BACKGROUND Ever since Darwin, natural scientists have turned to islands for inspiration
and for model systems. For the past half century, they have done so largely within the …

Islands are geographically defined as land masses completely surrounded by water, and
island systems have been used as models for many biogeographic, ecological, and …

Decades of research suggest that species richness depends on spatial characteristics of
habitat patches, especially their size and isolation. In contrast, the habitat amount hypothesis …

The number of microbes on Earth may be 1030, exceeding all other diversity. A small
number of these can infect people and cause disease. The diversity of parasitic organisms …

Defining the organisation of species interaction networks and unveiling the processes
behind their assembly is fundamental to understanding patterns of biodiversity, community …

When prioritizing regions for conservation protection, decisions are often based on the
principle that a single large reserve should support more species than several small …

The species–area relationship (SAR) constitutes one of the most general ecological patterns
globally. A number of different SAR models have been proposed. Recent work has shown …

The conservation level of rare waterbirds reflects the quality of the regional ecological
environment and wetlands, and suitable habitat patches and good environmental conditions …

Numerous mechanisms have been proposed to explain the island species–area
relationship (ISAR), including the passive sampling effect, the habitat diversity effect …

Urbanization has significantly reshaped regional biodiversity structure globally. Previous
studies suggested that urban communities of spontaneous plants are well adapted to the …