Plant–plant interactions can promote diversification in harsh environments through (1) natural selection producing divergent adaptations to extreme and varying abiotic conditions in plants that grow in the open, or (2) ...

Recent applications of coexistence theory to plant invasions posit that non-natives establish in resident communities through either niche differences or traits conferring them with fitness advantages, the former being ...

Aim: Local effects of ecosystem engineers on biodiversity can scale up to the landscape level, stressing the importance of ecological processes as determinants of species richness at larger spatial scales. In harsh ...

It is known that the release of volatile chemicals by many plants can attract the natural enemies of herbivorous insects. Such indirect interactions are likely when plants produce nectar from their extrafloral nectaries, ...

During evolution, the plants developed new biosynthetic pathways to produce secondary metabolites (flavonoids, alkaloids, cyanogenic glycosides, glucosinolates, phenolics and tannins) known as allelochemicals. These provide ...

Biotic interactions are vital to ecosystem functioning. Interactions among individuals lie at the core of population and community dynamics, and therefore play a central role in the existence and persistence of species. ...

The patch residence time of spiders has long been attributed to prey availability. We provide empirical evidence that plant architecture determines the residence time of a bromeliad-living spider. The residence time of ...

Biological communities are subject to spatiotemporal variations in community structure, i.e., species composition, richness, and abundance. Plant–pollinator interactions are affected by species composition and abundance, ...