Global Plant Ecology of Tropical Ultramafic Ecosystems

Ultramafc ecosystems are renowned for high endemism and habitat specialization. However, most of our understanding of ultramafc plant ecology comes from Medi‑ terranean and temperate climes, raising questions about the generalizability of plant responses to ultramafc soils. This is especially apparent in tropical ultramafc eco‑ systems which exhibit a wide range of endemism and diferentiation between ultra‑ mafc and adjacent non-ultramafc soils. Our objectives were two-fold: 1) synthesize our understanding of tropical ultramafc plant ecology, paying particular attention to generalities that may explain variation in endemism and habitat specialization among tropical ultramafc ecosystems; and 2) defne an interdisciplinary research agenda using tropical ultramafc ecosystems as a macroecological model. We dem‑ onstrate that tropical ultramafc foras are diverse and variable in plant form and