Uniting Discoveries of Abundance-Size Distributions from Soils and Seas

Leonard V Polishchuk; Julia L Blanchard

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2018.10.007

Uniting Discoveries of Abundance-Size Distributions from Soils and Seas

Trends Ecol Evol. 2019 Jan;34(1):2-5. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2018.10.007. Epub 2018 Nov 13.

Authors

Leonard V Polishchuk¹, Julia L Blanchard²

Affiliations

¹ Department of General Ecology, Biological Faculty, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, 119991, Russia; These authors have contributed equally to this article. Electronic address: leonard_polishchuk@hotmail.com.
² Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies and Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of Tasmania, 20 Castray Esplanade, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia; These authors have contributed equally to this article. Electronic address: julia.blanchard@utas.edu.au.

PMID: 30446409
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2018.10.007

Abstract

Science is a search for patterns but there are few cross-habitat patterns in ecology. We propose key questions following the findings of consistent scaling of abundance versus body mass from bacteria to earthworms and whales, based on an almost forgotten study of soils and a well-known one from the open ocean.

Keywords: biomass equivalence rule; body mass; macroecology; size spectrum.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Bacterial Physiological Phenomena*
Biomass
Ecosystem*
Oceans and Seas
Oligochaeta / physiology*
Population Density
Soil
Whales / physiology*

Substances

Soil