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A taxa–area relationship for bacteria

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Listed:
  • M. Claire Horner-Devine

    (Stanford University)

  • Melissa Lage

    (Brown University)

  • Jennifer B. Hughes

    (Brown University)

  • Brendan J. M. Bohannan

    (Stanford University)

Abstract

A positive power-law relationship between the number of species in an area and the size of that area has been observed repeatedly in plant and animal communities1. This species–area relationship, thought to be one of the few laws in ecology2, is fundamental to our understanding of the distribution of global biodiversity. However, such a relationship has not been reported for bacteria, and little is known regarding the spatial distribution of bacteria, relative to what is known of plants and animals3. Here we describe a taxa–area relationship for bacteria over a scale of centimetres to hundreds of metres in salt marsh sediments. We found that bacterial communities located close together were more similar in composition than communities located farther apart, and we used the decay of community similarity with distance to show that bacteria can exhibit a taxa–area relationship. This relationship was driven primarily by environmental heterogeneity rather than geographic distance or plant composition.

Suggested Citation

  • M. Claire Horner-Devine & Melissa Lage & Jennifer B. Hughes & Brendan J. M. Bohannan, 2004. "A taxa–area relationship for bacteria," Nature, Nature, vol. 432(7018), pages 750-753, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:432:y:2004:i:7018:d:10.1038_nature03073
    DOI: 10.1038/nature03073
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    Cited by:

    1. Massimo Cencini & Simone Pigolotti & Miguel A Muñoz, 2012. "What Ecological Factors Shape Species-Area Curves in Neutral Models?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(6), pages 1-8, June.

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