Dipartimento di Fisica G Galilei, Università di Padova, Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze Fisiche della Materia and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padua, Italy.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Apr 27;107(17):7658-62. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1000137107. Epub 2010 Apr 7.
Ecological communities exhibit pervasive patterns and interrelationships between size, abundance, and the availability of resources. We use scaling ideas to develop a unified, model-independent framework for understanding the distribution of tree sizes, their energy use, and spatial distribution in tropical forests. We demonstrate that the scaling of the tree crown at the individual level drives the forest structure when resources are fully used. Our predictions match perfectly with the scaling behavior of an exactly solvable self-similar model of a forest and are in good accord with empirical data. The range, over which pure power law behavior is observed, depends on the available amount of resources. The scaling framework can be used for assessing the effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbances on ecosystem structure and functionality.
生态群落表现出普遍的模式和大小、丰度和资源可利用性之间的相互关系。我们利用尺度思想来建立一个统一的、无模型的框架，以理解热带森林中树木大小、能量利用和空间分布的分布。我们证明了当资源得到充分利用时，个体水平上树冠的尺度决定了森林结构。我们的预测与一个完全可解的自相似森林模型的尺度行为完全吻合，并且与经验数据非常吻合。纯幂律行为的观测范围取决于可用资源的数量。该尺度框架可用于评估自然和人为干扰对生态系统结构和功能的影响。
