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ECOLOGY

Decoding plant communities across scales

Characteristics shared by different plant species can be used to decipher where they are found in nature. A new global analysis indicates that using this code to understand what shapes plant communities must consider spatial scale.

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Fig. 1: How spatial scale affects functional trait relationships.

NASA (satellite image), E. Damschen (local community photo, Fort Stewart, GA, USA).

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Correspondence to Ellen I. Damschen.

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Damschen, E.I. Decoding plant communities across scales. Nat Ecol Evol 2, 1844–1845 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0739-4

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