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Related Concept Videos

Types of Selection01:46

Types of Selection

Natural selection influences the frequencies of particular alleles and phenotypes within populations in several different ways. Primarily, natural selection can be directional, stabilizing, or disruptive. Directional selection favors one extreme trait and shifts the population towards that phenotype while selecting against individuals displaying alternate traits. Stabilizing selection favors an intermediate trait with a narrow range of variation. Deviation from the optimal phenotype towards an...
Distribution and Dispersion00:54

Distribution and Dispersion

To understand intra-specific interactions in populations, scientists measure the spatial arrangement of species individuals. This geographic arrangement is known as the species distribution or dispersion. Highly territorial species exhibit a uniform distribution pattern, in which individuals are spaced at relatively equal distances from one another. Species that are highly tied to particular resources, such as food or shelter, tend to concentrate around those resources, and thus exhibit a...
Life Histories01:29

Life Histories

Overview
Keystone Species01:39

Keystone Species

Measures of species biodiversity, such as richness (i.e., the number of species present) and evenness (i.e., their relative abundance), describe an ecological community’s structure. Many factors affect community structure, including abiotic factors (e.g., sunlight and nutrients), disturbances (e.g., fire or flood), species interactions (e.g., predation or competition), and chance events (e.g., foreign species invasion). Certain species—such as keystone species—also play a pivotal role in the...
Formation of Species01:31

Formation of Species

Speciation describes the formation of one or more new species from one or sometimes multiple original species. The resulting species are discrete from the parent species, and barriers to reproduction will typically exist. There are two primary mechanisms, speciation with and without geographic isolation—allopatric and sympatric speciation, respectively.
Frequency-dependent Selection01:21

Frequency-dependent Selection

When the fitness of a trait is influenced by how common it is (i.e., its frequency) relative to different traits within a population, this is referred to as frequency-dependent selection. Frequency-dependent selection may occur between species or within a single species. This type of selection can either be positive—with more common phenotypes having higher fitness—or negative, with rarer phenotypes conferring increased fitness.

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Related Experiment Video

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Modeling the Size Spectrum for Macroinvertebrates and Fishes in Stream Ecosystems
07:41

Modeling the Size Spectrum for Macroinvertebrates and Fishes in Stream Ecosystems

Published on: July 30, 2019

How selection structures species abundance distributions.

Anne E Magurran1, Peter A Henderson

  • 1School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 8LB, UK. aem1@st-and.ac.uk

Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|July 13, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Species allocate biomass differently based on habitat and predation risk. This predictable resource partitioning explains how ecological communities are structured, even with species turnover over time.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Community Ecology
  • Ecological Stoichiometry

Background:

  • Species abundance distributions are fundamental to community ecology.
  • Understanding resource allocation among species is key to explaining these distributions.
  • Spatial guilds, groups of species using similar habitats, offer a framework to study this.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how biomass is allocated among species within spatial guilds.
  • To determine if body size selection varies across different habitat types and predation pressures.
  • To assess the stability of guild structure over a long-term ecological study.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of an estuarine fish community over 30 years.
  • Examining biomass allocation in relation to body size within different spatial guilds.
  • Comparing guilds with structurally complex habitats versus open habitats.

Main Results:

  • Biomass concentration in large-bodied species was observed in protected habitats, not open ones.
  • Open habitats showed a 'safety in numbers' effect, with biomass distributed across more species.
  • Guild composition changed over time, but the rank order of guilds remained consistent.

Conclusions:

  • Ecological communities are not randomly assembled.
  • Biomass allocation among species within guilds is predictable and influenced by habitat structure and predation.
  • Guild structure provides a stable framework for understanding community dynamics.