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Comment on "Productivity is a poor predictor of plant species richness"
Jason D Fridley1, J Philip Grime, Michael A Huston
1Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA. fridley@syr.edu
Abstract:
Adler et al. (Reports, 23 September 2011, p. 1750) reported "weak and variable" relationships between productivity and species richness and dispute the "humped-back" model (HBM) of plant diversity. We show that their analysis lacks sufficient high-productivity sites, ignores litter, and excludes anthropogenic sites. If corrected, the data set of Adler et al. would apparently yield strong HBM support.
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