Social distancing between adult trees - the key to diversity? 

The classical explanation for the coexistence of many tropical tree species is that each species has it's own species-specific enemies (herbivores and pathogenes). These enemies kill juvenile trees below adults of the same species, allowing other species to establish. However, this mechanism should generate "social distancing" or repulsion between adult trees, and this has never been found. Until now.

Read the coverage of our 2023 Science paper:

The effect of spatial heterogeneity on species diversity

If there are more habitats there will be more species, right? Not so easy, it turns out. Too many habitats can make species extinction-prone. Read the coverage of our 2012 PNAS paper:

Is there a balance to nature?

A classical idea is that natural populations have a "balance", i.e., if they decline they will bounce back, and if they become too common they will decrease. But how strong is the evidence for this? 

Read the cover of our 2014 AmNat paper (in Hebrew):