We welcome a visiting PhD student Shengjing Jiang from Lanzhou University, Gansu Province, China. The PhD project of Shengjing tackles the effect of environmental change on the communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. His supervisor at the home university is Prof. Huyuan Feng. During his stay with us, Maarja Öpik coordinated his activities. His stay is funded by DoRa 5 program.

Guillermo Bueno published with Isabel C. Barrio and David S. Hik a paper entitled "Warming the tundra: reciprocal responses of invertebrate herbivores and plants" in Oikos.

In this paper the authors investigated the effect of warming on plant-herbivore interactions in tundra ecosystems, by simultaneously warming the herbivore (caterpillars of the Arctic moth) and its food plants (Salix arctica and Dryas octopetala). They manipulated herbivore presence and temperature in a full-factorial field experiment at two elevations, at a tundra site in Canada. Changes in temperature due to elevation and/or experimental warming directly affected caterpillar performance, herbivory rates and the responses of plants. Caterpillars performed worse under higher temperatures and changed their relative use of the two food plants. Responses of plants to warming seemed to be affected by the presence of caterpillars. Our findings suggest that the role of invertebrate herbivory in tundra systems might be more important than previously thought, especially under rapid environmental warming.