A scientific field matures as its theoretical underpinnings consolidate around unified
theories: conceptual structures consisting of a few general propositions that encompass a …

The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has emerged as a major
scientific issue today. As experiments progress, there is a growing need for adequate …

The relationships between biodiversity and stability were determined for both population
and ecosystem traits in a long—term study of 207 grassland plots. Results demonstrate that …

Kris H. Johnson, Kristiina A. Vogt, Heidi 1. Clark, Oswald 1. Schmitz and Daniel 1. Vogt ior of
those systems is a prime directive of ecological research. The problem ultimately …

Functional redundancy has often been assumed as an intuitive null hypothesis in
biodiversity experiments, but theory based on the classical Lotka‐Volterra competition …

This paper uses theory and experiments to explore the effects of diversity on stability,
productivity, and susceptibility to invasion. A model of resource competition predicts that …

Three markedly different models of multispecies competition—one mechanistic, one
phenomenological, and one statistical—all predict that greater diversity increases the …

This article examines some of the main tenets of competition theory in light of the theory of
evolution and the concept of an ecological niche. The principle of competitive exclusion and …

The frequently observed positive correlation between species diversity and community
biomass is thought to depend on both the degree of resource partitioning and on competitive …

The relationship between resource productivity and the number of consumer species that
can coexist in a patchy environment was examined using simple models of competition. The …