The Janzen‐Connell Hypothesis posits that plant species diversity is maintained by a reduction in seedling survival near living conspecific trees relative to heterospecifics–known as negative conspecific density dependence (CDD). CDD facilitates coexistence if stronger than heterospecific density dependence (HDD). However, whether and how long CDD persists after trees die is unknown. In a three‐year study across three forests,...

Conspecific density dependence (CDD) in plant populations is widespread, most likely caused by local‐scale biotic interactions, and has potentially important implications for biodiversity, community composition, and ecosystem processes. However, progress in this important area of ecology has been hindered by differing viewpoints on CDD across subfields in ecology, lack of synthesis across CDD‐related frameworks, and misunderst...

When plants die, neighbours escape competition. Living conspecifics could disproportionately benefit because they are freed from negative intraspecific processes; however, if the negative effects of past conspecific neighbours persist, other species might be advantaged, and diversity might be maintained through legacy effects. We examined legacy effects in a mapped forest by modelling the survival of 37,212 trees of 23 species...

Aim The emergence of large‐scale patterns of animal body size is the central expectation of a wide range of (macro)ecological and evolutionary hypotheses. The drivers shaping these patterns include climate (e.g. Bergmann's rule), resource availability (e.g. ‘resource rule’), biogeographic settings and niche partitioning (e.g. adaptive radiation). However, these hypotheses often make opposing predictions about the trajectories...