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Macroecology is a newly defined scientific branch between ecology, evolution and biogeography, aiming to clarify ecological processes using statistics on regional and global scales. This project will study macroecological processes (evolution, extinction and migration of species with different functional traits) in plant communities across different scales. We begin with global studies of community diversity and functional relationships, for example asking if diversity is similarly related to productivity or soil heterogeneity across different regions (evolutionary history). Then we continue with regional scale in the studies of the island flora: is the species pool formation supported by speciation or historical migration (evolution and historical migration). Next, we study changes in species’ range and dispersal between habitat patches within a region (historical migration and local colonizations and extinctions). Finally, we connect the theoretical macroecological studies to the practical nature conservation in planning protected areas at the global and regional scale. We shall use the meta-study approach; ecoinformatics using global and regional databases; and field works gathering biodiversity and environmental data at the regional scale. |