title: Comment on "Worldwide evidence of a unimodal relationship between productivity and plant species richness".
abstract: Fraser et al. (Reports, 17 July 2015, p. 302) report that a hump-backed model describes the worldwide relationship between productivity and plant species richness in grassland communities. We reanalyze their data from a larger-scale perspective, using local species pool. This influences richness far more strongly than productivity, and, when this is taken into account, the hump-backed richness-productivity relationship disappears.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi 5, 51014 Tartu, Estonia. laanisto@ut.ee.
authors.forename: Lauri
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Laanisto
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, Sussex BN1 9QG, UK.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Hutchings
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D065948:Grassland; D063245:Plant Development