What is a Plant Diversity?

What factors increase a plant community's diversity?

• diverse plant communities have many species representing a variety of plant types such as grasses shrubs, succulents,hardwood trees, softwood trees, vines, ferns, and so on. what factors increase a plant community's diversity? age of community? energy imput? moisture? nutrients? disturbance? human activity? how do they do so?

• Answer:

  Diversity is greater when there are fewer limiting factors and resources are plentiful. The rainforest offers plentiful water, CO2, sunlight, and has established a critical rapidity of decomposition to ensure the limited minerals cycle back into organics. This last relies on the temperature and water supply being sufficient and consistent to keep the bacteria actively decomposing detritus. This keeps restoring soluble minerals. Biomes like the tiaga and deserts have severely limiting resources and harsh ecosystems.