Munguia, P.Ojanguren, A.2015-10-132015-10-132015Ecosphere, 2015; 6(2):25-1-25-42150-89252150-8925http://hdl.handle.net/2440/95218Ecologists are interested in understanding natural phenomena and strive to make comparisons across systems to better understand broad ecological processes and patterns. Recent reviews showcased how marine and terrestrial ecologists (as an example of two isolated disciplines) can benefit from sharing information. Here, a literature review shows that marine studies often lack the generality needed to bridge the often observed gap between theory developed in marine and terrestrial systems. In order to stimulate constructive comparisons across systems, we discuss potential reasons for this lower generality, with the goal of more broadly understanding ecological processes and patterns.en© 2015 Munguia and Ojanguren. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0Generality; marine ecology; terrestrial ecologyJournal article003003011510.1890/ES14-00231.10003504413000052-s2.0-84924333423178417