Shade, in ecological sense, is not merely a lack of light, but a multi-faceted phenomenon that creates new and complex settings for community and ecosystem dynamics. Tolerating shade therefore affects plants’ ability to cope with other stressors, and also shape its interactions with surrounding organisms. The aim of this broad review was to map our current knowledge about how shade affects plants, plant communities and ecosystems – to gather together knowledge of what we know, but also to point out what we do not yet know. This review covers the following topics: the nature of shade, and ecological and physiological complexities related to growing under a canopy; plants’ capability of tolerating other stress factors while living under a shade – resource trade-offs and polytolerance of abiotic stress; ontogenetic effects of shade tolerance; coexistence patterns under the canopy – how shade determines the forest structure and diversity; shade-induced abiotic dynamics in understorey vegetation, including changing patterns of irradiance, temperature and humidity under the canopy; shade-driven plant–plant and plant–animal interactions – how shade mediates facilitation and stress, and how it creates differentiated environment for different herbivores and pollinators, including the role of volatile organic compounds. We also discuss the ways how vegetation in understorey environments will be affected by climate change, as shade might play a significant role in mitigating negative effects of climate change. Our review shows that living under a shade affects biotic and abiotic stress tolerance of plants, it also influences the outcomes of both symbiotic and competitive plant–plant and plant–animal interactions in a complex and dynamic manner. The current knowledge of shade-related mechanisms is rather ample, however there is much room for progress in integrating different implications of the multifaceted nature of shade into consistent and integral understanding how communities and ecosystems function.

Little is currently known about how climate modulates the relationship between plant diversity and soil organic carbon and the mechanisms involved. Yet, this knowledge is of crucial importance in times of climate change and biodiversity loss. Here, we show that plant diversity is positively correlated with soil carbon content and soil carbon-to-nitrogen ratio across 84 grasslands on six continents that span wide climate gradients. The relationships between plant diversity and soil carbon as well as plant diversity and soil organic matter quality (carbon-to-nitrogen ratio) are particularly strong in warm and arid climates. While plant biomass is positively correlated with soil carbon, plant biomass is not significantly correlated with plant diversity. Our results indicate that plant diversity influences soil carbon storage not via the quantity of organic matter (plant biomass) inputs to soil, but through the quality of organic matter. The study implies that ecosystem management that restores plant diversity likely enhances soil carbon sequestration, particularly in warm and arid climates.

When plants establish outside their native range, their ability to adapt to the new environment is influenced by both demography and dispersal. However, the relative importance of these two factors is poorly understood. To quantify the influence of demography and dispersal on patterns of genetic diversity underlying adaptation, we used data from a globally distributed demographic research network comprising 35 native and 18 nonnative populations of Plantago lanceolata . Species-specific simulation experiments showed that dispersal would dilute demographic influences on genetic diversity at local scales. Populations in the native European range had strong spatial genetic structure associated with geographic distance and precipitation seasonality. In contrast, nonnative populations had weaker spatial genetic structure that was not associated with environmental gradients but with higher within-population genetic diversity. Our findings show that dispersal caused by repeated, long-distance, human-mediated introductions has allowed invasive plant populations to overcome environmental constraints on genetic diversity, even without strong demographic changes. The impact of invasive plants may, therefore, increase with repeated introductions, highlighting the need to constrain future introductions of species even if they already exist in an area.

The relationship between net primary productivity and biological diversity has been a central topic in ecology for several decades. The unimodal (“hump-back”) relationship has been the most widely ac...