Soil heterogeneity
Environmental Heterogeneity and Coexistence
Collaborative work with postdoctoral scholar Dr. Angela J. Brandt examined the role of environmental heterogeneity in invasibility, including the role of soil feedbacks in determining coexistence between closely related plant species (Brandt et al. 2013, Burns and Brandt 2014, Burns et al. 2017).
Much of our research is conducted at Case Western Reserve University's Squire Valleevue and Valley Ridge Farm. The experiment pictured was set up with help from Alan Alldridge and Chris Bond.
Above, soil heterogeneity treatments answer questions about the role of environmental heterogeneity in governing trait expression (del Pino et al. 2015).
An experimental protocol for creating heterogeneous soil treatments (Brandt et al. 2014).
Funded by the National Science Foundation (DEB 1250170)
Burns, Jean H., Angela J. Brandt, Jennifer E. Murphy, Angela M. Kaczowka, David J. Burke. 2017. Spatial heterogeneity of plant-soil feedbacks increases per capita reproductive biomass of species at an establishment disadvantage. Oecologia. 183: 1077-1086. DOI: 10.1007/s00442-017-3828-1
Data archiving: Data Dryad: Burns, Jean H., Angela J. Brandt, Jennifer E. Murphy, Angela M. Kaczowka, David J. Burke. 2017. Data from: Spatial heterogeneity of plant-soil feedbacks increases per capita reproductive biomass of species at an establishment disadvantage. Dryad Digital Repository. doi:10.5061/dryad.h0p04
Sweet, Drake D. and Jean H. Burns. 2017. Plant performance was greater in the soils of more distantly related plants for an herbaceous understory species. AoB PLANTS.DOI 10.1093/aobpla/plx005
Data archiving: Data Dryad: Sweet, Drake D. and Jean H. Burns. 2017. Data from: Plant performance was greater in the soils of more distantly related plants for an herbaceous understory pecies. Dryad Digital Repository. doi:10.5061/dryad.6528d
del Pino, Gaston, Angela J. Brandt, and Jean H. Burns. 2015. Light heterogeneity interacts with plant-induced soil heterogeneity to affect plant trait expression. Plant Ecology. 216(3): 439-450. DOI 10.1007/s11258-015-0448-x pdf.
Brandt, Angela J., S. Conor Leahy, Nicole M. Zimmerman and Jean H. Burns. 2015. Plant trait expression responds to establishment timing and depends on soil environment. Oecologia. 178: 525–536. DOI 10.1007/s00442-014-3216-z pdf.
Burns, Jean H. and Angela J. Brandt. 2014. Heterogeneity in plant–soil feedbacks and resident population dynamics affect mutual invasibility. Journal of Ecology. 102: 1048–1057. doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.12258
Data archiving: Data Dryad: Burns, J.H. & Brandt, A.J. 2014. Data from: Heterogeneity in plant-soil feedbacks and resident population dynamics affect mutual invasibility. Dryad Digital Repository, doi: 10.5061/dryad.gj7hb.
Brandt, Angela J., Gaston del Pino, Jean H. Burns. 2014. Experimental protocol for manipulating plant-induced soil heterogeneity. Journal of Visualized Experiments. 85: e51580, doi: 10.3791/51580. pdf
Brandt, Angela J., Hans de Kroon, Heather L. Reynolds, and Jean H. Burns. 2013. Soil heterogeneity generated by plant-soil feedbacks has implications for species recruitment and coexistence. Journal of Ecology. 101(2): 277–286. doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.12042
Link to the Special Feature in the Journal of Ecology on Plant-Soil Feedbacks.