Scaling Biodiversity

We know that there are tens of millions of plant and animal species, but we do not know enough to be able to describe the patterns and processes that characterise the distribution of species in space, time and taxonomic groups. Given that in practical terms it is impossible to expect to be able to document biodiversity with any degree of completeness other approaches must be used. Scaling rules offer one possible framework, and this book offers a synthesis of the ways in which scaling theory can be applied to the analysis of biodiversity. Scaling Biodiversity presents new views on quantitative patterns of the biological diversity on earth and the processes responsible for them. Written by a team of leading experts in ecology who present their most recent and innovative views, readers will be provided with what is the state of art in current ecology and biodiversity science.

List of contributors	p. vii
Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xv
Introduction: scaling biodiversity - what is the problem?	p. 1
Spatial scaling of species richness and distribution	p. 13
Species-area curves and the geometry of nature	p. 15
The distribution of species: occupancy, scale, and rarity	p. 32
Species distribution patterns, diversity scaling and testing for fractals in southern African birds	p. 51
Geometry of species distributions: random clustering and scale invariance	p. 77
Toward a mechanistic basis for a unified theory of spatial structure in ecological communities at multiple spatial scales	p. 101
Alternative measures of biodiversity: taxonomy, phylogeny, and turnover	p. 127
Biodiversity scaling relationships: are microorganisms fundamentally different?	p. 129
The importance of phylogenetic structure in biodiversity studies	p. 150
On the quantification of local variation in biodiversity scaling using wavelets	p. 168
The scaling of spatial turnover: pruning the thicket	p. 181
Scaling of biological diversity with energy and the latitudinal biodiversity gradient	p. 223
Climate and diversity: the role of history	p. 225
Inverse latitudinal gradients in species diversity	p. 246
Regional-to-global patterns of biodiversity, and what they have to say about mechanisms	p. 258
Recasting the species-energy hypothesis: the different roles of kinetic and potential energy in regulating biodiversity	p. 283
Scaling species richness and distribution: uniting the species-area and species-energy relationships	p. 300
Processes, perspectives, and syntheses	p. 323
Spatiotemporal scaling of species richness: patterns, processes, and implications	p. 325
Scaling biodiversity under neutrality	p. 347
General patterns in plant invasions: a family of quasi-neutral models	p. 376
Extinction and population scaling	p. 396
Survival of species in patchy landscapes: percolation in space and time	p. 409
Biodiversity power laws	p. 441
Index	p. 462
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