A new explanation for the dominance of generalists among tropical trees
Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - 09:01
in Biology & Nature
In tropical rainforests, most young trees grow spatially independent from their parent trees. This means that it is not possible to predict where seedlings will take root, and less specialised species therefore have an advantage even in the species-rich rainforests of the tropics. This is the finding of a study, conducted by researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), the University of California and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the results of which were published recently in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.