Emergent neutrality leads to multimodal species abundance distributions

Remi Vergnon (), Egbert H. van Nes and Marten Scheffer
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Remi Vergnon: Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group, Wageningen University
Egbert H. van Nes: Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group, Wageningen University
Marten Scheffer: Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group, Wageningen University

Nature Communications, 2012, vol. 3, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Recent analyses of data sampled in communities ranging from corals and fossil brachiopods to birds and phytoplankton suggest that their species abundance distributions have multiple modes, a pattern predicted by none of the existing theories. Here we show that the multimodal pattern is consistent with predictions from the theory of emergent neutrality. This adds to the observations, suggesting that natural communities may be shaped by the evolutionary emergence of groups of similar species that coexist in niches. Such self-organized similarity unifies niche and neutral theories of biodiversity.

Date: 2012
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1663

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