Flowers at times host abundant and specialized communities of bacteria and fungi that
influence floral phenotypes and interactions with pollinators. Ecological processes drive …

Fungi represent a large proportion of the genetic diversity on Earth and fungal activity
influences the structure of plant and animal communities, as well as rates of ecosystem …

Background The development and dispersal of seeds as well as their transition to seedlings
represent perhaps the most critical stages of a plant's life cycle. The endophytic and …

A major goal of microbial community ecology is to understand the forces that structure
community composition. Deterministic selection by specific environmental factors is …

Floral chemistry mediates plant interactions with pollinators, pathogens, and herbivores, with
major consequences for fitness of both plants and flower visitors. The outcome of such …

The way species affect one another in ecological communities often depends on the order of
species arrival. The magnitude of such historical contingency, known as priority effects …

Bee–fungus associations are common, and while most studies focus on entomopathogens,
emerging evidence suggests that bees associate with a variety of symbiotic fungi that can …

Mutualistic interactions are often subject to exploitation by species that are not directly
involved in the mutualism. Understanding which organisms act as such 'third-party'species …

Priority effects, in which the outcome of species interactions depends on the order of their
arrival, are a key component of many models of community assembly. Yet, much remains …

Floral nectar is prone to colonization by nectar-adapted yeasts and bacteria via air-, rain-,
and animal-mediated dispersal. Upon colonization, microbes can modify nectar chemical …