Species Abundance in a Forest Community in South China: A Case of Poisson Lognormal Distribution

Yin, Zuo-Yun; Ren, Hai; Zhang, Qianmei; Shaolin, Peng; Guo, Qinfeng; Zhou, Guoyi

doi:10.1111/j.1744-7909.2005.00095.x

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Requires an iterative likelihood method on a computer to fit which is often not available in standard statistical packages (Yin et al 2005), and is sometimes confusingly called a truncated lognormal (Kempton & Taylor 1974;Connolly et al 2005). 9.…”

Section: Lognormal II -True Continuos Lognormalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species abundance distributions: moving beyond single prediction theories to integration within an ecological framework

et al. 2007

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Species abundance distributions (SADs) follow one of ecologyÕs oldest and most universal laws -every community shows a hollow curve or hyperbolic shape on a histogram with many rare species and just a few common species. Here, we review theoretical, empirical and statistical developments in the study of SADs. Several key points emerge. (i) Literally dozens of models have been proposed to explain the hollow curve. Unfortunately, very few models are ever rejected, primarily because few theories make any predictions beyond the hollow-curve SAD itself. (ii) Interesting work has been performed both empirically and theoretically, which goes beyond the hollow-curve prediction to provide a rich variety of information about how SADs behave. These include the study of SADs along environmental gradients and theories that integrate SADs with other biodiversity patterns. Central to this body of work is an effort to move beyond treating the SAD in isolation and to integrate the SAD into its ecological context to enable making many predictions. (iii) Moving forward will entail understanding how sampling and scale affect SADs and developing statistical tools for describing and comparing SADs. We are optimistic that SADs can provide significant insights into basic and applied ecological science.

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Section: Lognormal II -True Continuos Lognormalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species abundance distributions: moving beyond single prediction theories to integration within an ecological framework

et al. 2007

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“…We found only one comprehensive species survey across strata in the subtropics. For evergreen mixed forests in south China, Yin et al (2005) detected an increase in species diversity, from the tree layer to the shrub layer to the herb layer. However, knowledge about general strata responses to temporal shifts during succession is completely lacking for subtropical forests.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lack of tree layer control on herb layer characteristics in a subtropical forest, China

Both

Fang

Böhnke

et al. 2011

Journal of Vegetation Science

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Question: Knowledge of the interaction between understorey herb and overstorey tree layer diversity is mostly restricted to temperate forests. How do tree layer diversity and environmental variables affect herb layer attributes in subtropical forests and do these relationships change in the course of succession? Do abundance and diversity of woody saplings within the herb layer shift during succession? Location: Subtropical broad‐leaved forests in southeast China (29°8′18″‐29°17′29″N, 118°2′14″118°11′12″E). Methods: A full inventory of the herb layer including all plants below 1‐m height was done in 27 plots (10 × 10 m) from five successional stages (<20, <40, <60, <80 and ≥80 yr). We quantified the contribution of different life forms (herbaceous, woody and climber species) to herb layer diversity and productivity and analysed effects of environmental variables and tree layer diversity on these attributes. Results: Herb layer composition followed a successional gradient, as revealed by non‐metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS), but diversity was not correlated to the successional gradient. There was no correlation of diversity across layers. Herb layer productivity was neither affected by tree layer diversity nor by herb layer diversity. Although abundance of woody species in the herb layer decreased significantly during succession, woody species contributed extraordinarily to herb layer species diversity in all successional stages. All environmental factors considered had little impact on herb layer attributes. Conclusions: The subtropical forest investigated displays an immense richness of woody species in the herb layer while herbaceous species are less prominent. Species composition of the herb layer shows a clear successional pattern, however, the presence or absence of certain species appears to be random.

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“…Numerous models have been proposed to describe the SAD (Magurran 1988, Tokeshi 1993, McGill 2003a,b) with traditional emphasis being placed on the lognormal (Preston 1948, 1962) and the log‐series distributions (Fisher et al 1943). While these distributions continue to receive considerable interest (Hubbell 2001, McGill 2003a, Magurran and Henderson 2003, Ulrich and Ollik 2004, Yin et al 2005a) recent attention has also been directed towards variations on the lognormal distribution, for example compound lognormal distributions (Williamson and Gaston 2005), particularly the Poisson lognormal distribution (Yin et al 2005b, Dornelas et al 2006), as well as a novel SAD, Hubbell's zero‐sum multinomial model (Hubbell 2001). The zero‐sum multinomial differs in a subtle way from other models, in that it has explicitly been defined as a metacommunity model.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A metacommunity‐scale comparison of species‐abundance distribution models for plant communities of eastern Australia

Förster¹,

Warton²

2007

Ecography

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Various models of the species-abundance distribution (SAD) have been proposed to fit empirically derived data however there is no general consensus as to which model provides the best fit. Further, the zero-sum multinomial SAD model (ZSM) was proposed as a metacommunity model, yet it has not previously been fitted at the metacommunity scale. We note that SAD models based on compound lognormal distributions (such as the Poisson-lognormal, PLN, and the negative binomial-lognormal models, NBLN) can also be thought of as metacommunity models, and we compare these with the ZSM when fitted as metacommunity models to SADs of related communities.We collected five datasets in the Sydney Basin, eastern Australia, representing five different types of subtropical/temperate plant communities ranging from closed warm-temperate rainforest to open wet sclerophyll forest to dry sclerophyll woodland. For each type of plant community, five local communities were identified across the Sydney Basin, and SAD data collected in five randomly placed 0.2-ha quadrats at each local community. Analysis was performed at two levels: all abundance data from each local community were pooled across each metacommunity and analysed as a single pooled community; and a metacommunity model was fitted to all five local communities of a community type, simultaneously. For the pooled data, we considered the negative-binomial (NB) and the log-series (LS) models in addition to ZSM, PLN and NBLN. All five models performed similarly, however the LS had a better fit to three pooled communities and the ZSM and PLN to the remaining two communities. By contrast, the ZSM performed statistically better against the PLN and NBLN when considered as a metacommunity model. We conclude that the ZSM generally provides a more reliable null model for metacommunity abundance data than the lognormal model.

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Species Abundance in a Forest Community in South China: A Case of Poisson Lognormal Distribution

Cited by 9 publications

References 41 publications

Species abundance distributions: moving beyond single prediction theories to integration within an ecological framework

Species abundance distributions: moving beyond single prediction theories to integration within an ecological framework

Lack of tree layer control on herb layer characteristics in a subtropical forest, China

A metacommunity‐scale comparison of species‐abundance distribution models for plant communities of eastern Australia

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