Microbes as engines of ecosystem function : When does community structure enhance predictions of ecosystem processes?

FUNDING This work was supported by NSF grant DEB-1221215 to DN, as well as grants supporting the generation of our datasets as acknowledged in their original publications and in Supplementary Table S1. ACKNOWLEDGMENT We thank the USGS Powell Center ‘Next Generation Microbes’ working group, anonymous reviews, Brett Melbourne, and Alan Townsend for valuable feedback on this project.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Interspecific Plant Interactions Reflected in Soil Bacterial Community Structure and Nitrogen Cycling in Primary Succession

Past research demonstrating the importance plant–microbe interactions as drivers of ecosystem succession has focused on how plants condition soil microbial communities, impacting subsequent plant performance and plant community assembly. These studies, however, largely treat microbial communities as a black box. In this study, we sought to examine how emblematic shifts from early successional Alnus viridus ssp. sinuata (Sitka alder) to late successional Picea sitchensis (Sitka spruce) in primary succession may be reflected in specific belowground changes in bacterial community structure and nitrogen cycling related to the interaction of these two plants. We examined early successional alder-conditioned soils in a glacial forefield to delineate how alders alter the soil microbial community with increasing dominance. Further, we assessed the impact of late-successional spruce plants on these early successional alder-conditioned microbiomes and related nitrogen cycling through a leachate addition microcosm experiment. We show how increasingly abundant alder select for particular bacterial taxa. Additionally, we found that spruce leachate significantly alters the composition of these microbial communities in large part by driving declines in taxa that are enriched by alder, including bacterial symbionts. We found these effects to be spruce specific, beyond a general leachate effect. Our work also demonstrates a unique influence of spruce on ammonium availability. Such insights bolster theory relating the importance of plant–microbe interactions with late-successional plants and interspecific plant interactions more generally

Scenes from a Failed Marriage: A Brief Analytical History of Canadian and Québécois Feature Film Adaptations of Drama from 1942 to 1992

Since 1992, a great number of Canadian plays have been made into feature films. Certain critics even suggest that we are presently witnessing a "stage-to-screen phenomenon" in this country. This differs markedly from the previous situation. Indeed, prior to 1992, very few plays had been adapted and most of these works did not attract much attention from either critics or the general public. However, a brief look at the history of this little-appreciated corpus reveals that in spite of its lack of critical and popular success the corpus of Canadian and Québécois film-mediated drama exhibits an intriguing coherence. This article traces the evolution of the 'failed marriage" of theatre and film in Canada since 1942 in an attempt to demonstrate that the cinematization of drama operates on the basis of an intricate symmetry between the dialectical composition of the plays adapted, a tension at the core of the transpositional process, and a conflict often interpreted as a paradigm of Canadian/Québécois culture.Depuis 1992, de nombreuses adaptations cinématographiques de pièces de théâtre canadiennes ont produites. A tel point que certains critiques parlent d'un nouveau phénomène "de la scène à l'écran" au Canada. Ceci contraste de façon marquée avec la période précédente. Avant 1992, peu d'adaptations avaient été réalisées et, en général, ces oeuvres n'avaient pas attiré l'attention des critiques ou du public. Cependant, si l'on considère l'histoire de ce corpus peu apprécié, on se rend compte que, malgré son manque de succès, la ciné-médiatisation des dramaturgies canadienne et québécoise présente une cohérence digne d'intérêt. Cet article se propose de tracer l'évolution du "mariage manqué" entre le théâtre et le cinéma au Québec et au Canada depuis les débuts de cette pratique en 1942, pour montrer que la transposition de pièces au grand écran s'est fait à partir d'un parallélisme entre la structure dialectique des textes adaptés, la composition médiatique des films et, ultimement, l'expression typique de l'imaginaire canadien et québécois tel que décrit par Simon Harel, Northrop Frye, Gaile McGregor et plusieurs autres. Peut-être qu'à la lumière de cet historique, le renouveau dont nous sommes présentement témoins prendra un sens plus marqué