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Measure of species' ecological influence
Rhizophoraceae (
mangroves ) dominate tropical tidal swamps
Ecological dominance is the degree to which one or several species have a major influence controlling the other species in their
ecological community (because of their large size, population, productivity, or related factors)
[1] or make up more of the
biomass . Both the composition and abundance of species within an ecosystem can be affected by the dominant species present.
[2]
In most of the world's ecosystems, biologists have repeatedly observed a
rank-abundance curve in which ecosystems comprise a handful of incredibly abundant species, but more numerous, rarer species that are few in number.
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6] Danish botanist
Christen C. Raunkiær described this phenomenon as his "
law of frequency " in 1918, in which he recognized that in communities with a single species accounting for most of the biomass, species diversity was often lower.
[7]
Understandably, biologists expect to see more profound effects from those species greater in number.
[8] First formalized as the mass ratio hypothesis in a 1998 paper by English ecologist
J. Philip Grime , ecologically dominant species are predicted to have overwhelming effects on ecosystem function and ecological processes due to their relatively high biomass and ubiquity.
[9]
Androgopon scoparium and
Andropogon gerardii dominate this tallgrass prairie in Delorme, Minnesota Most ecological communities are defined by their dominant species.
[10]
[2]
There are currently several different metrics for assessing species dominance in natural ecosystems, including the
importance value index ,
[22]
competitive index ,
[23]
community importance index ,
[24] and
dominance index .
[2]
See also
References
^
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^
a
b
c Avolio, Meghan L.; Forrestel, Elisabeth J.; Chang, Cynthia C.; La Pierre, Kimberly J.; Burghardt, Karin T.; Smith, Melinda D. (13 March 2019).
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^ Gaston, Kevin J. (1 May 2011).
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^ Braun, E. Lucy (1 April 1947).
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^ Smith, Melinda D.; Knapp, Alan K. (8 May 2003).
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^ Chang, Cynthia C.; Smith, Melinda D. (2011-10-21).
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^ Hoover, D. L.; Knapp, A. K.; Smith, M. D. (2014-05-23).
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^ Camarota, Flávio; Vasconcelos, Heraldo L.; Marquis, Robert J.; Powell, Scott (2020-10-01).
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External links