Randomness, Area, and Species Richness

Bernard D. Coleman; Michael A. Mares; Michael R. Willig; Ying‐Hen Hsieh

doi:10.2307/1937249

Abstract

Thorough censuses have been made of breeding birds on islands in Pymatuning Lake, a reservoir at the Pennsylvania—Ohio border. Analysis of the censuses yields the conclusion that for these islands the variation of the number of resident avian species with island size is that which one would expect if the birds were distributed randomly, with the probability of a breeding pair residing on an island proportional to the area of the island and independent of the presence of other pairs. This type of random placement of individuals can yield species—area relations which differ from those commonly employed for analysis of biogeographic data.

Keywords

Species richnessGeographyEcologyRandomnessBiologyStatisticsMathematics

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Publication Info

Year: 1982
Type: article
Volume: 63
Issue: 4
Pages: 1121-1133
Citations: 412
Access: Closed

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APA Style

                            
                                
                                    Bernard D. Coleman, 
                                
                                    Michael A. Mares, 
                                
                                    Michael R. Willig
                                
                                et al.
                            
                            (1982). 
                            Randomness, Area, and Species Richness. 
                            Ecology
                            , 63
                            (4)
                            , 1121-1133.
                            https://doi.org/10.2307/1937249
                        

Identifiers

DOI: 10.2307/1937249