Mineral nutrients in mediterranean ecosystems

Abstract

The notion of ecological convergence has influenced taxonomists and biogeographers since the development of ecology in the mid-nineteenth century. Our initial understanding of the ecosystems of the world resulted from plant geographers' classifications of plant forms and formations, categories implicitly based on their intuitive views of convergence. Because of the striking similarities in plant form among the small, widely-separated Mediterranean ecosystems (Figure 1), biogeographical concepts and early ideas on ecophysiology were strongly influenced by convergence in the sclerophyllous plant form and the inferred similarities in plant function. These views were controversial, however, and there has been no attempt at rigorous hypothesis testing until the second half of this century.