News | Harpole Lab | W. S. Harpole

Brent's Nature Knowledge Article Published

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:05:04 -0500

Plant Resistance against Herbivory

http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/plant-resistance-against-herbivory-96675700

Every bite an herbivore takes comes at the expense of a plant. Are plants passive victims or do they actively resist these attacks?

Plant-Soil Feedback Meta-Analysis and Model

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 10:43:31 -0600

Consequences of plant–soil feedbacks in invasion

Suding, K, W.S. Harpole, T. Fukami, A. Kulmatiski, A. MacDougall, C. Stein, W. van der Putten. (2013). Community-level consequences of plant-soil feedbacks in invasion. Journal of Ecology. 101:298–308.

Biochar Meta-Analysis in Press

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 10:44:15 -0600

Biochar and its effects on plant productivity and nutrient cycling: a meta-analysis

Biederman L., W.S. Harpole. (2013). Biochar and its effects on plant productivity and nutrient cycling: a meta-analysis. Global Change Biology–Bioenergy, Special Issue: Biochar. 5:202–214.

http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/11-27-2012/research-looks-effects-biochar-prairies

http://envnewsbits.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/isu-researchers-explore-the-effects-of-biochar-on-downstream-ecosystems/

http://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/article_10b8f6e4-3ca4-11e2-9dcb-001a4bcf887a.html

Paul Defends his Masters!

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 10:56:11 -0600

Congratulations to Paul Frater for successfully defending his Masters Thesis!

Factors affecting mycorrhizal colonization in Schizachyrium scoparium

ESA 2012 Portland

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 17:17:06 -0500

Nutrients Destroy Niches

OOS 34 - Global Ecology to Address Global-Scale Environmental Change: Results From the Nutrient Network

ESA Global Ecology Panel

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 17:16:28 -0500

Summary: Preserving and enhancing the Earth’s life-support systems requires a new, inter-disciplinary, global-scale approach to ecological research. This Special Session will explore a range of approaches to conducting large-scale ecology, representing regional to global efforts, with the objective to create opportunities for synthesis and collaboration.

ASLO meeting at Lake Biwa, Japan

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:15:06 -0500

Prairie Project News

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:58:11 -0600

Lauren in the News!

Prairie restoration project earns national conservation fellowship:

http://www.togethergreen.org/People/FellowDetails.aspx?fellowID=144

Iowa State Daily: http://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/article_357ad848-56c8-11e1-85de-001871e3ce6c.html

Featured article in Ames Tribune Green Together:

Read the entire article at ISU NEWS: http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2011/dec/sullivantoyota

AMES, Iowa - An Iowa State University doctoral candidate is one of 40 students nationwide selected as a TogetherGreen fellow from The National Audubon Society and Toyota earning $10,000.

The award will go toward a community project to engage local residents, contribute to environmental health and conserve land, water, and energy.

Lauren Sullivan earned the fellowship through her work restoring a four-acre corn plot (located west of the corner of Ontario and Hyland in Ames) back to native prairie.

Wei starts job at new Yunnan Biodiversity Institute

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:55:36 -0600

Wei is now an assistant professor at Yunnan Academy of Biodiversity, Southwest Forestry University, China. Congratulations Wei!

NutNet Interview

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 14:58:09 -0600

Stan, Elizabeth and Eric discuss productivity and diversity with the Journal of Humanitarian Affairs:

http://greenheritagenews.com/?p=11840

Open-Source Ecology

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:06:17 -0500

Nutrient Network Featured in Science News:

Stokstad E. (2011). Open-Source Ecology Takes Root Across the World Science. 334:308-309. PDF

“This is like an indie garage band.”

—STAN HARPOLE, IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Get over the hump

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:09:49 -0500

NutNet Science paper in press--the whole lab took part in this important paper (Wei Li is absent from the photo), led by Peter Adler, which challenges the existence of a general hump-shaped productivity-diversity relationship.

https://cnr.usu.edu/htm/facstaff/adler-web/adler_publications/

News Articles:

http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2011/sep/harpolescience

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-09/isu-nac092211.php

http://www.futurity.org/earth-environment/biomass-link-to-plant-diversity-questioned/

See Jeremy Fox's comments on the Oikos Blog: http://oikosjournal.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/thoughts-on-nutnet/

Nutrient Network Workshop #3

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:09:09 -0500

Brent, Paul and Stan participate in top-down-bottom-up Nutrient Network data meeting in St. Paul.

Co-Limitation

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 17:05:43 -0500

Co-limitation paper in Ecology Letters, Idea and Perspective

Harpole, W.S., J.T. Ngai, E.E. Cleland, E.T. Borer, M.E.S. Bracken, J.J. Elser, D.S. Gruner, H. Hillebrand, E.W. Seabloom, J.B. Shurin, J.E. Smith. Resource co-limitation of primary producer communities. (In Press). Ecology Letters, Idea and Perspective.

A Faculty of 1000 Must Read: Sommaruga R: "This review provides a robust and comprehensive summary and analysis of studies where the role..." Evaluation of: [Harpole WS et al. Nutrient co-limitation of primary producer communities. Ecol Lett. 2011 Jul 12; doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01651.x]. Faculty of 1000, 08 Aug 2011. F1000.com/12521958

Diversity and Ecosystem Function

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:59:09 -0500

Diversity-Ecosystem Function paper in press in Nature

Isbell, F, V. Calcagno, A. Hector, J. Connolly, W. S. Harpole, P. B. Reich, M. Scherer-Lorenzen, B. Schmid, D. Tilman, J. van Ruijven, A. Weigelt, B. J. Wilsey, E. S. Zavaleta, M. Loreau. How many species are needed to maintain ecosystem functioning? (In Press). Nature.

“...many species are needed to maintain multiple functions at multiple times and places in a changing world.”

http://www.futurity.org/earth-environment/plant-diversity-keeps-things-in-check/

California NutNet Tour 2011

Tue, 24 May 2011 18:10:33 -0500

We had another great sampling trip to the Hopland, McLaughlin and Sierra NutNet sites.

Lauren’s paper in press in Ecology

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 17:10:43 -0500

Link to the Corridor Project: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~haddad/Corridors/SRScorridor.html

Helmut Hillebrand Visit to ISU and Harpole and Downing labs

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:12:10 -0600

Special Seminar:

Biodiversity – Productivity Relationships: Shifting a Paradigm

The relationship between biodiversity and the rate of biomass production has been a major target of ecological research. The empirical patterns of biodiversity across gradients of productivity and more recently, the question whether biodiversity drives productivity are highly debated, as both variables are of fundamental interest for understanding ecosystem dynamics. Recent advances suggest that biodiversity and productivity are both constrained by resource supply and that resource ratios are the key to understand the relationship between biodiversity and productivity. I will present empirical tests of these concepts in different ecosystems, which aim at linking the biodiversity – ecosystem functioning idea with ecological stoichiometry. These tests comprise microcosm experiments with pelagic model metacommunities, analyses of large-scale data sets and grassland biodiversity manipulation experiments. I will show how resource stoichiometry and biodiversity are linked through resource use efficiency.

NutNet Invasive Species paper in Ecology Letters

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:13:54 -0600

Abundance of introduced species at home predicts abundance away in herbaceous communities. Ecology Letters (2011).

Firn J., Moore J.L., MacDougall A.S., Borer E.T., Seabloom E.W., HilleRisLambers J., Harpole W.S., Cleland E.E., Brown C.S., Knops J.M.H., Prober S.M., Pyke D.A., Farrell K.A., Bakker J.D., O'Halloran L.R., Adler P.B., Collins S.L., DÕAntonio C.M., Crawley M.J., Wolkovich E.M., Pierre K.J.L., Melbourne B.A., Hautier Y., Morgan J.W., Leakey A.D.B., Kay A., McCulley R., Davies K.F., Stevens C.J., Chu C.-J., Holl K.D., Klein J.A., Fay P.A., Hagenah N., Kirkman K.P. & Yvonne M. Buckley

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/03/01/Study-Invasive-plant-success-a-myth/UPI-61061299027501/

NSF News: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?ntn_id=118397&org=NSF&from=news

Leopold Center Grant

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:17:58 -0600

Lori and Stan were awarded a 3-year grant from the Leopold Center:

Biochar and managed perennial ecosystems: Testing for synergy in ecosystem function and biodiversity 

Project description: This project will provide useful knowledge for the future development of best‐use practices for the application of biochar to perennial systems for the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem function. Biochar is a major by-product of low-temperature pyrolosis from the thermal decomposition of wood or grasses to produce heat, electricity or biofuels. The goal is to determine the ecological impacts of biochar on the interaction among plants, soil organisms and their environment. The proposed research will provide information from field based initiatives to determine the effects of these soil amendments prior to widespread application.

http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/compgrants/E2011_new.html#2