Comment on “Global Correlations in Tropical Tree Species Richness and Abundance Reject Neutrality”

abundances and species diversities of families and orders of trees on different continents, which they suggested falsifies the neutral theory of biodiversity (NTB). We argue that the correlations among families and orders and the lack of correlations among genera can be explained by the NTB. Ricklefs and Renner (1) published a highlystimulating paper that compared orders,families, and genera of trees present in tropical Asia, Africa, and America. Both total abundance and number of species in orders and families were found to be significantly corre-lated among continents, but neither correla-tion was significant for genera (1). Ricklefs and Renner (1) concluded that the intercontinental correlations among families or orders falsify the neutral theory of biodiversity (NTB) (2), which assumes that species are ecologically equivalent. They also concluded that the lack of correlations among genera do not falsify NTB. They the