On the proportional abundance of species: Integrating population genetics and community ecology.

ABSTRACT: The frequency of genes in interconnected populations and of species in interconnected communities are affected by similar processes, such as birth, death and immigration. The equilibrium distribution of gene frequencies in structured populations is known since the 1930s, under Wright's metapopulation model known as the island model. The equivalent distribution for the species frequency (i.e. the species proportional abundance distribution (SPAD)), at the metacommunity level, however, is unknown. In this contribution, we develop a stochastic model to analytically account for this distribution (SPAD). We show that the same as for genes SPAD follows a beta distribution, which provides a good description of empirical data and applies across a continuum of scales. This stochastic model, based u

SUBMITTER: Marquet PA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5711905 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature