Dunes Reveal Biodiversity Secrets

Ancient, acidic and nutrient-depleted dunes in Western Australia are not an obvious place to answer the question of why plant diversity varies from place to place. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute scientist Benjamin Turner and colleagues from the University of Western Australia published findings in the September 26, 2014 edition of Science showing that environmental filtering-—not a host of other theories-—determines local plant diversity in one of Earth’s biodiversity hotspots.