The Andes are the world's most biodiverse mountain chain, encompassing a complex array
of ecosystems from tropical rainforests to alpine habitats. We provide a synthesis of Andean …

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 …

INTRODUCTION Individual processes that shape geographical patterns of biodiversity are
increasingly understood, but their complex interactions on broad spatial and temporal scales …

The American tropics (the Neotropics) are the most species-rich realm on Earth, and for
centuries, scientists have attempted to understand the origins and evolution of their …

Mountains are arguably Earth's most striking features. They play a major role in determining
global and regional climates, are the source of most rivers, act as cradles, barriers and …

Far from a uniform band, the biodiversity found across Earth's tropical moist forests varies
widely between the high diversity of the Neotropics and Indomalaya and the relatively lower …

Recent debates on the number of plant species in the vast lowland rain forests of the
Amazon have been based largely on model estimates, neglecting published checklists …

Biodiversity is unevenly distributed on Earth and hotspots of biodiversity are often
associated with areas that have undergone orogenic activity during recent geological history …

Summary The tropical Andes of South America, the world's richest biodiversity hotspot, are
home to many rapid radiations. While geological, climatic, and ecological processes …

Recent studies have generated an explosion of phylogenetic and biogeographic data and
have provided new tools to investigate the processes driving large-scale gradients in …