidence interval: -0. 13 to -0.03). For a live birth rate of 26% after IVF without PGS, the rate would be between 13 and 23% using PGS. Trials where PGS was offered to women with a good prognosis and to women with repeated implantation failure suggested similar outcomes.
There is no evidence of a beneficial effect of PGS as currently applied on the live birth rate after IVF. On the contrary, for women of advanced maternal age PGS significantly lowers the live birth rate. Technical drawbacks and chromosomal mosaicism underlie this inefficacy of PGS. New approaches in the application of PGS should be evaluated carefully before their introduction into clinical practice.
Our basic understanding of plant litter decomposition informs the assumptions underlying widely applied soil biogeochemical models, including those embedded in Earth system models. Confidence in ...projected carbon cycle-climate feedbacks therefore depends on accurate knowledge about the controls regulating the rate at which plant biomass is decomposed into products such as CO
. Here we test underlying assumptions of the dominant conceptual model of litter decomposition. The model posits that a primary control on the rate of decomposition at regional to global scales is climate (temperature and moisture), with the controlling effects of decomposers negligible at such broad spatial scales. Using a regional-scale litter decomposition experiment at six sites spanning from northern Sweden to southern France-and capturing both within and among site variation in putative controls-we find that contrary to predictions from the hierarchical model, decomposer (microbial) biomass strongly regulates decomposition at regional scales. Furthermore, the size of the microbial biomass dictates the absolute change in decomposition rates with changing climate variables. Our findings suggest the need for revision of the hierarchical model, with decomposers acting as both local- and broad-scale controls on litter decomposition rates, necessitating their explicit consideration in global biogeochemical models.
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