IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v433y2005i7023d10.1038_nature03211.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Field parameterization and experimental test of the neutral theory of biodiversity

Author

Listed:
  • J. Timothy Wootton

    (The University of Chicago)

Abstract

Ecologists would like to explain general patterns observed across multi-species communities, such as species–area1 and abundance–frequency relationships1,2,3,4, in terms of the fundamental processes of birth, death and migration underlying the dynamics of all constituent species. The unified neutral theory of biodiversity5,6 and related theories7,8 based on these fundamental population processes have successfully recreated general species-abundance patterns without accounting for either the variation among species and individuals or resource-releasing processes such as predation and disturbance, long emphasized in ecological theory9,10,11,12,13,14. If ecological communities can be described adequately without estimating variation in species and their interactions15, our understanding of ecological community organization and the predicted consequences of reduced biodiversity and environmental change would shift markedly. Here, I introduce a strong method to test the neutral theory that combines field parameterization of the underlying population dynamics with a field experiment, and apply it to a rocky intertidal community. Although the observed abundance–frequency distribution of the system follows that predicted by the neutral theory, the neutral theory predicts poorly the field experimental results, indicating an essential role for variation in species interactions.

Suggested Citation

  • J. Timothy Wootton, 2005. "Field parameterization and experimental test of the neutral theory of biodiversity," Nature, Nature, vol. 433(7023), pages 309-312, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:433:y:2005:i:7023:d:10.1038_nature03211
    DOI: 10.1038/nature03211
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03211
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature03211?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yosef E Maruvka & Nadav M Shnerb, 2009. "Polymorphism Data Can Reveal the Origin of Species Abundance Statistics," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(4), pages 1-6, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:433:y:2005:i:7023:d:10.1038_nature03211. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.