SPECIES RICHNESS PEAKS FOR INTERMEDIATE LEVELS OF BIOMASS IN A FRACTAL SUCCESSION WITH QUASI-NEUTRAL INTERACTIONS

Mouillot D. and Mouquet N. (2006).

Oikos, 115, 349-357, doi:10.1111/j.2006.0030-1299.14894.x

Key message : The aim of our study is to provide model predictions for the diversity biomass relationship with various levels of net species interactions within communities: negative, neutral, quasi-neutral and positive. Using a scaling relationship between the number of species and total community biomass, we propose a simple self-similar process of biomass partitioning during a community assembly process. At each step of the succession, K more species appear that are A times less abundant on average (K=A.power(d)) with a parameter d being a fractal dimension related to the nature of interactions among coexisting species. Our results, compared to those from meta-analyses about empirical diversity productivity relationships, illustrate that quasi neutral interactions among coexisting species lead to the most commonly observed pattern: an ‘envelope’ where diversity peaks at intermediate values of total biomass.

Expected relationships between species richness and total community biomass for different values of K and A. During the succession, at each step, K more species appear that are on average A times less abundant: K=A.power(d) with d a fractal exponent related to the nature of interactions between species during the succession build up.

Back to Nicolas Mouquet homepage

OTHER TOPICS: Aesthetics of Biodiversity, Biogeography, Macroecology & Ecophylogenetics, Experimental Evolution, Functional Biogeography, Functional Rarity, Nature for Future, Metacommunities, Metaecosystems, Reviews and Synthesis, Trophic Biogeography & Metaweb