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Bezig met laden... The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeographydoor Stephen P. Hubbell
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The models developed by Hubbell are elegant in being governed by only a few parameters, yet they construct a broad mathematical depiction of a community. For example, a single parameter —a combination of the per capita speciation rate and the total number of individuals in the community — controls both metacommunity species richness and relative species abundance under one of the two assumed speciation modes. With two additional parameters, immigration rate and local community size, the theory also predicts richness and relative species abundance in local communities. These features allow Hubbell’s models to predict not only the number of species and their relative abundances in local communities, but also species– area relationships and phylogenetic dynamics over evolutionary times. Onderdeel van de uitgeversreeks(en)
Despite its supreme importance and the threat of its global crash, biodiversity remains poorly understood both empirically and theoretically. This ambitious book presents a new, general neutral theory to explain the origin, maintenance, and loss of biodiversity in a biogeographic context. Until now biogeography (the study of the geographic distribution of species) and biodiversity (the study of species richness and relative species abundance) have had largely disjunct intellectual histories. In this book, Stephen Hubbell develops a formal mathematical theory that unifies these two fields. When a speciation process is incorporated into Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson's now classical theory of island biogeography, the generalized theory predicts the existence of a universal, dimensionless biodiversity number. In the theory, this fundamental biodiversity number, together with the migration or dispersal rate, completely determines the steady-state distribution of species richness and relative species abundance on local to large geographic spatial scales and short-term to evolutionary time scales. Although neutral, Hubbell's theory is nevertheless able to generate many nonobvious, testable, and remarkably accurate quantitative predictions about biodiversity and biogeography. In many ways Hubbell's theory is the ecological analog to the neutral theory of genetic drift in genetics. The unified neutral theory of biogeography and biodiversity should stimulate research in new theoretical and empirical directions by ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and biogeographers. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)578.09Natural sciences and mathematics Life Sciences, Biology Microscopy in Biology Biography; History By PlaceLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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One extraordinary theoretical insight arrived at in this book is that biodiversity is of fractal dimension, which is directly related to a "fundamental biodiversity parameter" (denoted by 𝚯). This is a deep and profound discovery, as "the more extensively and finely we look, the more biodiversity we find". At a stroke, it also radically dethrones the typological concept of species as a standard representative of biodiversity and suggests that lower levels are more important, such as that of individuals or their DNA.
The theory allows quantitative comparisons to be drawn between highly diverse communities. One such study, published in 2005, shows that speciation rates in the Cape Floristic Region is more than twice that of the Amazon rainforest. The CFR, has, in fact, higher values of 𝚯 (and therefore too of fractal dimension), than any previously examined plant system. See Latimer, Silander and Cowling: "Neutral Ecological Theory Reveals Isolation and Rapid Speciation in a Biodiversity Hot Spot". ( )