The alpine belt hosts the treeless vegetation above the high elevation climatic treeline. The
way alpine plants manage to thrive in a climate that prevents tree growth is through small …

Mountains are among the most biodiverse places on Earth, and plant lineages that inhabit
them have some of the highest speciation rates ever recorded. Plant diversity within the …

The geographic distribution of plant diversity matches the gradient of habitat heterogeneity
from lowlands to mountain regions. However, little is known about how much this …

Small islands represent a common feature in the Mediterranean and host a significant
fraction of its biodiversity. However, the distribution of plant species richness across spatial …

The theory of island biogeography postulates that size and isolation are key drivers of
biodiversity on islands. This theory has been applied not only to true (eg oceanic) islands …

Questions What are the functional trade‐offs of vascular plant species in global alpine
ecosystems? How is functional variation related to vegetation zones, climatic groups and …

Aim Trait‐based approaches are being used increasingly in island biogeography, providing
key insights into the eco‐evolutionary dynamics of insular systems. However, the …

Aim The future of biodiversity in increasingly warmer mountains may be poorly predicted by
climate variation if dispersal affects ecological change. We assessed the influence of …

Although it is well documented that mountains tend to exhibit high biodiversity, how
geological processes affect the assemblage of montane floras is a matter of ongoing …

Aim Area and environmental heterogeneity together explain most patterns of species
diversity but disentangling their relative importance has been difficult. Here, we empirically …