Ecologists widely accept that the distribution of abundances in most communities is fairly flat but heavily dominated by a few species. The reason for this is that species abundances are thought to follow certain theoretical distributions that predict such a pattern. However, previous studies have focused on either a few theoretical distributions or a few empirical distributions. I illustrate abundance patterns in 1055 samples of trees, bats, small terrestrial mammals, birds, lizards, frogs, ants, dung beetles, butterflies, and odonates. Five existing theoretical distributions make inaccurate predictions about the frequencies of the most common species and of the average species, and most of them fit the overall patterns poorly, according to the maximum likelihood-related Kullback-Leibler divergence statistic. Instead, the data support a low-dominance distribution here called the "double geometric." Depending on the value of its two governing parameters, it may resemble either the geometric series distribution or the lognormal series distribution. However, unlike any other model, it assumes both that richness is finite and that species compete unequally for resources in a two-dimensional niche landscape, which implies that niche breadths are variable and that trait distributions are neither arrayed along a single dimension nor randomly associated. The hypothesis that niche space is multidimensional helps to explain how numerous species can coexist despite interacting strongly.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500082 | DOI Listing |
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl
December 2024
Tsinghua University, Zhongguancun North Street, Haidian District, 100084, BEIJING, CHINA.
The rational design of metal oxide catalysts with enhanced oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance is crucial for the practical application of aqueous rechargeable zinc-air batteries (a-r-ZABs). Precisely regulating the electronic environment of metal-oxygen (M-O) active species is critical yet challenging for improving their activity and stability toward OER and ORR. Herein, we propose an atomic-level bilateral regulation strategy by introducing atomically dispersed Ga for continuously tuning the electronic environment of Ru-O and Mn-O in the Ga/MnRuO2 catalyst.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFood Funct
December 2024
SKL of Marine Food Processing & Safety Control, National Engineering Research Center of Seafood, Collaborative Innovation Center of Seafood Deep Processing, Liaoning Province Key Laboratory for Marine Food Science and Technology, School of Food Science and Technology, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, China.
Zinc is essential for maintaining the integrity and repair of small intestinal epithelial cells while zinc deficiency could induce the inflammatory infiltration and imbalance of intestinal flora in the intestine. In this study, glycosylation between oyster protein hydrolysate (OPH) and chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) was conducted and used as the carrier of zinc ions (OCZn). The results of zeta potential and particle size distribution showed that the OPH-COS successfully bound to zinc ions to form OCZn with a surface zinc content of 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNordisk Alkohol Nark
December 2024
Professor, Department of Welfare, Management and Organisation, Østfold University College, Halden, Norway.
Research has identified the use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) as a gap between treatment needs and available facilities for substance use disorder (SUD) treatment in Norway. State policy emphasizes the need for measures to ensure coordinated treatment services. This study aims to explore whether clinical pathways of mental health and substance abuse and team-based organisation function as intended in the treatment of patients with AAS use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Omega
December 2024
Materials Science and Engineering Post-Graduation - Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), Campina Grande 58429-900, PB, Brazil.
Thin films of chalcopyrite, CuFeS, are promising candidates for use as absorber layers in photovoltaic cells due to their low band gap and high absorbance. These films are typically deposited in two or three steps, always involving an annealing process. In this work, the CuFeS film was deposited on a glass substrate in a single deposition step using the cathodic cylindrical plasma deposition (CCyPD) technique.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBioscience
December 2024
Department of Evolutionary and Integrative Ecology, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB).
In the era of big data and global biodiversity decline, there is a pressing need to transform data and information into findable and actionable knowledge. We propose a conceptual classification scheme for invasion science that goes beyond hypothesis networks and allows to organize publications and data sets, guide research directions, and identify knowledge gaps. Combining expert knowledge with literature analysis, we identified five major research themes in this field: introduction pathways, invasion success and invasibility, impacts of invasion, managing biological invasions, and meta-invasion science.
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