BIOLS340

CH16: Species abundance & diversity

Done by: Yousif Adel
 Introduction
-Different areas within the same region may differ substantially in the
number of species they support
-Community: association of interacting species inhabiting some
defined area (e.g., plant community, insect community, fish community,
etc.)
 Community Structure includes attributes such as?
1.Number of species
2.Relative species abundance
3.The kinds of species comprising the community
-Guild: a group of organisms (related or distant) that all make their
living in a similar way (e.g., seed-eating animals, fruit-eating birds,
filter-feeding invertebrates)
-Life Form: The life-form of a plant is a combination of its structure
and its growth dynamics (e.g., trees, annual plants, vegetation, grasses)

16.1: Species abundance

-Most species are moderately abundant; few are very abundant or
extremely rare
-There are regularities in the relative abundance of species in
communities that hold regardless of the type of the ecosystem (i.e. you
will come across a few abundant species and a few that are very rare)
-Preston developed concept of distribution of commonness and rarity

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 The lognormal distribution
-Preston (1948, 1962a, 1962b): Plotted in a graph log2 of species
abundance intervals (number of individuals) against the number of
species in each abundance interval
-Whittaker (1965): Similar to Preston but used coverage rather than
number of individuals
-Both studies showed that most species had intermediate numbers
(Preston) or coverage (Whittaker). Distribution is bell-shaped or
normal
 Why Preston curves are called “lognormal” distribution?
 Because Log scale is used
-Taking larger samples will show more of a lognormal distribution

16.2: Species diversity

-Species diversity: a combination of the number of species and their
relative abundance
 Species diversity definition is based on?
1.Species richness: the number of species in the community
2.Species evenness: the relative abundance of a species

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 Species evenness and diversity

Quantitative index of species diversity

-Shannon Wiener Index:
𝑺

𝑯′ = − ∑ 𝒑𝒊 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒆 𝒑𝒊
𝒊=𝒍

H’ = Value of SW diversity index

Pi = Proportion of the ith species
Loge = Natural logarithm of pi
S = Number of species in community

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 Rank abundance curves
-We can portray the relative abundance and diversity of species within a
community by plotting the relative abundance of species against their
rank in abundance
-X-axis: The abundance rank. The most abundant species is given rank
1, the second most abundant is 2 and so on
-Y-axis: The relative abundance. Usually measured on a log scale, this
is a measure of a species abundance (e.g., the number of individuals)
relative to the abundance of other species

The rank-abundance curve for community b shows that all five species
are equally abundant, while the rank-abundance curve for community a
shows its dominance by the most abundant tree species. Greater evenness
indicated by lower slope

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 16.3: Environmental complexity
-Species diversity:
1.Higher in complex environments
2.Increases with environmental complexity or heterogeneity
-Many studies have shown positive relationship between environmental
complexity and species diversity

Forest complexity and bird species diversity

-Coexisting species will have significantly different niches
-MacArthur’s study of warbler niches in relation to vegetative strata
(1958, 1961):
-The number of warbler species and their overall abundance increased
with increasing vegetative stature (height)
-Bird species diversity increases with greater foliage height diversity

Niches, heterogeneity and diversity of algae and plants

-The existence of thousands species of terrestrial plants presents
opportunities for specialization by animals. Therefore, high plant
diversity can explain much of animal diversity

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  How do we explain the diversity of primary producers?
-Hutchinson (1961):
 Why phytoplankton communities present a paradox?
 Because they live in relatively simple environments and
compete for the same nutrients, yet many species coexist
without competitive exclusion

-Connell (1978): the diversity of terrestrial plants presents a similar

paradox (especially in tropical rain forests)
-Environmental complexity can account for a significant portion of the
diversity among both planktonic algae and terrestrial plants

The niches of algae and terrestrial plants

-The niches of algae appear to be defined by their nutrient requirements
-Tilman (1977): exclusion or coexistence of diatom species depended
upon the ratio of two essential nutrients (silicate and phosphate)
-He found conditions allowing coexistence
-Diatoms held different trophic niches
-Different diatoms would dominate different areas

-The implication of Tilman (1977) experiment related to with the

environmental complexity and species diversity is that: if the ratio of
silicate to phosphate varies across a lake, then Asterionella will
dominate some areas, while elsewhere Cyclotella will dominate

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-Characterizing the niches of terrestrial plants:
-Tansley (1917) studied competition between Galium species
-Two species: G. saxatile, which grows mainly on acidic soils, and
G. sylvestre, which grows mainly on basic soils
-When these two plants competed against each other in an experimental
garden, each did best on the soil type that it occupies in nature
-We can define the niches of algae and plants on the basis of their
nutrient requirements and responses to constraining physical or chemical
conditions, such as moisture and pH. These niches contribute to
environmental complexity

16.4: Disturbance and diversity

-Intermediate levels of disturbance promote higher diversity
-It is assumed that environmental conditions remain more or less stable
(i.e., equilibrium)
-In an equilibrial system, stability is maintained by opposing forces
-Most natural environments are subject to various forms of disturbance

The nature and sources of disturbance

-Wayne Sousa (1984) defined disturbance as: a discrete, punctuated
killing, displacement, or damaging of one or more individuals (or
colonies) that directly or indirectly creates an opportunity for new
individuals (or colonies) to become established

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-White and Pickett (1985) defined disturbance as: any relatively
discrete event in time that disrupts ecosystem, community or population
structure and changes resources, substrate availability, or the physical
environment
-Two major characteristics:
1.Frequency
2.Intensity

Intermediate disturbance hypothesis

-Connell (1975, 1978) proposed disturbance is: a prevalent feature
that significantly influences community diversity
-Proposed both high and low levels of disturbance would reduce
diversity
-Intermediate levels promote higher diversity
-Sufficient time between disturbances allows wide variety of
species to colonize, but not long enough to allow
competitive exclusion

Disturbance and diversity in the intertidal zone

-Sousa (1979) studied effects of disturbance on diversity of algae and
invertebrates growing on boulders (rocks) in the intertidal zone
-Predicted level of disturbance depends on boulder size
-Large boulders require more force to move (i.e., ocean
waves generated by winter storms)
-Boulders supporting greatest diversity of species were
those subject to intermediate levels of disturbance

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 Disturbance by humans
-Housing developments cover the countryside as human populations
continue their rapid growth
-Deforestation continues at an alarming rate in both temperate and
tropical regions
-Industries pollute air and water
-The destruction of natural communities that we often associate with
humans is a consequence of the extreme levels of disturbance

Human populations and activity are a major source of disturbance

(a) housing developments generally simplify natural ecosystems and feed
demand for natural resources such as (b) the wood harvested from this
clear-cut forest and (c) the coal from this mountaintop which is mined to
supply electrical power to human populations. The growing energy
demands of our population and our reliance on fossil fuels are driving
global warming, disturbing habitats for beyond human population centers,
for example, (d) by melting Arctic Sea ice, which is prime hunting habitat
for polar bears