2026

Main Experiments Publications

Sai Peng, Chen Chen, Helge Bruelheide, Pablo Castro Sánchez‐Bermejo, Anpeng Cheng, Xianglu Deng, Sylvia Haider, Shan Li, Yi Li, Ting Tang, Yujie Xue, Haoru Yan, Bo Yang, Bernhard Schmid, Keping Ma, Xiaojuan Liu*. 2026. Shrubs benefit from being functionally more conservative and distinct from neighbour trees. Functional Ecology. Online. https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.70466.

Alexander Täuber*, Andreas Fichtner, Helge Bruelheide, Andréa Davrinche, Sylvia Haider, Tobias Käcks, Xiaojuan Liu, Tama Ray, Goddert von Oheimb. 2026. Tree-tree interactions revisited – A refined approach to quantify spatial complementarity in tree crowns. Ecological Indicators. 191:115648.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X26010502?via%3Dihub

Massimo Martini*, Matteo Dadda, Felix Fornoff, Heike Feldhaar, Arong Luo, Finn Rehling, Joshua E. Spitz, Michael Staab, Simon Thorn, Chao-Dong Zhu, Alexandra-Maria Klein*. 2026. Moisture limits the diversity of nesting bees, wasps, and parasitoids in lying and standing deadwood. Basic and Applied Ecology. Online. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179126000757?via%3Dihub

Haikuo Zhang*, Harald Neidhardt, Steffen Seitz, Thomas Scholten, Yvonne Oelmann*. 2026. Ammonium Retention by Amberlite IRC-748 Resin: Useful for Concentration Assessments. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis. 57(18):1572-1578. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00103624.2026.2711844

Xinyun Gu, Fangliang He, Paul L. E. Bodelier, Wensheng Xiao, Xiaoqi Zhou*. 2026. Methanotrophic functional traits are associated with soil methane uptake across a tree species richness gradient in subtropical forests. Forest Ecology and Management. 621:124237. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112726007358?via%3Dihub

Jingting Chen, Mingqiang Wang, Arong Luo, Zhe Zhao, Feng Zhang, Douglas Chesters, Xiaoyu Shi, Andreas Schuldt*, Chaodong Zhu*. 2026. Metabarcoding reveals the dietary diversity and food web structure of spider functional guilds in a highly diverse subtropical forest. Oecologia. 208(9):108. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00442-026-05956-9

Ming-Qiang Wang, Shaopeng Wang, Xiaojuan Liu, Lei Zhao, Douglas Chesters, Helge Bruelheide, Yi Li, Jing-Ting Chen, Shan Li, Qing-Song Zhou, Keping Ma, Arong Luo, Andreas Schuldt*, Chao-Dong Zhu*, Georg Albert. 2026. Scaling biodiversity–stability relationships from populations to meta-communities across trophic levels. Nature Communications. 17:6038. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-75366-1.

Georg Albert*, Michael Staab, Arong Luo, Perttu Anttonen, Remy Beugnon, Simone Cesarz, Jingting Chen, Nico Eisenhauer, Alexandra Erfmeier, Felix Fornoff, Pengfei Guo, Werner Hardtle, Lydia Honig, Lin Jiang, Alexandra-Maria Klein, Yi Li, Yingbin Li, Qi Li, Lingli Liu, Keping Ma, Goddert von Oheimb, Gemma Rutten, Thomas Scholten, Steffen Seitz, Bala Singavarapu, Stefan Trogisch, Ming-Qiang Wang, Pandeng Wang, Donghao Wu, Tesfaye Wubet, Xian Yang, Mingjian Yu, Naili Zhang, Bernhard Schmid, Helge Bruelheide, Xiaojuan Liu, Chao-Dong Zhu, Andreas Schuldt. 2026. Multitrophic interaction networks mediate biodiversity effects on ecosystem multifunctionality. Nature Communications. 17(1):5787.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-75046-0.

Zhuo Yang, Bernhard Schmid, Chen Chen, Shan Li, Franca J. Bongers, Goddert von Oheimb, Helge Bruelheide, Lei Chen, Keping Ma, Xiaojuan Liu*. 2026. Neighbourhood Diversity Effects on Tree Growth Shift Over Time in a Long‐Term Forest Biodiversity Experiment. Ecology Letters. 29(6):e70420. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.70420.

Yanhong Wang, Yumei Pan, Qiqian Wu, Aiping Wu, Sirong Zhang, Xinping Wang, Yan Li, Naili Zhang*. 2026. Mycorrhizal type mediates coupled plant-soil and plant-phyllosphere feedbacks: divergent mechanisms driving subtropical tree growth. Geoderma. 471:117879.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016706126002077.

Douglas Chesters*, Ming‐Qiang Wang, Perttu Anttonen, Jing‐Ting Chen, Rui Cheng, Yi Li, Arong Luo, Michael C. Orr, Tingting Xie, Qingsong Zhou, Chao‐Dong Zhu*. 2026. A Lepidoptera Synthesis Phylogeny of 11,001 Species and Its Application in Phylogenetic Profiling of Herbivore DNA Barcodes: Towards an Integrative Phylogenetic Framework for Insects. Zoologica Scripta. 55(6):781-919. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/zsc.70071?saml_referrer

Matteo Dadda*, Simon Thorn, Arong Luo, Xianglu Deng, Xiaojuan Liu, Heike Feldhaar*. 2026. Tree species richness and productivity influence deadwood amount, but microclimate its decay in an early successional subtropical forest. European Journal of Forest Research. 145(4):80.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10342-026-01919-0

Peng-Fei Guo, Yi Li, Ming-Qiang Wang, Michael Orr, Massimo Martini, Jing-Ting Chen, Qing-Song Zhou, Xiao-Yu Shi, Arong Luo, Ze-Qing Niu, Alexandra-Maria Klein, Chao-Dong Zhu*. 2026. Plant traits rather than plant phylogenetic and functional diversity drive bee diversity in a subtropical forest. Journal of Plant Ecology. Online. https://academic.oup.com/jpe/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jpe/rtag110/8700542

Gheyur Gheyret, Hong‐Tu Zhang, Yun‐Hao Bai, Zhiyao Tang*. 2026. Tree growth phenology shifts in response to trait‐based neighbourhood effects in a large subtropical forest biodiversity experiment. Journal of Ecology. 114(6):e70373. https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2745.70373.

Guoyong Yan*, Xi Luo, Yajuan Xing, Chunnan Fan, Hao Liu, Qinggui Wang*, Shijie Han*. 2026. Tree diversity reduces the temperature sensitivity of soil carbon release. Journal of Ecology. 114(5):e70333. https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2745.70333.

Yannan Chen, Yu Chen, Yuhui Ding, Gexia Qiao*, Jun Chen*. 2026. Effects of subtropical forest tree species richness on soil mite biodiversity and soil quality. Basic and Applied Ecology. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1439179126000320?via%3Dihub.

Ting-Ting Xie, Yi Li, Ming-Qiang Wang, Michael Staab, Jing-Ting Chen, Xiu-Wei Liu, Xiao-Yu Shi, Qing-Song Zhou, Ze-Qing Niu, Ke-Ping Ma, Helge Bruelheide, Arong Luo*, Douglas Chesters*, Jia-Sheng Hao, Chao-Dong Zhu. 2026. Tree species richness drives multiple facets of bee diversity via understorey microenvironment. Journal of Animal Ecology. 95(2):270-281. https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.70207.

Alexandra-Maria Klein*, Helge Bruelheide, Douglas Chesters, Tim Diekötter, Alexandra Erfmeier, Heike Feldhaar, Felix Fornoff, Christina Grozinger, Nina Kranke, Yu Liang, Xiaojuan Liu, Arong Luo*, Yvonne Oelmann, Michael Orr, Jana Petermann, Huijie Qiao, Finn Rehling, Manuela Sann, Thomas Scholten, Andreas Schuldt, Steffen Seitz, Michael Staab, Simon Thorn, Ming-Qiang Wang, Zhi-Shu Xiao, Naili Zhang, Chao-Dong Zhu. 2026. MultiTroph: Multi-trophic interactions in a forest biodiversity experiment in China. Research Ideas and Outcomes. 12:e181743. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.12.e181743.

Ming-Qiang Wang, Georg Albert, Carlo L. Seifert, Douglas Chesters, Helge Bruelheide, Yi Li, Jing-Ting Chen, Andréa Davrinche, Sylvia Haider, Shan Li, Goddert von Oheimb, Tobias Proß, Keping Ma, Xiaojuan Liu, Arong Luo, Andreas Schuldt*, Chao-Dong Zhu*. 2026. Asynchrony and functional diversity couple herbivore community dynamics to host plant diversity. Nature Communications. 17:762. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-67990-0.

Xiaojuan Liu, Andreas Schuldt, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Alain Paquette, Bernhard Schmid, Keping Ma*. 2026. Ecological insights from three decades of forest biodiversity experiments. Nature Reviews Biodiversity. 2(1):9-23. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44358-025-00112-2