Questions: A robust ecosystem requires a functionally heterogeneous community of organisms with ecological traits that permit broad resource partitioning. Understanding community diversity patterns can help investigate drivers of community assembly and assess restoration success. Do biodiversity patterns differ among grassland communities sown with different ecotypes of dominant species during restoration along a rainfall gradient in the tallgrass prairie of the central US Great Plains?Location: Four field sites across a rainfall gradient within the North American Great Plains: Colby, Kansas (39°23′17.8″N, 101°04′57.4″W), Hays, Kansas (38°51′13.2″N, 99°19′08.6″W), Manhattan, Kansas (39°08′22.3″N, 96°38′23.3″W), and Carbondale, Illinois (IL, 37°41′47.0″N, 89°14′19.2″W).Methods: We applied linear mixed models to assess the effect of dominant species ecotype, year, and location on grassland taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity.Results: The non‐local grass ecotype (compared to the local ecotype) promoted species richness. In contrast, the effect of the dominant species ecotype on phylogenetic or functional diversity was site‐specific over the 10‐year restoration. Richness decreased across the rainfall gradient from dry to moist sites, and the wettest site had the highest phylogenetic and functional diversity.Conclusions: Our results suggest that abiotic filtering by rainfall is a key assembly mechanism that could predict grassland changes in biodiversity in the early restoration phases. Given the community response across the tallgrass prairie, restoration practitioners should consider the impact of regional sources of dominant species used in restoration when biodiversity is a restoration goal. It is recommended for future grassland restoration to detect gaps and limitations in evolutionary and trait structure that will reveal which diversity components to evaluate.

Yunnan's biodiversity is under considerable pressure and subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests in this area have become increasingly fragmented through agriculture, logging, planting of economic plants, mining activities and changing environment. The aims of the study are to investigate climate change-induced changes of subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests in Yunnan and identify areas of current species richness centers for conservation preparation. Stacked species distribution models were created to generate ensemble forecasting of species distributions, alpha diversity and beta diversity for Yunnan's subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests in both current and future climate scenarios. Under stacked species distribution models in rapid climate changes scenarios, changes of water-energy dynamics may possibly reduce beta diversity and increase alpha diversity. This point provides insight for future conservation of evergreen broad-leaved forest in Yunnan, highlighting the need to fully consider the problem of vegetation homogenization caused by transformation of water-energy dynamics.

Grasslands converted to agricultural land use can be reestablished by sowing seeds of native species and temporal dynamics of diversity under altered climate can inform community assembly in the context of global change. We quantified three aspects of diversity (species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and functional diversity) in restored prairie plots sown with different ecotypes of two dominant grass species and manipulated rainfall to understand the relative importance of abiotic filtering and population source of dominant species on community assembly. We also evaluated the contributions of intra‐ and interspecific variations in functional traits across plots sown with different ecotypes of dominant species. Since the fourth year of community establishment, species richness decreased over time as dominant species gradually established. Phylogenetic and functional diversity was unaffected by the ecotypic sources of dominant species during restoration. Experimental drought did not affect species richness, phylogenetic, or functional diversity. Community structure in the grasslands was mainly shaped by intraspecific, within‐population variation in the dominant species rather than by differences in traits among species. Our results showed that intraspecific biotic interactions contribute more than environmental filtering to community assembly in a tallgrass‐dominated prairie ecosystem.

BACKGROUND: Soil seedbanks have been recognized as one of the crucial components of agricultural ecosystems. However, studies on the shift in structure and biodiversity of soil seedbanks in herbicide‐resistant crop systems are limited, and a functional trait perspective of the soil seedbank is often overlooked.RESULTS: A 6 years experiment was conducted to investigate the roles of region, crop system, and weed management strategy on species richness, functional trait diversity, and composition of the weed seedbank. Species richness was different across the interaction of region and crop system, while functional trait diversity only showed difference across regions. Species and functional trait compositions were affected by the interaction of region and crop system. Specifically, the compositional difference among crop systems was mainly determined by the significant heterogeneity of group dispersion.CONCLUSION: Growers and practitioners should consider weed functional traits in developing lasting agricultural management strategies. Long‐term weed research should draw attention to the impact of transgenic crop systems and specific management tactics on weed dispersal, functional composition, and resistance evolution of weed species in such agroecosystems. © 2023 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Understanding the context‐dependent nature of diversity‐productivity relationships is essential for predicting community responses to environmental change and informing restoration strategies. We conducted a reciprocal common garden experiment across a rainfall gradient (mean annual precipitation: 500–1200 mm year ⁻¹ ) in the US Great Plains to examine how local ecotypes of dominant grasses [e.g., Andropogon gerardi Vitman and Sorghastrum nutans (L.) Nash] and experimental drought (rainout manipulation) shape diversity‐productivity relationships. We applied generalized linear mixed models to assess the effects of aboveground live biomass, seed source, and rainfall manipulation on grassland species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and functional diversity. Functional diversity was positively correlated with aboveground live biomass at the dry site. Dominant species ecotypes influenced diversity‐productivity relationships in a site‐specific manner. The DRY ecotype reduced species richness as aboveground live biomass increased at the driest and mesic sites while the MESIC‐ecotype increased phylogenetic diversity with rising aboveground live biomass at the mesic site, with no effects observed on functional diversity. We further applied generalized boosted regression trees to assess the relative importance of aboveground live biomass, seed source, and rainfall manipulation in shaping grassland diversity. Across all sites, aboveground live biomass was the strongest predictor of diversity, whereas the effects of seed source and rainfall were weaker and more variable, likely reflecting the dominant role of locally adapted grasses in structuring communities and the limited translation of rainfall manipulation into consistent compositional change. These findings highlight the central role of dominant species attributes in shaping diversity‐productivity relationships and stress the importance of considering local adaptation and site context in restoration and biodiversity‐function research.