Environmental heterogeneity is regarded as one of the most important factors governing
species richness gradients. An increase in available niche space, provision of refuges and …

Mountains are key features of the Earth’s surface and host a substantial proportion of the
world’s species. However, the links between the evolution and distribution of biodiversity and …

Oil palm plantations have expanded rapidly in recent decades. This large‐scale land‐use
change has had great ecological, economic, and social impacts on both the areas converted …

High-resolution information on climatic conditions is essential to many applications in
environmental and ecological sciences. Here we present the CHELSA (Climatologies at high …

Although research on human-mediated exchanges of species has substantially intensified
during the last centuries, we know surprisingly little about temporal dynamics of alien species …

Plants, with an estimated 300,000 species, provide crucial primary production and ecosystem
structure. To date, our quantitative understanding of diversity gradients of megadiverse …

Endemism and species richness are highly relevant to the global prioritization of conservation
efforts in which oceanic islands have remained relatively neglected. When compared to …

All around the globe, humans have greatly altered the abiotic and biotic environment with
ever-increasing speed. One defining feature of the Anthropocene epoch 1 , 2 is the erosion of …

Aims We present the first global map of vascular plant species richness by ecoregion and
compare these results with the published literature on global priorities for plant conservation. …

Background The threats facing Ecuador's Yasuní National Park are emblematic of those
confronting the greater western Amazon, one of the world's last high-biodiversity wilderness …