Bill Shipley
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View article: Best practices for moving from correlation to causation in ecological research
Best practices for moving from correlation to causation in ecological research Open
In ecology, causal questions are ubiquitous, yet the literature describing systematic approaches to answering these questions is vast and fragmented across different traditions (e.g., randomization, structural equation modeling, convergent…
View article: Raunkiæran shortfalls: Challenges and perspectives in trait‐based ecology
Raunkiæran shortfalls: Challenges and perspectives in trait‐based ecology Open
Trait‐based ecology, a prominent research field identifying traits linked to the distribution and interactions of organisms and their impact on ecosystem functioning, has flourished in the last three decades. Yet, the field still grapples …
View article: Testing Model Fit in Path Models with Dependent Errors Given Non-Normality, Non-Linearity and Hierarchical Data
Testing Model Fit in Path Models with Dependent Errors Given Non-Normality, Non-Linearity and Hierarchical Data Open
We provide a generic method of testing path models that include dependent errors, nonlinear functional relationships and using nonnormal, hierarchically structured data. First, we provide a decomposition of the causal model into smaller, i…
View article: Above‐ and belowground drivers of intraspecific trait variability across subcontinental gradients for five ubiquitous forest plants in North America
Above‐ and belowground drivers of intraspecific trait variability across subcontinental gradients for five ubiquitous forest plants in North America Open
Intraspecific trait variability (ITV) provides the material for species' adaptation to environmental changes. To advance our understanding of how ITV can contribute to species' adaptation to a wide range of environmental conditions, we stu…
View article: Peer Review #1 of "Devil in the details: how can we avoid potential pitfalls of CATS regression when our data do not follow a Poisson distribution? (v0.1)"
Peer Review #1 of "Devil in the details: how can we avoid potential pitfalls of CATS regression when our data do not follow a Poisson distribution? (v0.1)" Open
Background: Community assembly by trait selection (CATS) allows for the detection of environmental filtering and estimation of the relative role of local and regional (meta-community-level) effects on community composition from trait and a…
View article: Testing Model Fit in Path Models with Dependent Errors Given Non-Normality, Non-Linearity and Hierarchical Data
Testing Model Fit in Path Models with Dependent Errors Given Non-Normality, Non-Linearity and Hierarchical Data Open
We provide a generic method of testing path models that include dependent errors, nonlinear functional relationships and using nonnormal, hierarchically structured data. First, we provide a decomposition of the causal model into smaller, i…
View article: Multifunctionality in practice: Measuring differences in urban woodland ecosystem properties via functional traits
Multifunctionality in practice: Measuring differences in urban woodland ecosystem properties via functional traits Open
The ability of urban woodlands to regenerate and provide ecosystem services depends on the maintenance of a range of ecosystem functions and processes (i.e. multifunctionality). Many conservation decisions are made by local land stewards a…
View article: A measure of generalized soil fertility that is largely independent of species identity
A measure of generalized soil fertility that is largely independent of species identity Open
Background and Aims In 2019, Daou and Shipley produced an operational definition of ‘generalized’ soil fertility (FG) for plant community ecology and quantified FG using a structural equation model (SEM) invoking a single latent variable. …
View article: Explaining variation in productivity requires intraspecific variability in plant height among communities
Explaining variation in productivity requires intraspecific variability in plant height among communities Open
While recent studies have shown the importance of intraspecific trait variation in the processes of community assembly, we still know little about the contributions of intraspecific trait variability to ecosystem functions. Here, we conduc…
View article: Quantifying the relationship linking the community‐weighted means of plant traits and soil fertility
Quantifying the relationship linking the community‐weighted means of plant traits and soil fertility Open
Is it possible to generalize relationships between certain plant traits and soil fertility? In particular, are there quantitative relationships between community‐weighted mean (CWM) trait values of leaf dry‐matter content (LDMC), specific …
View article: Dataset and R code - Crop functional diversity drives multiple ecosystem functions during early agroforestry succession
Dataset and R code - Crop functional diversity drives multiple ecosystem functions during early agroforestry succession Open
Dataset and the script of our analyses in the manuscript entitled: "Crop functional diversity drives multiple ecosystem functions during early agroforestry succession".
View article: Dataset and R code - Crop functional diversity drives multiple ecosystem functions during early agroforestry succession
Dataset and R code - Crop functional diversity drives multiple ecosystem functions during early agroforestry succession Open
Dataset and the script of our analyses in the manuscript entitled: "Crop functional diversity drives multiple ecosystem functions during early agroforestry succession".
View article: A multigroup extension to piecewise path analysis
A multigroup extension to piecewise path analysis Open
Path analysis allows one to test the consistency of data to hypothesized causal relationships between variables. Often, interest lies in how the hypothesized dependencies differ between groups. Multigroup comparisons can be made by imposin…
View article: Testing Piecewise Structural Equations Models in the Presence of Latent Variables and Including Correlated Errors
Testing Piecewise Structural Equations Models in the Presence of Latent Variables and Including Correlated Errors Open
Path models, expressed as Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs), and the testing of such DAGs via a d-sep test, have become popular because they can incorporate complicated data structures that are difficult or impossible to accommodate in classi…
View article: Exploring the relationship between functional structure and ecosystem multifunctionality requires intraspecific trait variability
Exploring the relationship between functional structure and ecosystem multifunctionality requires intraspecific trait variability Open
The authors have withdrawn their manuscript whilst they conduct additional data analysis to confirm if some of their conclusions are affected by data analysis artefact or not. Therefore, the authors do not wish this work to be cited as a r…
View article: The complexity of trait–environment performance landscapes in a local subtropical forest
The complexity of trait–environment performance landscapes in a local subtropical forest Open
Summary That functional traits should affect individual performance and, in turn, determine fitness and population growth, is a foundational assumption of trait‐based ecology. This assumption is, however, not supported by a strong empirica…
View article: Global root traits (GRooT) database
Global root traits (GRooT) database Open
Motivation Trait data are fundamental to the quantitative description of plant form and function. Although root traits capture key dimensions related to plant responses to changing environmental conditions and effects on ecosystem processe…
View article: Global Root Traits (GRooT) Database
Global Root Traits (GRooT) Database Open
Motivation Trait data are fundamental to quantitatively describe plant form and function. Although root traits capture key dimensions related to plant responses to changing environmental conditions and effects on ecosystem processes, they …
View article: Direct and indirect effects of regional and local climatic factors on trophic interactions in the Arctic tundra
Direct and indirect effects of regional and local climatic factors on trophic interactions in the Arctic tundra Open
Climate change can impact ecosystems by reshaping the dynamics of resource exploitation for predators and their prey. Alterations of these pathways could be especially intense in ecosystems characterized by a simple trophic structure and r…
View article: Functional niche occupation and species richness in herbaceous plant communities along experimental gradients of stress and disturbance
Functional niche occupation and species richness in herbaceous plant communities along experimental gradients of stress and disturbance Open
Background and Aims The patterns of niche occupation in functional trait space have been widely studied to understand the processes of community assembly, but are rarely linked to environmental conditions (here, stress and disturbance). In…
View article: Geographic scale and disturbance influence intraspecific trait variability in leaves and roots of North American understorey plants
Geographic scale and disturbance influence intraspecific trait variability in leaves and roots of North American understorey plants Open
Considering intraspecific trait variability (ITV) in ecological studies has improved our understanding of species persistence and coexistence. These advances are based on the growing number of leaf ITV studies over local gradients, but log…
View article: Linking hard and soft traits: Physiology, morphology and anatomy interact to determine habitat affinities to soil water availability in herbaceous dicots
Linking hard and soft traits: Physiology, morphology and anatomy interact to determine habitat affinities to soil water availability in herbaceous dicots Open
Both direct and indirect causal relationships existed between soft traits, hard traits and species' habitat preferences. The poor predictive abilities of soft traits alone were due to the existence of antagonistic and synergistic direct an…
View article: Community divergence and convergence along experimental gradients of stress and disturbance
Community divergence and convergence along experimental gradients of stress and disturbance Open
We created 24 mesocosms containing mixtures of herbaceous species arranged along experimentally maintained gradients of stress (external abiotic constraints limiting biomass production) and disturbance (events causing partial or total live…
View article: Predicting habitat affinities of plant species using commonly measured functional traits
Predicting habitat affinities of plant species using commonly measured functional traits Open
Questions Heinz Ellenberg classically defined “indicator” scores for species representing their typical positions along gradients of key environmental variables, and these have proven very useful for designating ecological distributions. W…
View article: Habitat filtering determines the functional niche occupancy of plant communities worldwide
Habitat filtering determines the functional niche occupancy of plant communities worldwide Open
How the patterns of niche occupancy vary from species‐poor to species‐rich communities is a fundamental question in ecology that has a central bearing on the processes that drive patterns of biodiversity. As species richness increases, hab…