Abstract Since the Industrial Revolution, the rapid global population and economic
expansion have had tremendous impacts on biodiversity across spatial scales, especially for …

In the seven manuscripts presented in this dissertation I contribute to our understanding of
the drivers of plant diversity, endemism and speciation by using empirical, experimental and …

Although islands are model systems for investigating assembly of biological communities,
long-term changes in archipelago communities are not well understood because of the lack …

Recent climate projections indicate substantial environmental alterations in oceanic island
regions during the 21st century, setting up profound threats to insular floras. Inherent …

The Earth's islands harbor a distinct, yet highly threatened, biological and cultural diversity
that has been shaped by geographic isolation and unique environments. Island systems are …

Oceanic islands present special conditions for plant evolution. Their geographic isolation,
small size, relatively young geological age, and a host of other factors have led to the …

Abstract Aim The General Dynamic Model (GDM) links island biogeographical processes to
island geological history. A key premise of the GDM implies that environmental factors …

Understanding patterns of community structure and the causes for their variation can be
furthered by comparative biogeographic analyses of island biotas. We used woody plant …

We summarize research on the global centres and gradients of vascular plant diversity. Most
centres of plant species richness are located in geodiverse areas of the humid tropics and …

Aim Functional traits can help us to elucidate biogeographical and ecological processes
driving assemblage structure. We analysed the functional diversity of plant species of …