Does neutral theory apply to species poor systems?
A test using a bark beetle metacommunity. Calabrese, Justin*,1, Kirkendall, Lawrence2, 1 University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland2 University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway ABSTRACT- Understanding the mechanisms that affect species diversity is a central goal of ecology. Assemblages of insects that breed in discrete, ephemeral, patchily distributed resources (hereafter DEP systems) are an important class of model systems in the study of species diversity. Research in DEP systems, which generally have fewer than 50 species, has focused intensely on issues of species richness and species coexistence, while paying comparatively little attention to relative species abundance. In contrast, neutral theory has been successful at explaining patterns of relative species abundance in a range of relatively species rich assemblages, but has not been extensively applied to species poor assemblages. Here, we focus on the potential of neutral theory to explain species diversity patterns in a species
