A large number of models of the species abundance distribution (SAD) have been proposed, many of which are generically similar to the log-normal distribution, from which they are often indistinguishable when describing a given data set. Ecological data sets are necessarily incomplete samples of an ecosystem, subject to statistical noise, and cannot readily be combined to yield a closer approxim...

This study considered a model for species abundance dynamics in two local community (or islands) connected to a regional metacommunity. The model was analyzed using continuous probabilistic technique that employs Kolmogorov-Fokker-Planck forward equation to derive the probability density of the species abundance in the two local communities. Using this technique, we proposed a classification fo...

Understanding patterns of species occurrence and abundance is a central theme of ecology, natural resource management, and conservation. Although occurrence models have been widely used for describing species distribution, particularly for rare species, abundance models are less common, despite greater information for conservation and management. Because presence-absence data are easier and les...

Epiphytes are strongly dependent on the conditions created by their host's traits and a certain degree of specificity is expected between them, even if these species are largely abundant in a series of tree hosts of a given environment, as in the case of atmospheric bromeliads. Despite their considerable abundance in these environments, we hypothesize that stochasticity alone cannot explain the...

This study aimed at surveying the local calliphorid and sarcophagid species in Maranhão State (Brazil) to determine their distribution and abundance, as well as the distribution of exotic Chrysomya species. In total, 18,128 calliphorid specimens were collected, distributed in 7 genera and 14 species. The species Hemilucilia semidiaphana (Rondani, 1850) and Paralucilia paraensis (Mello, 1969) we...

Local species abundance is related to range size, habitat characteristics, distribution type, body size, and life-history variables. In general, habitat generalists and polyphagous species are more abundant in broad geographical areas. Underlying this, local abundance may be explained from the interactions between life-history traits, chorological pattern, and the local habitat characteristics....

A number of different models have been proposed as descriptions of the species-abundance distribution (SAD). Most evaluations of these models use only one or two models, focus on only a single ecosystem or taxonomic group, or fail to use appropriate statistical methods. We use likelihood and AIC to compare the fit of four of the most widely used models to data on over 16,000 communities from a ...

The positive relationship between a species' geographic distribution and its abundance is one of ecology's most well-documented patterns, yet the causes behind this relationship remain unclear. Although many hypotheses have been proposed to account for distribution-abundance relationships none have attained unequivocal support. Accordingly, the positive association in distribution-abundance rel...

We develop and test new models that unify the mathematical relationships among the abundance of a species, the spatial dispersion of the species, the number of patches occupied by the species, the edge length of the occupied patches, and the scale on which the distribution of species is mapped. The models predict that species distributions will exhibit percolation critical thresholds, i.e., cri...

How environmental conditions and population processes determine the abundance and distribution of species is a central problem of ecology and biogeography. Although it has long been recognized that abundance and distribution are intimately interrelated, the nature of this relationship has not been investigated systematically over the range of spatial scales from local populations to entire geog...