Image Credit: Yunshan Yang

Cover Story:

Mountain biodiversity is of great importance to biogeography and ecology. However, it is unclear what ecological and evolutionary processes best explain the generation and maintenance of its high levels of species diversity. Rhododendrons, a representative of alpine and subalpine plants, play a critical role in maintaining ecosystem stability and biodiversity of mountains. Guan et al.’s findings demonstrate that global Rhododendron diversity can be explained by island biogeography theory and habitat heterogeneity, and mountains can be regarded as islands which supported island biogeography theory.

More about: Plant Diversity