The causes and consequences of biodiversity and composition

• David Tilman

Abstract
I propose spending my sabbatical synthesizing and integrating these data and ideas. In essence, I would like to pursue the hypothesis that, in combination with various disturbances and other physical aspects of a habitat, the same relatively simple set of mechanisms of interspecific interaction determine the diversity of a site, the patterns and dynamics of community assembly and susceptibility to invasion, and the dependence of community and ecosystem functioning on composition and diversity. I would do this by seeking common ground among the ideas and theories developed for each of the three issues above, and by using the large experimental data sets we have gathered over the past 9 years as tests of the resulting concepts and theory. Each of these separate activities is already well-developed, with results of analyses and theory published in a series of peer-reviewed papers, as discussed below. However, the synthesis of these three separate efforts has not yet begun. . The products of my time as a visitor at NCEAS would be one or more publications resulting from a working group/workshop (see below) and a book or a series of papers, whichever were more appropriate, reporting on the results of the synthesis of ideas and data on the causes and consequences of biodiversity and composition.