This presentation was given by Jens Kattge, on the occasion of the DIVERSITAS Celebration on 30 September 2014 in Seville, Spain. Jens Kattge is group leader of the Functional Biogeography research group at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Germany. DIVERSITAS is in an international research programme on biodiversity science. Founded in 1991, DIVERSITAS will transition to Future Earth in 2014. Find out more at bit.ly/1sZ2GcB