EEB321H1 Study Guide - Final Guide: Isocline, Metacommunity, Overdispersion
28 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Hubbell asked: what if the generality of the patterns observed suggests that there are general rules that apply to all communitiesbecause they are virtually indistinguishable? (functioning is exact same way). The neutral theory of biodiversity: all individuals of all species within a trophic level are functionally and competitively equivalent. Species abundance reflect chance and history: new species arise through random speciation events, communities are linked through dispersal to a larger meta-community, communities have a fixed carrying capacity that is always filled with individuals. Coexistence is unstable because there is no mechanism that keeps any species from going extinct. Metacommunity: many communities linked through limited dispersal. Increased dispersal means that there is a greater chance of higher species rank diversity. Neutral models fit the data well (rank abundance vs. percentage of all individuals) shows that species differences can do a better job of species predicted to observe. Neutral theory can be used to fit the emergence
