Foreword Mark V. Lomolino; 1. The species–area relationship: both general and protean? Thomas J. Matthews, Kostas A. Triantis and Robert J. Whittaker; 2. The History of the Species–Area Relationship Even Tjørve, Thomas J. Matthews and Robert J. Whittaker; 3. The multiple forms and functions of species–area relationship Thomas Matthews, François Rigal, Konstantinos Proios, Kostas Triantis and Robert J. Whittaker; 4. The factors that underpin the shape of the SAR curve Even Tjørve, Kathleen Tjørve , Eva Šizlingová and Arnost Šizling; 5. Functional and phylogenetic diversity–area relationships: a review Florent Mazel and Wilfried Thuiller; 6. Species–area relationships in alien species: pattern and process Tim Blackburn, Phil Cassey and Petr Pysek; 7. Mathematical expressions for the species-area relationship (SAR) and (the hidden) assumptions behind the models Even Tjørve and Kathleen Tjørve; 8. Biodiversity scaling on a continuous plane: geometrical underpinnings of the nested species–area relationship David Storch and Arnost Šizling; 9. Upscaling SARs and the connection with species abundances Luis Borda-de-Agua, Saeid Alirezazadeh, Manuela Neves, Stephen P. Hubbell, Paulo Borges, Pedro Cardoso, Francisco Dionísio and Henrique M. Pereira; 10. The SAR: Is It “Produced by Laws Acting around Us”? John Harte; 11. The species–area relationships of ecological neutral theory James Rosindell and Ryan Chisholm; 12. The integration of the species–area relationship with mechanistic community ecological theory Robert Holt, Dominique Gravel, Adrian Stier and James Rosindell; 13. The identification biodiversity hotspots using the species–area relationship Simone Fattorini; 14. Using the species-area relationship to predict extinctions resulting from habitat loss Simone Fattorini, Werner Ulrich and Thomas J. Matthews; 15. Using network analysis and diversity partitioning to examine the temporal dynamics of the species–area relationship Joseph Veech and Giovanni Strona; 16. Does Geometry dominate extinction due to habitat loss? Athanasios Kallimanis and John Halley; 17. External modulators of species-area relationships Isabel Jones, Carlos Peres, Maíra Benchimol, Anderson S. Bueno, Danielle Storck-Tonon and Ana Filipa Palmeirim; 18. Applied SARs in marine systems and fisheries Karl Ugland and Alexandra Kraberg; 19. Conclusions and future Directions in SAR Research Kostas A. Triantis.