TY - JOUR TI - Productivity is a poor predictor of plant species richness AU - Adler, Peter B. AU - Seabloom, Eric W. AU - Borer, Elizabeth T. AU - Hillebrand, Helmut AU - Hautier, Yann AU - Hector, Andy AU - Stanley Harpole, W. AU - O'Halloran, Lydia R. AU - Grace, James B. AU - Michael Anderson, T. AU - Bakker, Jonathan D. AU - Biederman, Lori A. AU - Brown, Cynthia S. AU - Buckley, Yvonne M. AU - Calabrese, Laura B. AU - Chu, Cheng Jin AU - Cleland, Elsa E. AU - Collins, Scott L. AU - Cottingham, Kathryn L. AU - Crawley, Michael J. AU - Damschen, Ellen I. AU - Davies, Kendi F. AU - DeCrappeo, Nicole M. AU - Fay, Philip A. AU - Firn, Jennifer AU - Frater, Paul AU - Gasarch, Eve I. AU - Gruner, Daniel S. AU - Hagenah, Nicole AU - Lambers, Janneke Hille Ris AU - Humphries, Hope AU - Jin, Virginia L. AU - Kay, Adam D. AU - Kirkman, Kevin P. AU - Klein, Julia A. AU - Knops, Johannes M.H. AU - La Pierre, Kimberly J. AU - Lambrinos, John G. AU - Li, Wei AU - MacDougall, Andrew S. AU - McCulley, Rebecca L. AU - Melbourne, Brett A. AU - Mitchell, Charles E. AU - Moore, Joslin L. AU - Morgan, John W. AU - Mortensen, Brent AU - Orrock, John L. AU - Prober, Suzanne M. AU - Pyke, David A. AU - Risch, Anita C. AU - Schuetz, Martin AU - Smith, Melinda D. AU - Stevens, Carly J. AU - Sullivan, Lauren L. AU - Wang, Gang AU - Wragg, Peter D. AU - Wright, Justin P. AU - Yang, Louie H. T2 - Science AB - For more than 30 years, the relationship between net primary productivity and species richness has generated intense debate in ecology about the processes regulating local diversity. The original view, which is still widely accepted, holds that the relationship is hump-shaped, with richness first rising and then declining with increasing productivity. Although recent meta-analyses questioned the generality of hump-shaped patterns, these syntheses have been criticized for failing to account for methodological differences among studies. We addressed such concerns by conducting standardized sampling in 48 herbaceous-dominated plant communities on five continents. We found no clear relationship between productivity and fine-scale (meters-2) richness within sites, within regions, or across the globe. Ecologists should focus on fresh, mechanistic approaches to understanding the multivariate links between productivity and richness. DA - 2011/// PY - 2011 DO - 10.1126/science.1204498 VL - 333 IS - 6050 SP - 1750 EP - 1753 SN - 10959203 ER -