Elizabeth Borer

Nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization consistently favor pathogenic over mutualistic fungi in grassland soils

Nature Communications · 2021 · 300 citations

Ecosystems across the globe receive elevated inputs of nutrients, but the consequences of this for soil fungal guilds that mediate key ecosystem functions remain unclear. We find that nitrogen and phosphorus addition to 25 grasslands distributed across four continents promotes the relative abundance of fungal pathogens, suppresses mutualists, but does not affect saprotrophs. Structural equation models suggest that responses are often indirect and primarily mediated by nutrient-induced shifts in…

Expert perspectives on global biodiversity loss and its drivers and impacts on people

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment · 2022 · 268 citations

Despite substantial progress in understanding global biodiversity loss, major taxonomic and geographic knowledge gaps remain. Decision makers often rely on expert judgement to fill knowledge gaps, but are rarely able to engage with sufficiently large and diverse groups of specialists. To improve understanding of the perspectives of thousands of biodiversity experts worldwide, we conducted a survey and asked experts to focus on the taxa and freshwater, terrestrial, or marine ecosystem with which…

Effects of nitrogen and phosphorus addition on microbial community composition and element cycling in a grassland soil

Soil Biology and Biochemistry · 2020 · 238 citations

Clarifying the effect of biodiversity on productivity in natural ecosystems with longitudinal data and methods for causal inference

Nature Communications · 2023 · 123 citations

Causal effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functions can be estimated using experimental or observational designs - designs that pose a tradeoff between drawing credible causal inferences from correlations and drawing generalizable inferences. Here, we develop a design that reduces this tradeoff and revisits the question of how plant species diversity affects productivity. Our design leverages longitudinal data from 43 grasslands in 11 countries and approaches borrowed from fields outside of ec…

Nutrient availability controls the impact of mammalian herbivores on soil carbon and nitrogen pools in grasslands

Global Change Biology · 2020 · 87 citations

Grasslands are subject to considerable alteration due to human activities globally, including widespread changes in populations and composition of large mammalian herbivores and elevated supply of nutrients. Grassland soils remain important reservoirs of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). Herbivores may affect both C and N pools and these changes likely interact with increases in soil nutrient availability. Given the scale of grassland soil fluxes, such changes can have striking consequences for atmos…