Comment on "Global correlations in tropical tree species richness and abundance reject neutrality"

Ricklefs and Renner (Reports, 27 January 2012, p. 464) showed correlations of species richness and individual abundance within families across continents and claimed that neutral theory predicts no such correlation. However, they did not substantiate this claim quantitatively with a neutral model. Here, we show that neutral theory can be consistent with these correlations and, consequently, that the correlations alone cannot reject neutrality.