Ecological niches reflect not only adaptation to local circumstances but also the tendency of related lineages to share environmental tolerances. As a result, information on phylogenetic relationships has underappreciated potential to inform …
How individual species and entire ecosystems will respond to future climate change are among the most pressing questions facing ecologists. Past biodiversity dynamics recorded in the paleoecological archives show a broad array of responses, yet …
Are we entering a new ‘Golden Age’ of biogeography, with continued development of infrastructure and ideas? We highlight recent developments, and the challenges and opportunities they bring, in light of the snapshot provided by the 7th biennial …
Climate refugia, locations where taxa survive periods of regionally adverse climate, are thought to be critical for maintaining biodiversity through the glacial–interglacial climate changes of the Quaternary. A critical research need is to better …
Priority question exercises are becoming an increasingly common tool to frame future agendas in conservation and ecological science. They are an effective way to identify research foci that advance the field and that also have high policy and …
Macroclimatic variation along latitudinal gradients provides an excellent natural laboratory to investigate the role of temperature and the potential impacts of climate warming on terrestrial organisms. Here, we review the use of latitudinal …
Climate on Earth has always been changing. Despite decades of investigation, our limited knowledge of the ecological and evolutionary effects of climate changes often translates into uncertain predictions about the impact of future climates on …
The Mediterranean region is a renowned hotspot of plant biodiversity. It hosts some 25000 plant species, about half of them being endemics. Some species have been present for many million years, or even originated here, whilst others arrived much more ‘recently’.