Evolutionary history of marginal habitats regulates the diversity of tree communities in the Atlantic Forest.

Background And Aims: The Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot is a complex mosaic of habitat types. However, the diversity of the rain forest at the core of this complex has received far more attention than that of its marginal habitats, such as cloud forest, semi-deciduous forest or restinga. Here, we investigate broad-scale angiosperm tree diversity patterns along elevation gradients in the south-east Atlantic Forest and test if the diversity of marginal habitats is shaped from the neighbouring rain forest, as commonly thought.

How much leaf area do insects eat? A data set of insect herbivory sampled globally with a standardized protocol.

Herbivory is ubiquitous. Despite being a potential driver of plant distribution and performance, herbivory remains largely undocumented. Some early attempts have been made to review, globally, how much leaf area is removed through insect feeding.

Phylogenetic structure of understorey annual and perennial plant species reveals opposing responses to aridity in a Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot.

Aridity is a critical driver of the diversity and composition of plant communities. However, how aridity influences the phylogenetic structure of functional groups (i.e.

Publisher Correction: Contrasting latitudinal patterns in phylogenetic diversity between woody and herbaceous communities.

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Contrasting latitudinal patterns in phylogenetic diversity between woody and herbaceous communities.

Although many studies have shown that species richness decreases from low to high latitudes (the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient), little is known about the relationship between latitude and phylogenetic diversity. Here we examine global latitudinal patterns of phylogenetic diversity using a dataset of 459 woody and 589 herbaceous plant communities. We analysed the relationships between community phylogenetic diversity, latitude, biogeographic realm and vegetation type.