The Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography: "New Theoretical Approaches"

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0346488- Hubbell, StephenUniv of GeorgiaThe Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography: "New Theoretical Approaches"AbstractThis grant represents a three-year collaboration between physicists and ecologists to develop a more rigorous and useful theory for biodiversity and its origin, maintenance and loss, in ecology. This collaborative effort builds on new theoretical developments that have arisen in the last two years, some of which have generated much interest in the scientific community. This grant is an effort to develop better theoretical tools for estimating the species richness of natural landscapes and understanding how ecological communities are put together. Understanding biodiversity, here defined as the abundance and distribution of species on earth or any region of it, is an objective of considerable practical and basic science importance and interest, especially given the current projected rates of species extinction due to habitat loss and other global change factors. Despite the scientific and technological advances of today, it is surprising to many people that we still do not know how many species inhabit the earth, even to the nearest order of magnitude (factor of 10). Likewise, our understanding of actual extinction rates is primitive, and these rates are largely guesstimates based on rules of thumb derived from patterns of how species richness increases with area sampled. This said, there is little scientific doubt that we face a serious anthropogenic extinction threat. Better theory and sampling designs are urgently needed for developing realistic policies for the protection and management of species and the environments they need to survive.