Temporal Patterns in Species' Abundances that Imply a Balance between Competition and Predation

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Biological explanations for lognormal distributions of species'' abundance are unnecessary, as MacArthur (1960) argued and May (1975) affirmed. Moreover, this null model predits an inverse relation between the number of species and the eveness of their frequencies, whereas the opposite occure in nature. Observations for which hypothetical mechanisms of resource partitioning are appropriate led to a simultaneous-breakage analogy that is equivalent to a more plausible sequential one in which the probabilities of segments'' being broken vary directly with their lengths. One such mechanism, which accounts for successional dynamics in several natural communities, is outlined, and precise predictions are derived thereform.