Emergent neutrality leads to multimodal species abundance distributions.
Recent analyses of data sampled in communities ranging from corals and fossil brachiopods to birds and phytoplankton suggest that their species abundance distributions have multiple modes, a pattern predicted by none of the existing theories. Here we show that the multimodal pattern is consistent with predictions from the theory of emergent neutrality. This adds to the observations, suggesting that natural communities may be shaped by the evolutionary emergence of groups of similar species that coexist in niches. Such self-organized similarity unifies niche and neutral theories of biodiversity.
Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group, Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, Lumen (Building 100) Droevendaalsesteeg 3a, PO Box 47, Wageningen 6700 AA, The Netherlands. Remi.Vergnon@wur.nl
Remi
R
Vergnon
Egbert H
EH
van Nes
Marten
M
Scheffer
D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa / Q000502:physiology*; D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001717:Birds; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D005580:Fossils; D008954:Models, Biological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000502:physiology*; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011336:Probability; D013045:Species Specificity