Life Sciences Commons^™

Species Composition And Abundance Of Mammalian Communities, K. M. Thibault, S. R. Supp, M. Griffin, Ethan P. White, S.K. Morgan Ernest

Ethan P White

Ecologists have long sought to understand the mechanisms underlying the assembly and structure of communities. Such understanding is relevant to both basic science and conservation-related issues. The macroecological approach to this problem involves asking scientific questions using a large number of communities in order to elucidate generalities in pattern and process. Such analyses are typically conducted using a substantial amount of data from a particular taxonomic group across a diversity of systems. Large community databases are available for a number of taxa, but no publicly available database exists for mammals. Given the logistical challenges of collecting such data de novo, …