Aim The historical origins of biota in the Sunda Shelf region of Southeast Asia represent a long‐standing contentious issue in evolutionary biology. However, there is still no general agreement on the key factors driving the region's high species diversity and endemism in both plants and animals. Here, we inferred the evolutionary history of a small‐sized orchid radiation from the tropical rainforests (TRFs) of Sundaland and a...

Summary Six new species: Bulbophyllum caniceps, B. cochinealloides, B. fierenanaense, B. geminiflorum, B. oenanthum and B. rudolphus are described for the first time. The identity and nomenclature of Bulbophyllum cylindrocarpum is discussed and its var. andringitrense is recognised at species rank as B. jeanbosseri . Bulbophyllum aubrevillei and B. kieneri are compared with the latter becoming a synonym. The history and identi...

Overharvesting is one of the greatest threats to species survival. Farming overharvested species is a conservation strategy that can meet growing market demand and conserve wild populations of the target species. This strategy is compatible with the international community's desire to uphold the right of local communities to use biological resources to support their livelihoods. However, studies investigating whether farming c...

Climate is widely recognised as an important determinant of the latitudinal diversity gradient. However, most existing studies make no distinction between direct and indirect effects of climate, which substantially hinders our understanding of how climate constrains biodiversity globally. Using data from 35 large forest plots, we test hypothesised relationships amongst climate, topography, forest structural attributes (stem ab...

Aim To examine the contribution of large‐diameter trees to biomass, stand structure, and species richness across forest biomes. Location Global. Time period Early 21st century. Major taxa studied Woody plants. Methods We examined the contribution of large trees to forest density, richness and biomass using a global network of 48 large (from 2 to 60 ha) forest plots representing 5,601,473 stems across 9,298 species and 210 plan...

The shark fin trade is a major driver of shark exploitation in fisheries all over the world, most of which are not managed on a species‐specific basis. Species‐specific trade information highlights taxa of particular concern and can be used to assess the efficacy of management measures and anticipate emerging threats. The species composition of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, one of the world's largest fi...

Vegetative propagation (clonal growth) conveys several evolutionary advantages that positively affect life history fitness and is a widespread phenomenon among angiosperms that also reproduce sexually. However, a bias towards clonality can interfere with sexual reproduction and lead to sexual extinction, although a dearth of effective genetic tools and mathematical models for clonal plants has hampered assessment of these impa...

Global change is impacting forests worldwide, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services including climate regulation. Understanding how forests respond is critical to forest conservation and climate protection. This review describes an international network of 59 long‐term forest dynamics research sites ( CTFS ‐Forest GEO ) useful for characterizing forest responses to global change. Within very large plots (median size...