Diversity 2022 Best Paper Award

Diversity is instituting the Best Paper Awards to recognize the outstanding papers published in the journal.

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Diversity 2022 Best Paper Award. All papers published in Diversity in 2020 were considered for the award. After a thorough evaluation of the originality and significance of the papers, citations, and downloads, the four winning papers, which were nominated by the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Michael Wink, have been selected.

1. Review Paper Award

More Than a Functional Group: Diversity within the Legume–Rhizobia [1]

Benton N. Taylor, Ellen L. Simms and Kimberly J. Komatsu

Diversity2020, 12(2), 50; doi:10.3390/d12020050

Available online: https://doi.org/10.3390/d12020050

The nitrogen-fixing symbiosis between many legumes and their rhizobial bacteria partners represents one of the most important sources of nitrogen into terrestrial ecosystems, dramatically influencing patterns of primary productivity, carbon capture, and element cycling. The unique function of these nitrogen-fixing symbioses has long placed them at the center of research on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function (BEF), with many landmark BEF studies focusing on the increasing probability of including this nitrogen-fixing functional group in increasingly complex plant communities. Yet, traditional BEF studies have treated the legume–rhizobia functional group as exactly that—a single group. In fact, the legume family, Fabaceae, is the third most diverse plant family on Earth, and many legumes can partner with multiple different taxa of nitrogen-fixing rhizobia creating a mind-boggling number of potential pairings between rhizobia and their legume plant hosts. Here, we (Figure 1) explore how differences in diversity within the legume–rhizobia functional group can impact key ecosystem functions such as plant growth and nitrogen cycling at scales from the individual to the ecosystem. We also highlight the reciprocal direction of this interaction, where changes in many ecosystem functions can feedback to influence the diversity of legumes and their rhizobial partners. The emerging evidence that we review strongly suggests that explicitly accounting for diversity within the legume–rhizobia symbiosis will provide important new insight into the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function.

2. Three Research Article Awards

A Common Approach to the Conservation of Threatened Island Vascular Plants: First Results in the Mediterranean Basin [2]

Giuseppe Fenu, Gianluigi Bacchetta, Charalambos S. Christodoulou, Donatella

Cogoni, Christini Fournaraki, Giusso del Galdo Gian Pietro, Panagiota Gotsiou,

Angelos Kyratzis, Carole Piazza, Magdalena Vicens and Bertrand de Montmollin

Diversity2020, 12(4), 157; doi: 10.3390/d12040157

Available online: https://doi.org/10.3390/d12040157

This project represents the first attempt to develop common strategies and an opportunity to join methods and methodologies focused on the conservation of threatened plants in the Mediterranean islands, involving six research centers operating in the Mediterranean, coordinated by the IUCN/SSC Mediterranean plant specialist group (Figure 2).

Plant Diversity Patterns and Conservation Implications under Climate Change Scenarios in the Mediterranean: The Case of Crete (Aegean, Greece) [3]

Konstantinos Kougioumoutzis, Ioannis P. Kokkoris, Maria Panitsa, Panayiotis

Trigas, Arne Strid and Panayotis Dimopoulos

Diversity2020, 12(7), 270; doi: 10.3390/d12070270

Available online: https://doi.org/10.3390/d12070270

Climate change poses a great challenge for biodiversity conservation. This is even more pressing in regional biodiversity hotspots that are climate change hotspots as well, such as the eastern Mediterranean and, more specifically, Greece. Several studies have investigated the effects of climate change on European plants; none, however, has ever been conducted on a Mediterranean island biodiversity hotspot, with intense human disturbance. Biodiversity and biogeographical patterns are rather well-resolved in Greece, but climate change research is still in its infancy. In this regard, our research team (Figure 3) is actively involved in assessing climate change’s impacts on the biodiversity patterns of the Greek endemic plants. In this article, we provide a case study upon which a climate-smart conservation planning strategy might be set. We employed a variety of macroecological analyses and estimated the current and future biodiversity, conservation, and extinction hotspots in Crete. We assessed climate change’s impacts on the biodiversity patterns of Crete, the hottest endemic plant diversity Mediterranean hotspot. We found that the high-altitude areas of the Cretan mountains constitute biodiversity hotspots and areas of high conservation and evolutionary value. Due to the “escalator to extinction” phenomenon, these areas are projected to become diversity “death zones” and should thus be prioritized. This conservation-prioritization planning will allow the preservation of evolutionary heritage, trait diversity, and future ecosystem services for human well-being and acts as a pilot for similar regions worldwide.

Conserving the Diversity of Ecological Interactions: The Role of Two Threatened Macaw Species as Legitimate Dispersers of “Megafaunal” Fruits [4]

José L. Tella, Fernando Hiraldo, Erica Pacífico, José A. Díaz-Luque, Francisco V.

Dénes, Fernanda M. Fontoura, Neiva Guedes and Guillermo Blanco

Diversity2020, 12(2), 45; doi: 10.3390/d12020045

Available online: https://doi.org/10.3390/d12020045

Many plant species rely on animal vectors for effective seed dispersal. Among them, the dispersal of large-fruited (>4 cm diameter) plants is thought to have been handicapped after the extinction of megafauna in the Late Pleistocene and the recent defaunation of large mammals. In our study, we assessed the role played by two large, threatened macaw species as seed dispersers in three Neotropical biomes (Caatinga, Cerrado, and Pantanal) of Brazil and Bolivia. Contrary to previous thoughts, exclusively considering these species as seed predators, we (Figure 4) found that both Lear’s and hyacinth macaws act as frequent and legitimate long-distance seed dispersers of several large-fruited palm species. Our results challenge the prevailing view that the dispersal of large-fruited plants was compromised after megafauna extinction and warns on the functional extinction of these palm–macaw mutualistic interactions due to the large population and range contractions of macaws at a continental scale.

These four outstanding papers are highly valuable contributions to Diversity. On behalf of the Diversity Editorial Board, we would like to congratulate these four teams for their excellent work. In recognition of their accomplishments, each team will receive a certificate and a cash award of CHF 500, plus a waiver to enable them to publish a paper free of charge in 2022.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the nominated research groups of the above exceptional papers for their contributions to Diversity and thank the Diversity Editorial Board for voting and helping with this “Best Paper Award”.

The Editorial Board and Editorial Staff at Diversity are committed to meeting the of all quality manuscripts submitted and providing an open access journal for the broad dissemination of your findings. Please consider submitting your work to Diversity, and we look forward to considering your paper as a Diversity Best Paper in the future.