Subtitle:

Species, density and weight distributions

Contributor:

Polish Academy of Sciences. Institute of Ecology

Publisher:

Polish Academy of Sciences. Institute of Ecology. Publishing Office

Place of publishing:

Dziekanów Leśny

Description:

Pages 87-101 : illustrations ; 27 cm ; Bibliographical references (pages 100-101)

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Abstract:

This paper tests the hypothesis that the density – weight distribution of species assemblages may be generated alone by underlying weight dependent density fluctuations by constructing several model species – weight and density – weight distributions. The simulations revealed that indeed even a slight dependence of density fluctuation on body weight generated typical density – weight distributions with upper density boundaries and triangular shapes. Other ecological explanations, such as metabolic constraints or arguments based on fractal geometry, may therefore not be necessary to explain the pattern. In a second step of analysis the density – weight relationship was combined with various species – weight distributions (computed over log2 weight classes) to show that in nearly all parameter settings steadily rising biomass distributions with a decline only towards the largest weight classes result. The generality of the equal biomass hypothesis is therefore rejected. A general model is developed to explain several of the patterns in density – weight and species – weight plots assuming only underlying weight dependent speciation and extinction rates and weight dependent density fluctuations.

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Relation:

Polish Journal of Ecology

Volume:

47

Issue:

1

Start page:

87

End page:

101

Detailed Resource Type:

Article

Resource Identifier:

oai:rcin.org.pl:106118 ; ISSN 1505-2249

Source:

MiIZ PAN, call no. P.2840 ; click here to follow the link

Language:

eng

Language of abstract:

Rights:

Creative Commons Attribution BY 3.0 PL license

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. [CC BY 3.0 PL] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY 3.0 PL license, full text available at: ; -

Digitizing institution:

Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Original in:

Library of the Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Projects co-financed by:

Operational Program Digital Poland, 2014-2020, Measure 2.3: Digital accessibility and usefulness of public sector information; funds from the European Regional Development Fund and national co-financing from the state budget.

Access:

Open