Taxon categories and the universal species-area relationship (a comment on Šizling et al., “between geometry and biology:the problem of universality of the species-area relationship”).
A theory of macroecology based on the maximum information entropy (MaxEnt) inference procedure predicts that the log-log slope of the species-area relationship (SAR) at any spatial scale is a specified function of the ratio of abundance, N(A), to species richness, S(A), at that scale. The theory thus predicts, in generally good agreement with observation, that all SARs collapse onto a specified universal curve when local slope, z(A), is plotted against N(A)/S(A). A recent publication, however, argues that if it is assumed that patterns in macroecology are independent of the taxonomic choices that define assemblages of species, then this principle of "taxon invariance" precludes the MaxEnt-predicted universality of the SAR. By distinguishing two dimensions of the notion of taxon invariance, we show that while the MaxEnt-based theory predicts universality regardless of the taxonomic choices that define an assemblage of species, the biological characteristics of assemblages should under MaxEnt, and do in reality, influence the realism of the predictions.
Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. jharte@berkeley.edu
John
J
Harte
Justin
J
Kitzes
Erica A
EA
Newman
Andrew J
AJ
Rominger
D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D001717:Birds; D005399:Fishes; D008954:Models, Biological; D014197:Trees