Macroecology is the subfield of ecology that deals with the study of relationships between organisms and their natural environment environment at large spatial scales to characterise and explain statistical patterns of abundance, distribution and diversity. The term was coined by James Brown ecologist James Brown of the University of New Mexico and Brian Maurer of Michigan State University in a 1989 paper in Science . Macroecology approaches the idea of studying ecosystems using a top down approach. It seeks understanding through the study of the properties of the system as a whole Kevin Gaston and Tim Blackburn make the analogy to seeing the forest for the trees literally . Macroecology examines how global development in climate change affect wild life populations. Classic ecological questions amenable to study through the techniques of macroecology include questions of species richness , latitudinal gradients in species diversity , the species area curve , range size, body size, and species abundance. For example, the relationship between abundance and range size why species that maintain large local population sizes tend to be widely distributed, while species that are less abundant tend to have restricted ranges has received much attention c.f. sampling artifact . References Brown, J.H and B.A. Maurer. 1989. Macroecology The division of food and space among species on continents. Science 243 1145 1150 Brown, J.H. 1995. Macroecology . University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0 226 07614 8 Gaston, K.J. and T.M. Blackburn. 2000. Pattern and Process in Macroecology . Blackwell Science. ISBN 0 632 05653 3 External links http www.blackwellpublishing.com journal.asp?ref 1466 822X&site 1 Global Ecology and Biogeography an important journal of macroecology http www.blackwellpublishing.com journal.asp?ref 0906 7590&site 1 Ecography an important journal of broad spatial and temporal patterns in ecology http www.evolutionary ecology.com Evolutionary Ecology Research a journal of macroecology ... more details
Taxonomic inflation is a pejorative term for what is perceived to be an excessive increase in the number of recognised taxa in a given context, due not to the discovery of new taxa but rather to putatively arbitrary changes to how taxa are delineated. The best known case is the elevation of a group of subspecies to species rank, through the arbitrary decision that the differences between the various taxa warrant distinguishing them at species rank. Taxonomic inflation is often claimed to occur for Conservation ethic conservation reasons. It may be difficult to make a case for the protection of an isolated and unusual population of a common and widespread species, but it becomes much easier to do so if that population is recognised as a rare subspecies or species. ref name Isaac 2004 cite journal author Isaac, Nick Mallet, James Mace, Georgina year 2004 title Taxonomic inflation its influence on macroecology and conservation journal TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution volume 19 issue 9 pages 464 469 url http www.ucl.ac.uk taxome jim pap isaac04.pdf accessdate 2011 02 23 ref ref name Economist cite journal title Hail Linnaeus journal The Economist issue May 17, 2007 url http www.economist.com node 9191545?story id 9191545 accessdate 2011 02 23 ref References reflist Category Taxonomy ... more details
, addressing macroecology macroecological questions landscape ecology , which studies the interactions between discrete elements of a landscape macroecology , the study of large scale phenomena marine ... more details
termed macroecology has developed, which focuses on broad scale in both time and space patterns and phenomena in ecology. Macroecology focuses as much on other organisms as plants. Branches of Biology ..., see floristic province . See also Biogeography Botany Geobotanical prospecting Macroecology ... more details
Infobox journal title Ecology Letters abbreviation Ecol. Lett. cover File ELECover.gif discipline Ecology editor Marcel Holyoak frequency Monthly website http www.wiley.com bw journal.asp?ref 1461 023x link1 http onlinelibrary.wiley.com journal 10.1111 28ISSN 291461 0248 link1 name Online access publisher Wiley Blackwell country history 1998 present impact 10.318 impact year 2009 ISSN 1461 023X eISSN 1461 0248 CODEN ECLEFU LCCN sn98015378 OCLC 40121970 Ecology Letters is a peer review peer reviewed scientific journal published by Wiley Blackwell and the French National Centre for Scientific Research Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique . Marcel Holyoak University of California, Davis took over as editor in chief from Michael Hochberg in 2008. It is published monthly in print and online. Abstracting and indexing Ecology Letters is abstracted and indexed in EBSCO Publishing Academic Search Academic Search Premier , AGRICOLA , Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts , Biological Abstracts , BIOSIS Previews BIOSIS and BIOSIS Previews , CAB Direct database CAB Abstracts , CAB Direct database CAB Health CABDirect , CSA database company Cambridge Scientific Abstracts databases , Current Contents Agriculture, Biology & Environmental Sciences, GEOBASE database GEOBASE , GeoRef , Index Medicus MEDLINE , InfoTrac , PubMed , Science Citation Index , Scopus , and The Zoological Record . According to the Journal Citation Reports , the journal has a 2009 impact factor of 10.318, ranking it 124 out of 7387 journals listed and 2nd out of 129 journals in the category Ecology . Topics covered Ecology Letters covers topics in Applied ecology Behavioral ecology Biodiversity Conservation biology Ecological genetics Evolutionary biology Landscape ecology Microecology Macroecology Marine biology Microbial ecology External links Official 1 http www.wiley.com bw journal.asp?ref 1461 023x http www.in cites.com journals EcologyLetters.html Interview with Michael Hochberg ex editor in ... more details
, addressing macroecology macroecological questions Landscape ecology &ndash which studies the interactions ... to ecological events Macroecology &ndash the study of large scale phenomena Microecology &ndash ... more details
. Macroecology Concepts and Consequences. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford. Colwell, R. K., and G .... Nature 405 220 227. Gaston, K. J., and T. M. Blackburn. 2000. Pattern and processes in macroecology ..., editors. Macroecology Concepts and Consequences. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford. Storch, D., Davies ... more details
In macroecology , the occupancy abundance O A relationship is the relationship between the abundance of species and the size of their ranges within a region. This relationship is perhaps one of the most well documented relationships in macroecology, and applies both intra and interspecifically within and among species . In most cases, the O A relationship is a positive relationship ref name Gaston 1996 Gaston, K.J. 1996. The multiple forms of the interspecific abundance distribution relationship. Oikos 75 211 220. ref . Although an O A relationship would be expected, given that a species colonizing a region must pass through the origin zero abundance, zero occupancy and could reach some theoretical maximum abundance and distribution that is, occupancy and abundance can be expected to covary , the relationship described here is somewhat more substantial, in that observed changes in range are associated with greater than proportional changes in abundance. Although this relationship appears to be pervasive e.g. Gaston 1996 ref name Gaston 1996 and references therein , and has important implications for the conservation of endangered species , the mechanism s underlying it remain poorly understood ref name Gastonet al 2000 Gaston, K.J., T.M. Blackburn, J.J.D. Greenwood R.D. Gregory, R.M. Quinn, and J.H. Lawton. 2000. Abundance occupancy relationships. Journal of Applied Ecology 37 suppl. 1 39 59. ref Important terms Range means the total area occupied by the species of interest in the region under study see below Which Range Abundance means the average density of the species of interest across all occupied patches i.e. average abundance does not include the area of unoccupied ... km to describe breeding bird occupancy in New York State. In much of macroecology, the use of EOO ... ref name Gaston and Blackburn 2000 Gaston, K.J., and T.M. Blackburn. 2000. Pattern and Process in Macroecology ... biology Ecology Ideal free distribution Macroecology Metabolic theory of ecology Niche apportionment ... more details
, Eurasia and Africa Brown and Maurer, 1989 ref name BrownMaurer1989 Brown JH & Maurer BA 1989 Macroecology ... . See also Macroecology Metabolic theory of ecology Niche apportionment models Occupancy abundance ... more details
theory of biodiversity. In T. Blackburn and K. Gaston, Editors, Macroecology concepts and consequences ..., Macroecology concepts and consequences. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford. ref The shape of this distribution ... more details
In spatial ecology and macroecology , scaling pattern of occupancy SPO , also known as the area of occupancy is the way in which species distribution changes across spatial scales. In physical geography and image analysis , it is similar to the modifiable areal unit problem . Simon A. Levin 1992 ref Levin, SA. 1992. The problem of pattern and scale in ecology. Ecology, 73, 1943&ndash 1967. http www.esajournals.org doi abs 10.2307 1941447 ref states that the problem of relating phenomena across scales is the central problem in biology and in all of science . Understanding the SPO is thus one central theme in ecology. Pattern description This pattern is often plotted as log transformed grain cell size versus log transformed occupancy. Kunin 1998 ref Kunin, WE. 1998. Extrapolating species abundance across spatial scales. Science, 281 1513&ndash 1515. http www.sciencemag.org cgi content full 281 5382 1513 ref presented a log log linear SPO and suggesting a fractal nature of species distribution. In reality, it has been shown to follow a logistic shape, reflecting a percolation process. Furthermore, the SPO is closely related to the intraspecific occupancy abundance relationship . For instance, if individuals are randomly distributed in space, the number of individuals in an size cell follows a Poisson distribution , with the occupancy being P sub sub 1 &minus exp &minus , where is the density ref Wright, D.H. 1991. Correlations between incidence and abundance are expected by chance. Journal of Biogeography, 18 463&ndash 466. http www.jstor.org stable 2845487 ref . Clearly, P sub sub in this Poisson model for randomly distributed individuals is also the SPO. Other probability distributions, such as the negative binomial distribution , can also be applied for describing the SPO and the occupancy abundance relationship for non randomly distributed individuals ref He, F., Gaston, K.J. 2000. Estimating species abundance from occurrence. American ... more details
The metabolic theory of ecology MTE is an extension of Kleiber s law and posits that the metabolic rate of organisms is the fundamental biological rate that governs most observed patterns in ecology. ref name Brown04 cite journal author Brown, J. H., Gillooly, J. F., Allen, A. P., Savage, V. M., & G. B. West title Toward a metabolic theory of ecology journal Ecology volume 85 issue 7 pages 1771 89 year 2004 doi 10.1890 03 9000 ref MTE is based on an interpretation of the relationships between body size, body temperature, and Metabolism metabolic rate across all organisms. Small bodied organisms tend to have higher mass specific metabolic rates than larger bodied organisms. Furthermore, organisms that operate at warm temperatures through Warm blooded endothermy or by living in warm environments tend towards higher metabolic rates than organisms that operate at colder temperatures. This pattern is consistent from the unicellular level up to the level of the largest animals on the planet. In MTE, this relationship is considered to be the single constraint that defines biological processes at all levels of organization from individual up to ecosystem level , and is a Macroecology macroecological theory that aims to be universal in scope and application. ref name Brown04 Theoretical background Metabolic rate scales with the mass of an organism of a given species according to Kleiber s law where B is whole organism metabolic rate in watts or other unit of power , M is organism mass in kg , and B sub o sub is a mass independent normalization constant given in a unit of power divided by a unit of mass. In this case, watts per kilogram math B B oM 3 4 , math At increased temperatures, chemical reactions proceed faster. This relationship is described by the Boltzmann factor , where E is activation energy in electronvolt s or joule s, t is absolute temperature in kelvins, and k is the Boltzmann constant in eV K or J K math e frac E k ,t math While B sub o sub in the previous e ... more details
macroecology macroecological questions global ecophagy is a term coined by Robert Freitas that means ... growth. Lotka Volterra equation Describes an ecological predator prey model M macroecology the study ... more details
In macroecology and community ecology, an occupancy frequency distribution OFD is the distribution of the numbers of species occupying different numbers of areas ref name Mcgeoch2002 . It was first reported in 1918 by the Danish botanist Christen C. Raunki r in his study on plant communities. The OFD is also known as the species range size distribution in literature ref name Gaston1996 ref name Gaston1998 . Bimodality A typical form of OFD is a bimodal distribution , indicating the species in a community is either rare or common, known as Raunkiaer s law of distribution of frequencies. ref name Papp1997 That is, with each species assigned to one of five 20 wide occupancy classes, Raunkiaer s law predicts bimodal distributions within homogenous plant formations with mode statistics modes in the first 0 20 and last 81 100 classes. ref name Papp1997 Although Raunkiaer s law has long been discounted as an index of plant community homogeneity ref name Mcintosh1962 , the method of using occupancy classes to construct OFDs is still commonly used for both plant and animal assemblages. Henry Gleason commented on this law in a 1929 Ecology journal Ecology article In conclusion we may say that Raunkiaer s law is merely an expression of the fact that in any association there are more species with few individuals than with many, that the law is most apparent when quadrat s are chosen of the most serviceable size to show frequency, and that it is obscured or lost if the quadrats are either too large or too small. citequote date April 2010 Evidently, there are different shapes of OFD found in literature. Tokeshi reported that approximately 46 of observations have a skewness right skewed unimodal distribution unimodal shape , 27 bimodal, and 27 uniform distribution uniform . ref name Tokeshi1992 Factors As pointed out by Gleason, Citation needed date April 2010 the variety shapes of OFD can be explained, to a large degree, by the sampling grain , extent and intensity. For instance, McGeoch ... more details
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