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- Title
ESTIMATING PARAMETERS OF NEUTRAL COMMUNITIES: FROM ONE SINGLE LARGE TO SEVERAL SMALL SAMPLES.
- Authors
Munoz, François; Couteron, Pierre; Ramesh, B. R.; Etienne, Rampal S.
- Abstract
The neutral theory of S. P. Hubbell postulates a two-scale hierarchical framework consisting of a metacommunity following the speciation-drift equilibrium characterized by the "biodiversity number" θ, and local communities following the migration-drift equilibrium characterized by the "migration rate" m (or the "fundamental dispersal number" l). While Etienne's sampling formula allows simultaneous estimation of θ and m from a single sample of a local community, its applicability to a network of (rather small) samples is questionable. We define here an alternative two-stage approach estimating θ from an adequate subset of the individuals sampled in the field (using Etienn's sampling formula) and m from community samples (using Etienne's sampling formula). We compare its results with the simultaneous estimation of θ and m (one-stage estimation), for simulated neutral samples and for 50 I-ha plots of evergreen forest in South India. The one-stage approach exhibits problems of bias and of poor differentiability between high-θ, low-rn and low-θ, high-m solution domains. Conversely, the two-stage approach yielded reasonable estimates and is to be preferred when several small, scattered plots are available instead of a single large one.
- Subjects
ECOLOGY; HUBBELL, S. P.; BIODIVERSITY; SPECIES; TREES; BIOTIC communities; ENVIRONMENTAL sciences; BIOLOGY; BIOCOMPLEXITY
- Publication
Ecology, 2007, Vol 88, Issue 10, p2482
- ISSN
0012-9658
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1890/07-0049.1