Temperature profoundly impacts both the phenotypes and distributions of organisms. These
thermal effects exert strong selective pressures on behaviour, physiology and life history …

Species richness increases with energy availability, yet there is little consensus as to the
exact processes driving this species–energy relationship. The most straightforward …

Global patterns of species richness and their structuring forces have fascinated biologists
since Darwin, and provide critical context for contemporary studies in ecology, evolution and …

The ocean is home to myriad small planktonic organisms that underpin the functioning of
marine ecosystems. However, their spatial patterns of diversity and the underlying drivers …

Question: Associations of body size and of body temperature with fitness have complex
relationships for ectotherms, but three general patterns are known. Bigger is better: Larger …

Question Are plant traits more closely correlated with mean annual temperature, or with
mean annual precipitation? Location Global. Methods We quantified the strength of the …

Range shifts of many species are now documented as a response to global warming. But
whether these observed changes are occurring fast enough remains uncertain and hardly …

Comprising a substantial part of living biomass on earth, ants are integral to the functioning
of terrestrial ecosystems. More than 12,000 species have been described to date, and it is …

Terrestrial geothermal ecosystems, as a representative of extreme environments, exhibit a
variety of geochemical gradients, and their microbes are thought to be under high stress …

Resource availability and habitat heterogeneity are principle drivers of biodiversity, but their
individual roles often remain unclear since both factors are usually correlated. The …