Tag: Ecology

Are modern agricultural practices good for the environment? Or at least for the crops? If we look at a small field at a particular time point, it may seem they are good. But looking at a broader picture gives a different notion. In a recent study, Edlinger et al. collected 210 soil samples from traditional…

The seed germination niche is the set of environmental conditions in which a seed can germinate. This collection of requirements is expected to be tuned to the climate each species encounters in its natural habitat, but this hypothesis remains to be formally tested. Here, Carta and colleagues make use…

Seed dormancy is widely recognized as a key mechanism to ensure that germination takes place under the most suitable conditions. Such is its importance that multiple studies have described the morphological, physiological, and genetic mechanisms behind it, yet its global distribution and the past and…

Do you know how many tree species are there? The global Forest Biodiversity Initiative (GFBI) database has annotated about 28,000 tree species, while some studies indicate there could be around 60,000. But why this difference? Many of the species are found in unapproachable areas. Additionally, human…

You’ve heard of “Plant Awareness Disparity” (10.1002/ppp3.10153), a term gaining popularity to highlight the fact that plants are sometimes overlooked as living organisms (replacing the abelist term “Plant Blindess”). You’ve also recently read that plants with bigger, more conspicuous flowers…

How do small populations persist in spite of sharing space with much larger populations? Wei et al. explored this question in the context of plant-pollinator interactions. They observed that rarer species tend to attract more specialized pollinators, whereas more abundant species have more shared pollinators,…

Plants are increasingly being recognized for their contributions to human wellbeing. However, most attention has been given to services provided by adult plants or those derived from their interaction with pollinators. In this exciting piece, Mattana and colleagues advocate for the importance of seeds…

Chicana feminist writer Cherríe Moraga wrote in her anthology This Bridge Called My Back, with regards to the necessary inclusion of women of color in contemporary progressive politics: “It is not always a matter of the actual bodies in the room, but of a life dedicated to a growing awareness of who…