Ecogeography/Macroecology (Range and Body Size)

Macroecology is a statistical investigation of large‐scale patterns of species diversity in order to elucidate mechanisms controlling the structure and dynamics of biotas. Though the term “macroecology” was first used in the late 1980s, its foundations were laid much earlier through fields such as biogeography, ecology, and macroevolutionary biology. Some of the most general and best‐researched patterns in macroecology include species–area relationships, latitudinal diversity gradients, range size and abundance relationships, and patterns in the distribution of body size among species. These macroecological patterns arise from a combination of the evolutionary mechanisms, species demographic characteristics, and the variation in environmental conditions. However, the complex nature of the interaction between these processes creates conceptual challenges for universal explanations of specific biodiversity patterns.

Abundance (ecology) · Biodiversity · Biogeography · Biology · Evolutionary biology · Evolutionary ecology · Global biodiversity · Host (biology) · Macroecology · Macroevolution · Phylogenetics · Range (aeronautics) · Relative abundance distribution · Relative species abundance · Ecology · Physiological and biochemical adaptations · Species Distribution and Climate Change · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

• Toward a Metabolic Theory of Ecology

  Open Access•Jennifer H Brown, James H Brown et al.•Ecology•2004

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