Tak FungRyan A. ChisholmKristina Anderson-TeixeiraNorm BourgWarren Y. BrockelmanSarayudh BunyavejchewinChia Hao Chang-YangRutuja Chitra-TarakGeorge ChuyongRichard ConditHandanakere S. DattarajaStuart J. DaviesCorneille E.N. EwangoGary FewlessChristine FletcherC. V.Savitri GunatillekeI. A.U.Nimal GunatillekeZhanqing HaoJ. Aaron HoganRobert HoweChang Fu HsiehDavid KenfackYi Ching LinKeping MaJean Remy MakanaSean McMahonWilliam J. McSheaXiangcheng MiAnuttara NathalangPerry S. OngGeoffrey ParkerE. Ping RauJessica ShueSheng Hsin SuRaman SukumarI. Fang SunHebbalalu S. SureshSylvester TanDuncan ThomasJill ThompsonRenato ValenciaMartha I. VallejoXugao WangYunquan WangPushpa WijekoonAmy WolfSandra YapJess ZimmermanNational Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, ThailandInstituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, BogotaPontificia Universidad Catolica del EcuadorUniversity of Puerto RicoUniversity of the Philippines DilimanFar Eastern University ManilaUniversity of PeradeniyaUniversity of BueaSmithsonian Tropical Research InstituteField Museum of Natural HistoryShenyang Institute of Applied Ecology Chinese Academy of SciencesUniversite Paul Sabatier Toulouse IIITunghai UniversityForest Research Institute MalaysiaSmithsonian Environmental Research CenterNational University of SingaporeFlorida International UniversitySmithsonian InstitutionInstitute of Botany Chinese Academy of SciencesIndian Institute of Science, BengaluruOregon State UniversityMahidol UniversityNational Dong Hwa UniversityThailand National Center for Genetic Engineering and BiotechnologyNational Sun Yat-Sen University TaiwanUniversity of Wisconsin-Green BayTaiwan Forestry Research InstituteLos Alamos National LaboratoryNational Taiwan UniversityUK Centre for Ecology & HydrologyWildlife Conservation SocietySmithsonian Conservation Biology Institute2020-01-272020-01-272020-01-01Ecology Letters. Vol.23, No.1 (2020), 160-171146102481461023X2-s2.0-85074848354https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/49528© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS Among the local processes that determine species diversity in ecological communities, fluctuation-dependent mechanisms that are mediated by temporal variability in the abundances of species populations have received significant attention. Higher temporal variability in the abundances of species populations can increase the strength of temporal niche partitioning but can also increase the risk of species extinctions, such that the net effect on species coexistence is not clear. We quantified this temporal population variability for tree species in 21 large forest plots and found much greater variability for higher latitude plots with fewer tree species. A fitted mechanistic model showed that among the forest plots, the net effect of temporal population variability on tree species coexistence was usually negative, but sometimes positive or negligible. Therefore, our results suggest that temporal variability in the abundances of species populations has no clear negative or positive contribution to the latitudinal gradient in tree species richness.Mahidol UniversityAgricultural and Biological SciencesLetterSCOPUS10.1111/ele.13412