Beta-Diversity in Tropical Forest Trees

@article{Condit2002BetaDiversityIT,
  title={Beta-Diversity in Tropical Forest Trees},
  author={Richard S. Condit and Nigel C. A. Pitman and Egbert Giles Leigh and J{\'e}r{\^o}me Chave and John W. Terborgh and Robin B. Foster and Percy Núñez and Salomón Aguilar and Renato Valencia and Gorky Villa and Helene C. Muller‐Landau and Elizabeth Losos and Stephen P. Hubbell},
  journal={Science},
  year={2002},
  volume={295},
  pages={666 - 669}
}
The high alpha-diversity of tropical forests has been amply documented, but beta-diversity—how species composition changes with distance—has seldom been studied. We present quantitative estimates of beta-diversity for tropical trees by comparing species composition of plots in lowland terra firme forest in Panama, Ecuador, and Peru. We compare observations with predictions derived from a neutral model in which habitat is uniform and only dispersal and speciation influence species turnover. We… 
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