Abundance (ecology)

Abundance is an ecological concept referring to the relative representation of a species in a particular ecosystem. It is usually measured as the number of individuals found per sample. How species abundances are distributed within an ecosystem is referred to as relative species abundances.

Abundance is contrasted with, but typically correlates to, incidence, which is the frequency with which the species occurs at all in a sample.^[1] When high abundance is accompanied by low incidence, it is considered locally or sporadically abundant.

A variety of sampling methods are used to measure abundance. For larger animals, these may include spotlight counts, track counts and roadkill counts, as well as presence at monitoring stations.^[2] In many plant communities the abundances of plant species are measured by plant cover, i.e. the relative area covered by different plant species in a small plot.^[3]

Relative species abundance is calculated by dividing the number of species from one group by the total number of species from all groups.

ACFOR

ACFOR is an acronym for a simple, somewhat subjective scale used to describe species abundance within a given area. It is normally used within a sampling quadrat to indicate how many organisms there are in a particular habitat when it would not be practical to count them all. Instead, a smaller representative sample of the population is counted instead.^[4]

The ACFOR scale is as follows:

A – The species observed is "Abundant" within the given area.
C – The species observed is "Common" within the given area.
F – The species observed is "Frequent" within the given area.
O – The species observed is "Occasional" within the given area
R – The species observed is "Rare" within the given area.

This method of sampling is simple and easy to implement, but can be subjective. Species frequency is the number of times a plant species is present in a given number of quadrats of a particular size or at a given number of sample points. Frequency is usually expressed as a percentage and sometimes called a Frequency Index. The concept of frequency refers to the uniformity of a species in its distribution over an area. No counting is involved just a record of species present. Each individual of the species present is recorded, is a more accurate and reliable method of sampling.

References

↑ Bartelt, Gerald A.; Rolley, Robert E.; Vine, Lawrence E. (2001). Evaluation of abundance indices for striped skunks, common raccoons and Virginia opossums in southern Wisconsin (Research report (Wisconsin. Dept. of Natural Resources), Report 185). Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources, Bureau of Integrated Science Services. Retrieved 2006-12-15.
↑ Wright, David Hamilton (July 1991). "Correlations Between Incidence and Abundance are Expected by Chance". Journal of Biogeography. Journal of Biogeography, Vol. 18, No. 4. 18 (4): 463–466. doi:10.2307/2845487. JSTOR 2845487.
↑ Damgaard, Christian (2009). "On the distribution of plant abundance data". Ecological Informatics. 4 (2): 76–82. doi:10.1016/j.ecoinf.2009.02.002.
↑ http://www.glaucus.org.uk/watch3.htm

External links

Look up abundance in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

"Abundance in ecology" (article, with works cited)

Ecology: Modelling ecosystems: Trophic components

General	Abiotic component Abiotic stress Behaviour Biogeochemical cycle Biomass Biotic component Biotic stress Carrying capacity Competition Ecosystem Ecosystem ecology Ecosystem model Keystone species List of feeding behaviours Metabolic theory of ecology Productivity Resource

Producers	Autotrophs Chemosynthesis Chemotrophs Foundation species Mixotrophs Myco-heterotrophy Mycotroph Organotrophs Photoheterotrophs Photosynthesis Photosynthetic efficiency Phototrophs Primary nutritional groups Primary production

Consumers	Apex predator Bacterivore Carnivores Chemoorganotroph Foraging Generalist and specialist species Intraguild predation Herbivores Heterotroph Heterotrophic nutrition Insectivore Mesopredator release hypothesis Omnivores Optimal foraging theory Predation Prey switching

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Defense/counter	Animal coloration Antipredator adaptations Camouflage Deimatic behaviour Herbivore adaptations to plant defense Mimicry Plant defense against herbivory Predator avoidance in schooling fish

Ecology: Modelling ecosystems: Other components

Population ecology	Abundance Allee effect Depensation Ecological yield Effective population size Intraspecific competition Logistic function Malthusian growth model Maximum sustainable yield Overpopulation in wild animals Overexploitation Population cycle Population dynamics Population modeling Population size Predator–prey (Lotka–Volterra) equations Recruitment Resilience Small population size Stability

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Abundance (ecology)

ACFOR

See also

References

External links