Biotic resistance describes the ability of resident species in a community to reduce the success
of exotic invasions. Although resistance is a well‐accepted phenomenon, less clear are …

One of the most pervasive concepts in the study of community assembly is the metaphor of
the environmental filter, which refers to abiotic factors that prevent the establishment or …

Although research on the role of competitive interactions during community assembly
began decades ago, a recent revival of interest has led to new discoveries and research …

Ecologists now recognize that controversy over the relative importance of niches and neutrality
cannot be resolved by analyzing species abundance patterns. Here, we use classical …

Human alterations to nutrient cycles 1 , 2 and herbivore communities 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 are affecting
global biodiversity dramatically 2 . Ecological theory predicts these changes should be …

Aboveground–belowground interactions exert critical controls on the composition and function
of terrestrial ecosystems, yet the fundamental relationships between plant diversity and …

How ecosystem productivity and species richness are interrelated is one of the most debated
subjects in the history of ecology 1 . Decades of intensive study have yet to discern the …

For more than 30 years, the relationship between net primary productivity and species richness
has generated intense debate in ecology about the processes regulating local diversity. …

Ecologists seek general explanations for the dramatic variation in species abundances in
space and time. An increasingly popular solution is to predict species distributions, dynamics, …

The tremendous diversity of species in ecological communities has motivated a century of
research into the mechanisms that maintain biodiversity. However, much of this work …