How extraordinary numbers of species can coexist in hyper-diverse communities remains unresolved. While numerous hypotheses have been proposed based on observational and theoretical investigations, little is known about ...

Ecology cannot yet fully explain why so many tree species coexist in natural communities such as tropical forests. A major difficulty is linking individual-level processes to community dynamics. We propose a combination ...

Niche differentiation has been proposed as an explanation for rarity in species assemblages. To test this hypothesis requires quantifying the ecological similarity of species. This similarity can potentially be estimated ...

The distribution of plant species along environmental gradients is expected to be predictable based on organismal function. Plant functional trait research has shown that trait values generally vary predictably along ...

Symbiotic nitrogen (N)-fixing trees can provide large quantities of new N to ecosystems, but only if they are sufficiently abundant. The overall abundance and latitudinal abundance distributions of N-fixing trees are well ...

Flagship species have been widely used as umbrella species in the management plans of China's nature reserves. This conflation of concepts, "flagship umbrellas", is best represented by the giant panda (Ailuropoda ...

Interactions among neighbors influence the structure of communities of sessile organisms. Closely related species tend to share habitat and resource requirements and to interact with the same mutualists and natural enemies ...

The rate and extent of global biodiversity change is surpassing our ability to measure, monitor and forecast trends. We propose an interconnected worldwide system of observation networks — a global biodiversity observing ...

While many plant species are considered threatened under anthropogenic pressure, it remains uncertain how rapidly we are losing plant species diversity. To fill this gap, we propose a Global Legume Diversity Assessment ...