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Effects of range size on species-area relationships
Abstract and Figures
It has been known for some time that the slope of the species-area relationship increases asymptotically at broad spatial scales when richness is plotted against area on logarithmic axes. At continental to global scales, species-area relationships are determined to a large extent by the abundance and size distribution of species ranges. Here we present an analytical model that explicitly quantifies the effects of range size on species-area relationships. The model shows how range size and plot area interact to control the form of species-area relationships at broad spatial scales. It also demonstrates how changes in spatial scale affect biodiversity patterns by changing the relative influence of range size and range abundance on species richness. Our model provides an explanation for the broad-scale upturn of the species-area relationship, but more work is needed to incorporate the effects of range size, habitat heterogeneity, individual sampling and other variables into a unified framework that can ac
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... At any scale (resolution) coarse enough that the full range of a species is contained within a single sample area, its occupancy behaves like a single point, resulting in an occupancy curve with a slope that approaches one as area approaches the area of saturation. Allen and White (2003) have shown that the triphasic SAR emerges whenever the distribution of individual species is represented by distinct clumps that are generally smaller than the whole studied area (for instance, if the area comprises whole species ranges; see also McGill & Collins, 2003). A triphasic SAR is also predicted by the neutral model of biodiversity dynamics (Hubbell, 2001;Rosindell & Cornell, 2007O'Dwyer & Green, 2010; see Chapter 11), its properties depending on several parameters of neutral dynamics, namely dispersal kernels and speciation rate. ...
... Although the claim of generality by the METE has been challenged, there have been several other attempts to find a universal pattern beyond the SAR. Allen and White (2003) showed, using computerbased simulations, that SARs measured on an infinite plane tend to collapse into a universal curve when rescaled by mean species range size and mean richness. Storch et al. (2012) further demonstrated that rescaled SARs extracted from data of five taxa across five continents collapse into a universal curve. ...
The species–area relationship (SAR) describes a range of related phenomena that are fundamental to the study of biogeography, macroecology and community ecology. While the subject of ongoing debate for a century, surprisingly, no previous book has focused specifically on the SAR. This volume addresses this shortfall by providing a synthesis of the development of SAR typologies and theory, as well as empirical research and application to biodiversity conservation problems. It also includes a compilation of recent advances in SAR research, comprising novel SAR-related theories and findings from the leading authors in the field. The chapters feature specific knowledge relating to terrestrial, marine and freshwater realms, ensuring a comprehensive volume relevant to a wide range of fields, with a mix of review and novel material and with clear recommendations for further research and application.
... Area-species relationships are considered one of the well-described patterns in ecology, although they are not always significant (B aldi 2008). One of the possible reasons is that area effects on bird species-richness could be scale-dependent (Palmer & White 1994, Allen & White 2003, Turner & Tjørve 2005. Hence, studies on assemblages ideally should consider the effects of area at different spatial scales (Celada & Bogliani 1993, Torrenta & Villard 2017, Chase et al. 2019). ...
... Area-species relationships are considered one of the well-described patterns in ecology, although they are not always significant (B aldi 2008). One of the possible reasons is that area effects on bird species-richness could be scale-dependent (Palmer & White 1994, Allen & White 2003, Turner & Tjørve 2005. Hence, studies on assemblages ideally should consider the effects of area at different spatial scales (Celada & Bogliani 1993, Torrenta & Villard 2017, Chase et al. 2019). ...
The area of habitat patches is a significant factor when determining species‐richness in any given habitat. However, this area effect is not the same for every taxonomic group and can change if is considered together with other habitat variables. The main objective of this study was to identify the importance of wetland area for waterbird species‐richness when it is considered in conjunction with other habitat variables. Studies published in the Scopus and Web of Science databases in marine/coastal and inland wetlands were reviewed. A vote‐counting approach was conducted to evaluate how many studies include area as a major variable, and a meta‐analysis was performed to measure the effect size of the relationship between area and species‐richness. Area was a significant predictor of waterbird species‐richness in most of the studies (28 of 40 studies, 70%) as assessed by the vote‐counting approach, and the mean effect size was high ( r = 0.81, n = 1 studies) in the meta‐analysis. Few studies reported the shape of the relationship between habitat area and species‐richness, but most reported a positive correlation. Although the species–area relationship is widely recognized, our review shows that an important proportion of studies (30%) also found that other habitat variables were significant variables when they were considered together with habitat area. Consequently, in the case of wetlands, habitat area should be considered in conservation, but not as the only measure of management and restoration if the objective is to conserve waterbird biodiversity by improving species‐richness.
... Many reasons on theory establishment or field data derivation have been proposed to explain the mechanism. The reasons can be sampling, aggregation or range size (Allen and White 2003;Rosindell and Cornell 2007;Storch 2016). The species-area curves without asymptotes are regarded as type I (Scheiner 2003;Zillio and He 2010). ...
Aims
It is important to explore the underlying mechanisms that cause triphasic species–area relationship (triphasic SAR) across different scales in order to understand the spatial patterns of biodiversity.
Methods
Instead of theory establishment or field data derivation, I adopted a data simulation method that used the power function of SAR to fit log-normal distribution of species abundance.
Important Findings
The results showed that one-step sampling caused biphasic SAR and n-step sampling could cause 2n-phasic SAR. Practical two-step sampling produced triphasic SAR due to the Preston and Pan effects in large areas. Furthermore, before exploring biological or ecological mechanisms for the nature phenomenon, we should identify or exclude potential mathematical, statistical or sampling reasons.
... Nested means that smaller areas are always perfect subsamples of the next larger area. Mainland SARs in continuous habitats are generally constructed using a nested design (May, 1975;Durrett & Levin, 1996;Harte et al., 1999a, b;Ney-Nifle & Mangel, 1999;Hubbell, 2001;Allen & White, 2003). However, habitat loss does not proceed in a nested manner. ...
The species–area relationship (SAR) describes a range of related phenomena that are fundamental to the study of biogeography, macroecology and community ecology. While the subject of ongoing debate for a century, surprisingly, no previous book has focused specifically on the SAR. This volume addresses this shortfall by providing a synthesis of the development of SAR typologies and theory, as well as empirical research and application to biodiversity conservation problems. It also includes a compilation of recent advances in SAR research, comprising novel SAR-related theories and findings from the leading authors in the field. The chapters feature specific knowledge relating to terrestrial, marine and freshwater realms, ensuring a comprehensive volume relevant to a wide range of fields, with a mix of review and novel material and with clear recommendations for further research and application.
Devido à variabilidade das situações insulares, a ilha aparece como um verdadeiro laboratório natural, que tem sido objeto de atenção vigorosa desde o século XVIII. As ilhas "verdadeiras", assim chamadas por alguns autores, são espaços isolados de outros espaços similares por extensões marinhas, mas ainda mais territórios que apresentam suas próprias singularidades biogeográficas. No atual contexto ambiental de modificação da biosfera, as características biológicas das ilhas verdadeiras tendem a ser ameaçadas de extinção. Toda a dimensão explicativa conceitual da análise espaço-temporal dessas especificidades emerge através de uma das ferramentas fundamentais no estudo das ilhas: a teoria da biogeografia insular. Alguns dos fundadores mais famosos incluem Robert MacArthur, Edward Wilson e David Lack. Jacques Blondel e Robert Whittaker, em seguida, tentou modernizar o modelo de biogeografia de ilhas por uma abordagem com foco na descrição das características biogeográficas das ilhas e não na busca de suas causalidades. A demonstração dos sintomas de uma síndrome de insularidade representa uma contribuição considerável para a biogeografia ecológica. A insularidade leva a mudanças morfológicas, ecológicas, etológicas e genéticas nos sistemas vivos em uma situação de isolamento e contenção geográfica. No entanto, em uma abordagem clássica enfatizando aspectos da biogeografia histórica, a ênfase foi colocada em três principais parâmetros explicativos: a área da ilha, seu grau de isolamento e sua diversidade de habitat.
We know that there are tens of millions of plant and animal species, but we do not know enough to be able to describe the patterns and processes that characterise the distribution of species in space, time and taxonomic groups. Given that in practical terms it is impossible to expect to be able to document biodiversity with any degree of completeness other approaches must be used. Scaling rules offer one possible framework, and this book offers a synthesis of the ways in which scaling theory can be applied to the analysis of biodiversity. Scaling Biodiversity presents new views on quantitative patterns of the biological diversity on earth and the processes responsible for them. Written by a team of leading experts in ecology who present their most recent and innovative views, readers will be provided with what is the state of art in current ecology and biodiversity science.
We know that there are tens of millions of plant and animal species, but we do not know enough to be able to describe the patterns and processes that characterise the distribution of species in space, time and taxonomic groups. Given that in practical terms it is impossible to expect to be able to document biodiversity with any degree of completeness other approaches must be used. Scaling rules offer one possible framework, and this book offers a synthesis of the ways in which scaling theory can be applied to the analysis of biodiversity. Scaling Biodiversity presents new views on quantitative patterns of the biological diversity on earth and the processes responsible for them. Written by a team of leading experts in ecology who present their most recent and innovative views, readers will be provided with what is the state of art in current ecology and biodiversity science.
This chapter brings a brief summary of basic knowledge from environmental sciences, ecology and interface between human society and ecosystem that is needed to understand the underplaying principles behind mechanisms and relationships that will be described in the following chapters. Those include explanation of concept of ecosystem services and metabolism of human society, basic environmental principles needed to understand energy and matter dynamic in earth system at various spatiotemporal scales including radiation budget, greenhouse effect, thermohaline circulation and basic ecological principles dealing environmental conditions and resources, factors affecting competition between organisms and other key mechanisms determining species coexistence.
La biodiversité est un des enjeux internationaux qui répond explicitement à la notion du développement durable. C’est un intérêt explicite pour les besoins humains qui constitue des ressources naturelles vivantes se trouvant dans la nature. La biodiversité dans son concept fondamental est introduite par l’étude de la distribution spatiale des espèces et plus précisément la relation bien connue zone-espèces (Species Area Relationship ; SAR). La connaissance de la loi zones-espèces qui gère véritablement le phénomène de distribution spatiale des espèces nous permet de prédire la réponse de la biodiversité aux changements environnementaux à différentes échelles et d’évaluer les options politiques de conservation globale de la biodiversité. En effet, dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous proposons une nouvelle approche du phénomène de distribution spatiale des espèces et des individus en utilisant les mêmes outils et propriétés physiques que pour traiter la dynamique statistique et géométrique caractérisant le phénomène de turbulence développée. Dans ce sens, nous avons adopté la dynamique de peaux entropiques P.E décrivant le phénomène d’intermittence en turbulence. ce modèle a été appliqué sur des données expérimentales de distributions spatiales d’espèces en utilisant une géométrie simulant la distribution des individus sous une forme se rapprochant de la géométrie du Cantor à deux dimensions. Les résultats montrent que la répartition des espèces et des individus est bien décrite par le modèle des P.E. Ces deux distributions spatiales montrent une dynamique intermittente possédant une hiérarchie de peaux entropiques qui s’étend entre, un corps fractal parabolique et une crête fractale pure. On voit ainsi que les statistiques d'intermittence peuvent se produire dans des phénomènes autres que la turbulence.
G. C. Stevens showed that an equatorward increase in species richness is often paralleled by a decrease in the mean latitudinal range of species-a pattern he called Rapoport's rule. He reported a similar pattern for elevational gradients and suggested that both latitudinal and elevational species richness gradients may be a result of the Rapoport effect. Using null models that assume no environmental gradients, we show that ''nonbiological'' gradients in species richness arise inevitably from the assumption of a random latitudinal (or elevational) association between the size and placement of species' ranges. These models predict a peak in species richness at tropical latitudes and, at intermediate elevations (regardless of latitude), common patterns in empirical data. Using simulated sampling from a parametric distribution of ranges that incorporates a richness gradient but no Rapoport effect, we then show that a spurious Rapoport effect can be caused by sampling bias alone, even when total sampling effort is equal at all latitudes or elevations. The bias arises because per-species sampling effort declines as richness increases, and range is correlated with sample size. Evidence suggests that this sampling bias, which is exacerbated by poorer knowledge of diverse tropical communities, may have affected some of Stevens's elevational results.
The latitudinal gradient in species richness is paralleled by a latitudinal gradient in geographical-range size called Rapoport's rule. The greater annual range of climatic conditions to which individuals in high-latitude environments are exposed relative to what low-latitude organisms face may have favored the evolution of broad climatic tolerances in high-latitude species. This broad tolerance of individuals from high latitudes has led to wider latitudinal extent in the geographical range of high-latitude species than of lower-latitude species. If low-latitude species typically have narrower environmental tolerances than high-latitude species, then equal dispersal abilities in the 2 groups would place more tropical organisms out of their preferred habitat than higher-latitude species out of their preferred habitat. A larger number of "accidentals' (species that are poorly suited for the habitat) would thus occur in tropical assemblages. The constant input of these accidentals artificially inflates species numbers and inhibits competitive exclusion. -from Author
Macroecology proceeds by identifying patterns and then identifying processes that cause those patterns. Most of the processes that macroecologists study are local in nature and tend to involve species interactions and speciation and extinction processes. In contrast, we propose that several important macroecological patterns can be explained by very large-scale processes that are primarily spatial in nature. Specifically, we suggest that the structure of abundance across a species' entire range combined with interspecific patterns in range location and global abundance can explain the well-known macroecological patterns of: (1) a positive correlation between range size and abundance, (2) the species-area relationship, (3) decay of species similarity with distance and (4) the species abundance distribution. We show that spatial pro- cesses produce these patterns through a combination of analytical and Monte Carlo analysis. We also show that the connection is robust (indifferent) to the precise mathematical assump- tions. Such a theory might be called a unified theory, because it explains multiple patterns with a few processes. To differentiate among the growing number of unified theories, we suggest that testing additional predictions over and above producing curves of the correct shape is important. To this end, we present several novel, quantitative predictions and provide empirical tests. In short, we provide an empirically grounded and tested theory, which suggests that superimposing individual species ranges across space creates local community patterns.