Dataset Information

Relative contribution of abundant and rare species to species-energy relationships.

ABSTRACT: A major goal of ecology is to understand spatial variation in species richness. The latter is markedly influenced by energy availability and appears to be influenced more by common species than rare ones; species-energy relationships should thus be stronger for common species. Species-energy relationships may arise because high-energy areas support more individuals, and these larger populations may buffer species from extinction. As extinction risk is a negative decelerating function of population size, this more-individuals hypothesis (MIH) predicts that rare species should respond more strongly to energy. We investigate these opposing predictions using British breeding bird data and find that, contrary to the MIH, common species contribute more to species-energy relationships than rare ones.

SUBMITTER: Evans KL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1629054 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Relative contribution of abundant and rare species to species-energy relationships.

Evans Karl L KL Greenwood Jeremy J D JJ Gaston Kevin J KJ

Biology letters 20050301 1

A major goal of ecology is to understand spatial variation in species richness. The latter is markedly influenced by energy availability and appears to be influenced more by common species than rare ones; species-energy relationships should thus be stronger for common species. Species-energy relationships may arise because high-energy areas support more individuals, and these larger populations may buffer species from extinction. As extinction risk is a negative decelerating function of populati ...[more]

PMID: 17148135

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Project description:Aim:Common species contribute more to species richness patterns (SRPs) than rare species in most studies. Our aim was to test this hypothesis using a novel model system, species living exclusively in subterranean habitats. They consist of mainly rare species (small ranges), only a few of them being common (large ranges), and challenge whether rare species are less important for the development of SRPs in this environment. We separately analyzed aquatic and terrestrial species. Location:Western Balkans in southeastern Europe. Methods:We assembled two datasets comprising 431 beetle and 145 amphipod species, representing the model groups of subterranean terrestrial and aquatic diversity, respectively. We assessed the importance of rare and common species using the stepwise reconstruction of SRPs and subsequent correlation analyses, corrected also for the cumulative information content of the subsets based on species prevalence. We applied generalized linear regression models to evaluate the importance of rare and common species in forming SRPs. Additionally, we analyzed the contribution of rare and common species in species-rich cells. Results:Patterns of subterranean aquatic and terrestrial species richness overlapped only weakly, with aquatic species having larger ranges than terrestrial ones. Our analyses supported higher importance of common species for forming overall SRPs in both beetles and amphipods. However, in stepwise analysis corrected for information content, results were ambiguous. Common species presented a higher proportion of species than rare species in species-rich cells. Main Conclusion:We have shown that even in habitats with the domination of rare species, it is still common species that drive SRPs. This may be due to an even spatial distribution of rare species or spatial mismatch in hotspots of rare and common species. SRPs of aquatic and terrestrial subterranean organisms overlap very little, so the conservation approaches need to be habitat specific.

Project description:The relative functional importance of rare and abundant species in driving relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functions (BEF) remains unknown. Here, we investigated the functional roles of rare and abundant species diversity (multitrophic soil organism groups) on multifunctionality derived from 16 ecosystem functions in 228 agricultural fields relating to soil and crop health. The results revealed that the diversity of rare species, rather than of abundant species, was positively related to multifunctionality. Abundant taxa tended to maintain a larger number of functions than rare taxa, while rare subcommunity contributed more phylotypes supporting to the single ecosystem functions. Community assembly processes were closely related to the ecosystem functional performance of soil biodiversity, only observed in rare subcommunity. Higher relative contributions of stochastic assembly processes promoted the positive effects of diversity of rare taxa on multifunctionality, while reducing their diversity and multifunctionality overall. Our results highlight the importance of rare species for ecosystem multifunctionality and elucidate the linkage between ecological assembly processes and BEF relationships. IMPORTANCE The relative functional importance of rare and abundant species in driving relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functions remains unknown. Here, we highlighted the importance of rare species for ecosystem multifunctionality. In addition, community assembly processes were closely related to the ecosystem functional performance of soil biodiversity in rare subcommunity. Stochastic assembly processes promoted the positive effects of diversity of rare taxa on multifunctionality, while reducing their diversity and multifunctionality overall. This study expands current understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functions and suggests that stochastic community assembly enhances BEF relationships.

Dataset Information

Relative contribution of abundant and rare species to species-energy relationships.

Publications

Relative contribution of abundant and rare species to species-energy relationships.

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