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Comparing models of species abundance

Author

Listed:
  • Jérôme Chave

    (Laboratoire Evolution et Diversité Biologique, UMR5174 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier)

  • David Alonso

    (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan)

  • Rampal S. Etienne

    (Community and Conservation Ecology Group, University of Groningen)

Abstract

Arising from: I. Volkov, J. R. Banavar, F. He, S. P. Hubbell & A. Maritan Nature 438, 658–661 (2005); Volkov et al. reply . Ecologists are struggling to explain how so many tropical tree species can coexist in tropical forests, and several empirical studies have demonstrated that negative density dependence is an important mechanism of tree-species coexistence1,2. Volkov et al.3 compare a model incorporating negative density dependence with a dispersal-limited neutral model4 and claim that each predicts six empirical species-abundance distributions of tropical-tree communities equally well. However, we show here that their main conclusion is premature: when the two models are compared in an improved analysis, we find that the dispersal-limited model outcompetes the density-dependent model in all six cases. Hence, although density dependence is certainly an important diversity-maintaining mechanism, our improved approach indicates that the dispersal-limited model provides a more parsimonious explanation of empirical species-abundance distributions.

Suggested Citation

  • Jérôme Chave & David Alonso & Rampal S. Etienne, 2006. "Comparing models of species abundance," Nature, Nature, vol. 441(7089), pages 1-1, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:441:y:2006:i:7089:d:10.1038_nature04826
    DOI: 10.1038/nature04826
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    Cited by:

    1. Omar Al Hammal & David Alonso & Rampal S Etienne & Stephen J Cornell, 2015. "When Can Species Abundance Data Reveal Non-neutrality?," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-23, March.
    2. Alex D Washburne & Joshua W Burby & Daniel Lacker, 2016. "Novel Covariance-Based Neutrality Test of Time-Series Data Reveals Asymmetries in Ecological and Economic Systems," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(9), pages 1-14, September.
    3. Beeravolu, Champak R. & Couteron, Pierre & Pélissier, Raphaël & Munoz, François, 2009. "Studying ecological communities from a neutral standpoint: A review of models’ structure and parameter estimation," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(20), pages 2603-2610.
    4. Tancredi Caruso & Jeff R Powell & Matthias C Rillig, 2012. "Compositional Divergence and Convergence in Local Communities and Spatially Structured Landscapes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(4), pages 1-10, April.

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