West Nile virus, which was recently introduced to North America, is a mosquito-borne pathogen
that infects a wide range of vertebrate hosts, including humans. Several species of birds …

As the primary decomposers of organic material in terrestrial ecosystems, fungi are critical
agents of the global carbon cycle. Yet our ability to link fungal community composition to …

Mutualistic symbioses with mycorrhizal fungi are widespread in plants. The majority of plant
species associate with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. By contrast, the minority associate …

Intraspecific trait variation is hypothesized to influence the relative importance of community
assembly mechanisms. However, few studies have explicitly considered how intraspecific …

Woody plants store large quantities of carbon (C) and nutrients. As plants senesce and decay,
these stores transfer to the soil or other organisms or are released to the atmosphere. 2.…

When standing dead trees (snags) fall, they have major impacts on forest ecosystems. Snag
fall can redistribute wildlife habitat and impact public safety, while governing important …

Whether global change will drive changing forests from net carbon (C) sinks to sources
relates to how quickly deadwood decomposes. Because complete wood mineralization takes …

Pest outbreaks are driving tree dieback and major influxes of deadwood into forest
ecosystems. Understanding how pulses of deadwood impact the climate system requires …

Deadwood, long recognized as playing an important role in storing carbon and releasing it
as CO 2 in forest ecosystems, is more recently drawing attention for its potential role in the …