A new report co-authored by ecologists from 12 countries, including those from Luquillo LTER based at the University of Puerto Rico, reveals that nature encourages species diversity by selecting for less common trees as the trees mature.
The report, "Nonrandom Processes Maintain Diversity in Tropical Forests," was published in the January 27, 2006 edition of Science magazine (Vol. 311, no. 5760, pp. 527-531). It was based on a study conducted in seven undisturbed forest plots, or "tropical forest observatories," maintained by research institutions in Borneo, India, Malaysia, Panama, Puerto Rico and Thailand, under the coordination of the Center for Tropical Forest Science of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, based in Panama. According to a press release from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which co-sponsored the study together with the Center for Tropical Forest Science of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the study "conclusively demonstrates that diversity matters and has ecological importance to tropical forests."
You can read or download a pdf copy of the report here.
You can also read the NSF press release, which gives an account of the study, here.