What does the Unified Neutral Theory of biodiversity postulate?

What does the Unified Neutral Theory of biodiversity postulate?

The hypothesis aims to explain the diversity and relative abundance of species in ecological communities. Under the Unified Theory, complex ecological interactions are permitted among individuals of an ecological community (such as competition and cooperation), provided that all individuals obey the same rules.

What is neutral theory community ecology?

Neutral theory predicts that species have perfectly overlapping niches — at the other extreme would be species with unique, non-overlapping niches. Real communities, of course, likely represent neither of these extremes but are somewhere in the middle (Figure 1).

What are the 3 types of species diversity?

Usually three levels of biodiversity are discussed—genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity. Genetic diversity is all the different genes contained in all individual plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms.

How does geography affect biodiversity?

Major Spatial Patterns in Biodiversity One major geographic pattern in biodiversity is the latitudinal gradient in species richness. As one travels further away from the equator, for most taxa, the number of species declines.

What is the biodiversity theory?

Biodiversity theories can inform important conservation actions such as assessments of species richness and extinction or habitat loss and fragmentation. Popular examples of biodiversity theories are niche theory and island biogeography theory, whereas neutral theory is less known.

What is the definition of biodiversity in science?

More in Center for Biodiversity & Conservation. The term biodiversity (from “biological diversity”) refers to the variety of life on Earth at all its levels, from genes to ecosystems, and can encompass the evolutionary, ecological, and cultural processes that sustain life.

What is neutral diversity?

However, there are two principal types of genetic diversity: adaptive and neutral – a fact widely neglected by non-specialists. This type of genetic variation is thus selectively neutral and tells us nothing about the adaptive or evolutionary potential of a population or a species.

What is the difference between the three types of biodiversity?

Biodiversity occurs in three different levels: Genetic, Species, and Ecosystem. Genetic diversity refers to the differences within members of a species and their ability to adapt to changes. Species diversity refers to the total number of plant, animal, and insect species that can be found in a particular region.

What is a simple definition of biodiversity?

Biodiversity is the shortened form of two words “biological” and “diversity”. It refers to all the variety of life that can be found on Earth (plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms) as well as to the communities that they form and the habitats in which they live.

How geography of a land causes diversity?

Geography influences the way we look, the food we eat and the clothes we wear. India shows great diversity; in terms of geographical features. Following are some examples of diversity which resulted because of difference in geographical features. Because of the cold climate, people usually wear warm clothes.

What does neutral theory predict?

As a consequence, the Neutral Theory predicts that the most functionally important regions of proteins (such as the active sites of enzymes) will generally evolve more slowly than functionally important regions.

What is Hubbell’s unified neutral theory of biodiversity?

Unified neutral theory of biodiversity. The unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography (here “Unified Theory” or “UNTB”) is a hypothesis and the title of a monograph by ecologist Stephen Hubbell. The hypothesis aims to explain the diversity and relative abundance of species in ecological communities,…

What is the neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography?

A decade has now passed since Hubbell published The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography. Neutral theory highlights the importance of dispersal limitation, speciation and ecological drift in the natural world and provides quantitative null models for assessing the role of adaptation and natural selection.

What is the Unified Theory of biodiversity?

The Unified Theory unifies biodiversity, as measured by species-abundance curves, with biogeography, as measured by species-area curves. Species-area relationships show the rate at which species diversity increases with area.

What does neutrality mean in ecology?

Neutrality means that at a given trophic level in a food web, species are equivalent in birth rates, death rates, dispersal rates and speciation rates, when measured on a per-capita basis. This can be considered a null hypothesis to niche theory.

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