Species-area Curves, Spatial Aggregation, and Habitat Specialization in Tropical Forests

The relationship between species diversity and sampled area is fundamental to ecology. Traditionally, theories of the species–area relationship have been dominated by random-placement models. Such models were used to formulate the canonical theory of species–area curves and species abundances. In th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of theoretical biology 2000-11, Vol.207 (1), p.81-99
Main Authors: PLOTKIN, JOSHUA B., POTTS, MATTHEW D., LESLIE, NANDI, MANOKARAN, N., LAFRANKIE, JAMES, ASHTON, PETER S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ecology
Models, Biological
Population Dynamics
Species Specificity
Trees
Tropical Climate
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The relationship between species diversity and sampled area is fundamental to ecology. Traditionally, theories of the species–area relationship have been dominated by random-placement models. Such models were used to formulate the canonical theory of species–area curves and species abundances. In this paper, however, armed with a detailed data set from a moist tropical forest, we investigate the validity of random placement and suggest improved models based upon spatial aggregation. By accounting for intraspecific, small-scale aggregation, we develop a cluster model which reproduces empirical species–area curves with high fidelity. We find that inter-specific aggregation patterns, on the other hand, do not affect the species–area curves significantly. We demonstrate that the tendency for a tree species to aggregate, as well as its average clump size, is not significantly correlated with the species' abundance. In addition, we investigate hierarchical clumping and the extent to which aggregation is driven by topography. We conclude that small-scale phenomena such as dispersal and gap recruitment determine individual tree placement more than adaptation to larger-scale topography.
ISSN:0022-5193
1095-8541
DOI:10.1006/jtbi.2000.2158