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Abstract Many journals have strict word limits, and authors therefore spend considerable time shortening manuscripts. Here, we provide pointers for efficiently doing so while retaining key content. We include general guidance, tips for condensing the different parts of a scientific paper, and advice on what to avoid when shortening manuscripts. We hope that readers will find our guidance helpful.

Climatic conditions can influence plant reproduction directly, but also via changes in plant traits, interactions with animals, and the surrounding environment. Such indirect effects can often be complex and involve multiple steps including climatic effects on interacting species, and on the context in which these interactions occur. The joint effects of climatic variation and indirect effects in terms of plant-animal interactions have sometimes been assessed at larger spatial scales. However, less is known about how microclimatic variation affects within-population variation in reproductive performance, in spite of that it is becoming increasingly clear that variation in climatic conditions can occur over very short distances. We studied the direct and indirect effects of microclimate on within-population variation in reproductive performance of the plant Gentiana pneumonanthe in presence of the myrmecophagous and seed predator butterfly Phengaris alcon. We found that microclimatic effects on plant performance were mainly indirect, and that effects of temperature and moisture were interactive. The number of seeds per flower of G. pneumonanthe decreased in cold and moist microsites, and these effects were mediated by an increased oviposition by P. alcon in these microsites. The effects of soil temperature and moisture on the incidence of oviposition and plant performance were mediated by effects on plant phenology, density and phenology of neighbouring host plants, and host ant abundance. Plants that flowered earlier and where host ants were more abundant, and especially plants surrounded by fewer and later-flowering neighbours, produced fewer seeds per flower because of a higher incidence of oviposition. Our results demonstrate that effects of microclimatic variation on plant reproductive performance can be mostly indirect and largely mediated by species interactions. These findings highlight that among individual variation in small-scale environmental conditions within populations can cause variation in individual plant performance through multiple pathways.

Plants interact with a multitude of microorganisms and insects, both below- and above ground, which might influence plant metabolism. Despite this, we lack knowledge of the impact of natural soil communities and multiple aboveground attackers on the metabolic responses of plants, and whether plant metabolic responses to single attack can predict responses to dual attack. We used untargeted metabolic fingerprinting (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, GC-MS) on leaves of the pedunculate oak, Quercus robur, to assess the metabolic response to different soil microbiomes and aboveground single and dual attack by oak powdery mildew (Erysiphe alphitoides) and the common oak aphid (Tuberculatus annulatus). Distinct soil microbiomes were not associated with differences in the metabolic profile of oak seedling leaves. Single attacks by aphids or mildew had pronounced but different effects on the oak leaf metabolome, but we detected no difference between the metabolomes of healthy seedlings and seedlings attacked by both aphids and powdery mildew. Our findings show that aboveground attackers can have species-specific and non-additive effects on the leaf metabolome of oak. The lack of a metabolic signature detected by GC-MS upon dual attack might suggest the existence of a potential negative feedback, and highlights the importance of considering the impacts of multiple attackers to gain mechanistic insights into the ecology and evolution of species interactions and the structure of plant-associated communities, as well as for the development of sustainable strategies to control agricultural pests and diseases and plant breeding.

Abstract The timing of different life‐history events is often correlated, and selection might only rarely be exerted independently on the timing of a single event. In plants, phenotypic selection has often been shown to favor earlier flowering. However, little is known about to what extent this selection acts directly versus indirectly via vegetative phenology, and if selection on the two traits is correlational. We estimated direct, indirect, and correlational phenotypic selection on vegetative and reproductive phenology over 3 years for flowering individuals of the perennial herb Lathyrus vernus. Direct selection favored earlier flowering and shorter timespans between leaf‐out and flowering in all years. However, early flowering was associated with early leaf‐out, and the direction of selection on leaf‐out day varied among years. As a result, selection on leaf‐out weakened selection for early flowering in one of the study years. We found no evidence of correlational selection. Our results highlight the importance of including temporally correlated traits when exploring selection on the phenology of seasonal events.

Most species distribution models assume a close link between climatic conditions and species distributions. Yet, we know little about the link between species' geographical distributions and the sensitivity of performance to local environmental factors. We studied the performance of three bryophyte species transplanted at south- and north-facing slopes in a boreal forest landscape in Sweden. At the same sites, we measured both air and ground temperature. We hypothesized that the two southerly distributed species Eurhynchium angustirete and Herzogiella seligeri perform better on south-facing slopes and in warm conditions, and that the northerly distributed species Barbilophozia lycopodioides perform better on north-facing slopes and in relatively cool conditions. The northern, but not the two southern species, showed the predicted relationship with slope aspect. However, the performance of one of the two southern species was still enhanced by warm temperatures. An important reason for the inconsistent results can be that microclimatic gradients across landscapes are complex and influenced by many climate-forcing factors. Therefore, comparing only north- and south-facing slopes might not capture the complexity of microclimatic gradients. Population growth rates and potential distributions are the integrated results of all vital rates. Still, the study of selected vital rates constitutes an important first step to understand the relationship between population growth rates and geographical distributions and is essential to better predict how climate change influences species distributions.

Plants have two principal defense mechanisms to decrease fitness losses to herbivory: tolerance, the ability to compensate fitness after damage, and resistance, the ability to avoid damage. Variation in intensity of herbivory among populations should result in variation in plant defense levels if tolerance and resistance are associated with costs. Yet little is known about how levels of tolerance are related to resistance and attack intensity in the field, and about the costs of tolerance. In this study, we used information about tolerance and resistance against larval herbivory by the butterfly Anthocharis cardamines under controlled conditions together with information about damage in the field for a large set of populations of the perennial plant Cardamine pratensis. Plant tolerance was estimated in a common garden experiment where plants were subjected to a combination of larval herbivory and clipping. We found no evidence of that the proportion of damage that was caused by larval feeding vs. clipping influenced plant responses. Damage treatments had a negative effect on the three measured fitness components and also resulted in an earlier flowering in the year after the attack. Tolerance was related to attack intensity in the population of origin, i.e. plants from populations with higher attack intensity were more likely to flower in the year following damage. However, we found no evidence of a relationship between tolerance and resistance. These results indicate that herbivory drives the evolution for increased tolerance, and that changes in tolerance are not linked to changes in resistance. We suggest that the simultaneous study of tolerance, attack intensity in the field and resistance constitutes a powerful tool to understand how plant strategies to avoid negative effects of herbivore damage evolve.

Human population growth and resource use, mediated by changes in climate, land use, and water use, increasingly impact biodiversity and ecosystem services provision. However, impacts of these drivers on biodiversity and ecosystem services are rarely analyzed simultaneously and remain largely unknown. An emerging question is how science can improve the understanding of change in biodiversity and ecosystem service delivery and of potential feedback mechanisms of adaptive governance. We analyzed past and future change in drivers in south-central Sweden. We used the analysis to identify main research challenges and outline important research tasks. Since the 19th century, our study area has experienced substantial and interlinked changes; a 1.6°C temperature increase, rapid population growth, urbanization, and massive changes in land use and water use. Considerable future changes are also projected until the mid-21st century. However, little is known about the impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services so far, and this in turn hampers future projections of such effects. Therefore, we urge scientists to explore interdisciplinary approaches designed to investigate change in multiple drivers, underlying mechanisms, and interactions over time, including assessment and analysis of matching-scale data from several disciplines. Such a perspective is needed for science to contribute to adaptive governance by constantly improving the understanding of linked change complexities and their impacts.