Commonness and rarity: theory and application of a new model to Mediterranean montane grasslands
Authors
Rey Benayas, José MaríaPublisher
The Resilience Alliance
Date
1999Academic Departments
Universidad de Alcalá. Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida
Teaching unit
Unidad Docente Ecología
Funders
Funding was provided by the projects "Humedales en áreas de descarga de acuíferos en territorios graníticos (Sierra de Guadarrama)" (Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid nº C129/91), and "Determinantes de la diversidad biológica en ecosistemas mediterraneós. Papel de los procesos locales y regionales" (DGICYT). Additional funding was provided by the Universidad de Alcalá for travel by S. M. Scheiner
Bibliographic citation
Conservation Ecology [online], 1999, v. 3, n. 1, art. 5
Keywords
Commonness
Endangered species
Generalist/specialist trade-off
Geographic range
Habitat occupancy
Habitat specificity
Iberia
Local abundance
Montane grasslands
Rarity
Superior organism theory
Description / Notes
The copyright to this article passed from the Ecological Society of America to the Resilience Alliance on 1 January 2000.
Published in the Journal Ecology and Society (formerly Conservation Ecology)
Document type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Publisher's version
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol3/iss1/art5/Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional
Access rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Abstract
We examined patterns of commonness and rarity among plant species in montane wet grasslands of Iberia. This examination is set within two contexts. First, we expanded on an earlier scheme for classifying species as common or rare by adding a fourth criterion, the ability of that species to occupy a larger or smaller fraction of its potential suitable habitats, i.e., habitat occupancy. Second, we explicated two theories, the superior organism theory and the generalist/specialist trade-off theory. The data consisted of 232 species distributed among 92 plots. The species were measured for mean local abundance, size of environmental volume occupied, percentage of volume occupied, range within Iberia, and range in Europe and the Mediterranean basin. In general, all measures were positively correlated, in agreement with the superior organism theory. However, specialist species were also found. Thus, patterns of commonness and rarity may be due to a combination of mechanisms. Analyses such as ours can also be used as a first step in identifying habitats and species that may be endangered.
Files in this item
Files | Size | Format |
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Commonness_ Conserv. Ecol._1999.pdf | 259.7Kb |
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Files | Size | Format |
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Commonness_ Conserv. Ecol._1999.pdf | 259.7Kb |
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