Trade-offs, coexistence and biodiversity
A CEES project
The vast majority of plant communities on Earth and composed of multiple plant species, exhibiting contrasting traits and strategies subject a variety of biophysical and ecological 'trade-offs'. Which trade-offs are responsible for maintaining diversity in which communities? How can we include trade-offs in models of plant communities? What might the resultant models tell us about how to reduce biodiversity loss, or maximize agricultural efficiency?
Relevant Publications
- Drew W Purves, Jeremy W Lichstein, Nikolay Strigul, and Stephen W Pacala, Predicting and understanding forest dynamics using a simple tractable model, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 29 October 2008
- Lindsay A Turnbull, Mark Rees, and Drew W Purves, Why equalising trade-offs aren’t always neutral, in Ecology Letters, vol. 11, pp. 1037-1046, October 2008
- Lindsay A Turnbull, Cloe Paul-Victor, Bernhard Schmid, and Drew W Purves, Growth rates, seed size and physiology - Do small-seeded species really grow faster?, in Ecology, vol. 89, pp. 1352-1363, January 2008
