Biology Commons^™

Nested Subsets, Scale, And The Distribution Of Abundance: A Macroecological Approach, Elita Baldridge

Master's Theses

While the canonical nested subset pattern suggests that less species-rich areas will contain a proper subset of the species observed in richer areas, actual data sets do not show perfect nestedness; however, they show a pattern with more structure than would be expected by chance. Biological processes like immigration and extinction have traditionally been thought to produce the nested subset pattern. These processes acting indirectly could cause variation in the distribution and abundance of species that could produce nestedness at a variety of scales. Determining at what scales the pattern is observed might allow inference of processes that are more …