How species richness and total abundance constrain the distribution of abundance

The species abundance distribution (SAD) is one of the most intensively studied distributions in ecology and its hollow‐curve shape is one of ecology's most general patterns. We examine the SAD in the context of all possible forms having the same richness (S) and total abundance (N), i.e. the f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology letters 2013-09, Vol.16 (9), p.1177-1185
Main Authors: Locey, Kenneth J., White, Ethan P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal populations
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biodiversity
Biogeography
Biological and medical sciences
constraints
distribution of wealth
Ecology
feasible set
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
hollow curve
macroecology
MaxEnt
Models, Biological
Population Density
species abundance distribution
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Summary:The species abundance distribution (SAD) is one of the most intensively studied distributions in ecology and its hollow‐curve shape is one of ecology's most general patterns. We examine the SAD in the context of all possible forms having the same richness (S) and total abundance (N), i.e. the feasible set. We find that feasible sets are dominated by similarly shaped hollow curves, most of which are highly correlated with empirical SADs (most R2 values > 75%), revealing a strong influence of N and S on the form of the SAD and an a priori explanation for the ubiquitous hollow curve. Empirical SADs are often more hollow and less variable than the majority of the feasible set, revealing exceptional unevenness and relatively low natural variability among ecological communities. We discuss the importance of the feasible set in understanding how general constraints determine observable variation and influence the forms of predicted and empirical patterns.
ISSN:1461-023X
1461-0248
DOI:10.1111/ele.12154