Aim: The abundance-frequency relationship (AFR) is among the most-investigated pattern in biogeography, yet the relative contributions of niche-based processes related to ecological strategies, and of neutral processes related to spatial colonization-extinction dynamics, remains uncertain. Here, we tested the influences of ecological specialization and functional traits on local abundance and regional frequency, to determine the contribution of niche-based processes. Location: France and the UK. Taxon: Vascular plants. Methods: We used two arable weed surveys covering 1544...

Estimating time-dependent rates of speciation and extinction from dated phylogenetic trees of extant species (timetrees), and determining how and why they vary, is key to understanding how ecological and evolutionary processes shape biodiversity. Due to an increasing availability of phylogenetic trees, a growing number of process-based methods relying on the birth-death model have been developed in the last decade to address a variety of questions in macroevolution. However, this methodological progress has regularly been criticised...