Diversity begets diversity: Experiments confirm ecological tenet

April 9, 2004
Written By:
Nancy Ross-Flanigan
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Diversity begets diversity: Experiments confirm ecological tenet

In contrast with traditional coffee farming practices, some coffee growers have cleared forests to grow coffee in monoculture.

ANN ARBOR—In discussions of biological diversity, ecologists long have maintained that variety in one part of an ecosystem, say plants, leads to variety at other levels, such as insects that feed on or make nests in those plants. It’s a logical assumption, but one that has been difficult to test.

In the April 9 issue of Science, University of Michigan researchers report results of an experiment with twig-nesting ants showing that diversity does indeed beget diversity, but apparently not for the reason ecologists have always thought.