We participated again in Eco Fair, an event where our university biology students can meet all the workgroups of Botany and Zoology departments. We had Blanca, Oscar and Riin introducing our workgroup and thesis topics, and we also premiered our new workgroup roll up and workgroup stickers!
New study was published in Journal of Ecology about how competition reshapes functional trait differences among tree species and how these changes can promote coexistence. The study was led by Jing Yang and Carlos Carmona, with Enrico Tordoni and our former postdoctoral researcher Jonathan A. Bennett also contributing as co-authors. In a three-year greenhouse experiment with 5,818 seedlings from seven coexisting tree species, the authors found that competition made species more similar in aboveground traits but more different in fine-root traits. Despite these contrasting responses, both shifts reduced competition intensity and helped explain how multiple tree species can coexist. The study builds on earlier work from our group on trait variation and competition, including Bennett et al. (2016) and Carmona et al. (2019).
Yang, J., Shen, G., Lyu, S., Bennett, J. A., Tordoni, E., Wu, S., Wang, X., & Carmona, C. P. 2026. Shifts in above- and below-ground trait dissimilarity under competition mediate the future impact of neighbours. Journal of Ecology 114: e70320.
Bennett, J. A., Riibak, K., Tamme, R., Lewis, R. J., & Pärtel, M. 2016. The reciprocal relationship between competition and intraspecific trait variation. Journal of Ecology 104: 1410–1420. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12614
Carmona, C. P., de Bello, F., Azcárate, F. M., Mason, N. W. H., & Peco, B. 2019. Trait hierarchies and intraspecific variability drive competitive interactions in Mediterranean annual plants. Journal of Ecology 107: 2078–2089. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13248
The Estonian Academy of Sciences elected our workgroup leader professor Meelis Pärtel as a new research professor for the period 2026–2028. During this time he will use dark diversity concept to investigate why the microbial communities of urban green spaces differ and why some areas support health‑promoting communities while others do not.
We are very proud that Jing Yang (who is currently a postdoctoral researcher in our workgroup) was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA PF) for her new project IntraDivS ("Decoding the intraspecific engine of functional diversity in a changing world"). She will start the project in September in Spain, where she will to work at CSIC with Carlos Carmona. Together they will investigate how intraspecific trait variability shapes functional diversity under climate change and competition.
On 2nd-6th February several of our workgroup members visited Spain to meet with Carlos Carmona's new workgroup in the Misión Biológica de Galicia (CSIC). Carlos continues as a visiting professor in our workgroup, but in Spain he is starting some new projects with his new workgroup. During the week, both workgroup members had a chance to get to know each other and propose new collaboration projects about functional ecology during brainstorming sessions.
The new year had a productive start for our workgroup since from 6th to 10th January we participated in the 12th Biannual Conference of the International Biogeography Society in Aarhus, Denmark. Our workgroup was represented by Meelis, Juni, Mats, Riin, Oscar and Daria. Oscar gave talked about his research on soil fungi in the city of Tartu, and Daria introduced her PhD results about the habitat preferences of European plants in a poster session. Others introduced the concept of dark diversity - both in a parallel session "Biodiversity, Dark Diversity, and Anthropogenic Effects," led by Riin, where Meelis and Juni gave talks, as well as in the poster session where Riin and Mats introduced some results about the dark diversity of plants and fungi.
On 10th December Estonian Research Council held their annual event to honor the best young researchers at the National Contest for University Students. We are extremely happy that in the field of natural sciences, our workgroup member Eleonora received a prize as well! She got the 1st prize in the doctoral students category for her PhD thesis "Mapping and exploring trait spaces across the tree of life". Eleonora's supervisor was Carlos Pérez Carmona.
Recently a new study was published in Global Ecology and Biogeography about the global dark diversity of alien plants. The study was led by Bruno who recently finished his PhD in our workgroup. Predicting new invasion events is difficult, but crucial to mitigate associated threats. So, the authors used the dark diversity concept to estimate the dark diversity of alien plants for global regions, which shows how many potential new alien species could arrive in the region in the future.
Paganeli, B., Tordoni, E., H. Seebens, & Pärtel, M. 2025. Observed and dark diversity of alien plants across the world. Global Ecology and Biogeography 34: e70142.
Our workgroup members Jing Yang and Carlos Carmona led a new study about how competition alters the relationship between plant traits and growth in tree seedlings. The study was published in Ecology Letters. In a three-year greaanhouse experiment with 5,188 seedlings of seven coexisting subtropical tree species, the authors found that traits predicted seedling growth much better in the absence of competition than under competition. Competition increased individual trait variability while reducing growth rates, which together weakened trait–growth relationships. The study helps to explain why functional traits poorly predict growth in natural forests and highlights the role of trait plasticity in shaping plant performance.
Yang, J., Shen, G., Wang, X., & Carmona, C. P. 2025. Competition-Induced Trait Variability Obscures Trait–Growth Relationships of Tree Seedlings. Ecology Letters 28: e70259.
This year our workgroup autumn seminar took place in Jõgeva County in Mokko Country Hotel. Despite the grey and drizzly weather, we still enjoyed being in the autumnal countryside, and the hospitality of the hotel host. Our topic of the seminar was 'Macroecology in the Anthropocene' and we discussed different ways how to analyse the human impact on nature in natural, agricultural and urban settings. Meelis, Eleonora, Enrico, Oscar, Blanca and Juni presented their fresh results and new ideas, and we were also lucky to have a visiting speaker Aveliina Helm from the University of Tartu landscape biodiversity workgroup.
