Towards a unified theory of biodiversity
Project Description
This working group is aimed at integrating three distinct areas of ecological theory in order to develop a prediction-rich synthetic framework for the structure and dynamics of biodiversity. Our goal is not to summarize the research conducted to date, but rather to cross disciplinary boundaries and specializations in order to quantify the effects of individual energetics, stochasticity, and spatial heterogeneity in the environment on biodiversity. We anticipate a vigorous and systematic attack on this problem by researchers committed to improving their theories by confronting them with data. This proposed theory synthesis promises to deepen our basic understanding of biodiversity, to set an agenda for future research, and to help address current environmental problems.
Principal Investigator(s)
Project Dates
Start: September 1, 2007
End: September 1, 2009
completed
Participants
- Andrew P. Allen
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Jayanth Banavar
- Pennsylvania State University
- James H. Brown
- University of New Mexico
- T. Jonathan Davies
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Jennifer A. Dunne
- Santa Fe Institute
- Brian J. Enquist
- University of Arizona
- James F. Gillooly
- University of Florida
- Patty Gowaty
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Jessica L. Green
- University of Oregon
- John Harte
- University of California, Berkeley
- Stephen P. Hubbell
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Jeffrey K. Lake
- Michigan State University
- Amos Maritan
- Padova University
- Pablo A. Marquet
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- Carlos J. Melian
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- James O'Dwyer
- University of Oregon
- Jordan G. Okie
- University of New Mexico
- Annette Ostling
- University of Michigan
- Mark Ritchie
- Syracuse University
- Van M. Savage
- Harvard University Indonesia Program
- Igor Volkov
- Pennsylvania State University
- Geoffrey B. West
- Santa Fe Institute
- Tommaso Zillio
- University of Alberta
Products
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Journal Article / 2008
Diversity emerging: From competitive exclusion to neutral coexistence in ecosystems
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Journal Article / 2014
On theory in ecology
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Journal Article / 2010
Field theory for biogeography: A spatially explicit model for predicting patterns of biodiversity
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Journal Article / 2012
Do fitness-equalizing tradeoffs lead to neutral communities?