Diversity maintenance in patchy environments (2019-2023)

This project aims to advance understanding of species coexistence and diversity maintenance in complex natural environments. Though diversity is well known to vary across patchy natural and human-created environments, the mechanistic drivers of these patterns remain poorly understood. This knowledge gap limits our ability to predict and manage responses of natural communities to environmental changes. Using data from threatened Western Australian wildflower communities and novel ecological models of species coexistence, the study aims to deliver a mechanistic understanding of biological diversity, and provide fundamental knowledge needed to improve ecosystem management and restoration outcomes across Australia and globally.