Separating macroecological pattern and process: Comparing ecological, economic, and geological systems

Benjamin Blonder, Lindsey Sloat, Brian J. Enquist, Brian McGill

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Theories of biodiversity rest on several macroecological patterns describing the relationship between species abundance and diversity. A central problem is that all theories make similar predictions for these patterns despite disparate assumptions. A troubling implication is that these patterns may not reflect anything unique about organizational principles of biology or the functioning of ecological systems. To test this, we analyze five datasets from ecological, economic, and geological systems that describe the distribution of objects across categories in the United States. At the level of functional form ('first-order effects'), these patterns are not unique to ecological systems, indicating they may reveal little about biological process. However, we show that mechanism can be better revealed in the scale-dependency of first-order patterns ('second-order effects'). These results provide a roadmap for biodiversity theory to move beyond traditional patterns, and also suggest ways in which macroecological theory can constrain the dynamics of economic systems.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere112850
JournalPloS one
Volume9
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 10 2014

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
  • General

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