Caution with curves: Caveats for using the species–area relationship in conservation

Conservation biologists use the species–area relationship for a variety of purposes, including upscaling diversity from small plots to regions, predicting species loss, and for identifying biodiversity hotspots and prioritizing actions to protect them. Despite its widespread use, several complications that affect the accuracy of its application are often overlooked. First, interpretation of the species–area relationship is a function of the...