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Why are there so many species?

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Abstract

It is shown from the statistical-mechanical overview of Volterra's ecological model how to reckon the fluctuations of collective variables such as the total population of a genus: and that these fluctuations are much decreased (or that the collective populationsteadiness is enhanced) as the speciation is increased. (A niching of species in time, or phase-niching, is entailed here.) Secondly, it is shown how Preston's log-normal distribution describing the species-abundance relationship, as well as a generalization of such distributions, come forth simply and naturally from the statistical-Volterra-dynamics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sharp Physics Laboratory, University of Delaware, 19711, Newark, Delaware

    Edward H. Kerner

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  1. Edward H. Kerner
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Kerner, E.H. Why are there so many species?. Bltn Mathcal Biology 36, 477–488 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02463261

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02463261

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