PATTERNS OF SPECIES DIVERSITY

作者：Robert H. MacArthur · 发表于：Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 年份：1965 · DOI：10.1111/j.1469-185x.1965.tb00815.x · 被引用次数：1489 · 研究领域：Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies、Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies、Plant and animal studies

Summary 1. Species diversity is most simply measured by counting species. More complicated measures, which take into account the relative abundance of the species, have been derived from information theory or from parameters of statistical distributions fitted to the census data. The information theory formulae can also be used to measure habitat diversity and differences between communities or habitats. In this way, changes in the pattern of species diversity can be compared with changes in the environment. 2. Small or remote islands and islands with uniform topography have fewer species than large or complex islands or islands nearer the source of colonization. For birds and some orders of insects it appears that the rate of colonization of new species is virtually balanced by the rate of extinction, so that the number of species has reached equilibrium. For other organisms, such as mammals, and for all organisms on the most remote islands, this equilibrium has probably not been reached and further increases in the fauna may be expected. The comparison of impoverished island faunas with the mainland faunas whence they were derived shows the effect of relaxed competition. 3. Local variations in the species diversity of small uniform habitats can usually be predicted in terms of the structure and productivity of the habitat. Habitats of similar structure on islands and mainland often have similar species diversities; the impoverishment of the island is reflected in the fact t...