Plant diversity increases with the strength of negative density dependence at the global scale

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 356; no. 6345; pp. 1389 - 1392
• Main Authors: LaManna, Joseph A., Mangan, Scott A., Alonso, Alfonso, Bourg, Norman A., Brockelman, Warren Y., Bunyavejchewin, Sarayudh, Chang, Li-Wan, Chiang, Jyh-Min, Chuyong, George B., Clay, Keith, Condit, Richard, Cordell, Susan, Davies, Stuart J., Furniss, Tucker J., Giardina, Christian P., Gunatilleke, I. A. U. Nimal, Gunatilleke, C. V. Savitri, He, Fangliang, Howe, Robert W., Hubbell, Stephen P., Hsieh, Chang-Fu, Inman-Narahari, Faith M., Janík, David, Johnson, Daniel J., Kenfack, David, Korte, Lisa, Král, Kamil, Larson, Andrew J., Lutz, James A., McMahon, Sean M., McShea, William J., Memiaghe, Hervé R., Nathalang, Anuttara, Novotny, Vojtech, Ong, Perry S., Orwig, David A., Ostertag, Rebecca, Parker, Geoffrey G., Phillips, Richard P., Sack, Lawren, Sun, I-Fang, Tello, J. Sebastián, Thomas, Duncan W., Turner, Benjamin L., Díaz, Dilys M. Vela, Vrška, Tomáš, Weiblen, George D., Wolf, Amy, Yap, Sandra, Myers, Jonathan A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 30.06.2017; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Antibiosis; Biodiversity; Biological diversity; Density; Density dependence; Ecosystem; Erosion control; Forests; Geography; Herbivores; Latitude; Models, Biological; Natural enemies; Plant diversity; Plant species; Plants (botany); Plants (organisms); Populations; Rare species; Species diversity; Trees; Trees - classification; Trees - physiology; Tropical Climate; Tropical environments; Tropical forests; Tropics

Theory predicts that higher biodiversity in the tropics is maintained by specialized interactions among plants and their natural enemies that result in conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD). By using more than 3000 species and nearly 2.4 million trees across 24 forest plots worldwide, we sh...