Australian and global plant diversity from first principles

该项目旨在用生态学和进化论的基本原理来解释澳大利亚和世界各地的植被组成。几个世纪以来，研究人员一直在研究气候如何塑造植被，但仍然缺乏基本的量化理论来预测应该在哪里以及为什么发现什么类型的植物。结合第一性原理模型、统计学和澳大利亚的大量数据综合，该项目将确定植被结构和多样性是否可预测，从而改进预测模型。预测进化适应和人类对生态系统的长期影响可以使陆地碳管理成为基础，并为有效的生态系统管理和恢复奠定基础。

This project aims to explain the composition of vegetation in Australia and worldwide using ecological and evolutionary first principles. Researchers have studied how climate shapes vegetation for centuries, but still lack a basic quantitative theory predicting what types of plants should be found where and why. Combining first principles models, statistics and large Australian data synthesis, this project will determine whether vegetation structure and diversity is predictable and thus improve predictive models. Predicting the long term effects of evolutionary adaptation and humans on ecosystems could enable the management of terrestrial carbon and underpin effective ecosystem management and restoration.