Abundance-occupancy relationships and implications for conservation of desert plants in the northwestern Red Sea region

Lovett-Doust, J. and Hegazy, A. K. and Hammouda, O. and Gomaa, N. H. (2009) Abundance-occupancy relationships and implications for conservation of desert plants in the northwestern Red Sea region. Community Ecology, 10 (1). pp. 91-98. ISSN 1585-8553

Text comec.10.2009.1.11.pdf Restricted to Repository staff only until 30 June 2029. Download (316kB)

Abstract

Abundance-occupancy relationships were determined for desert plants in the northwestern Red Sea region, at both the whole landscape, and individual habitat levels. Some 58 stands (having a total of 66 species) were studied, using ten quadrats (10 × 10 m2 ) per stand. The relation was positive and highly significant at both scales, but stronger at habitat level than across the regional landscape. Niche-breadth was estimated as the number of habitats occupied regionally by a species, and was significantly related to both abundance and occupancy. Niche breadth explained just 10.1%of variation in abundance but some 56.2% of variation in occupancy. Using empirical data, we tested whether those abundance-occupancy relationships diverged significantly from a theoretical null model. Relationships diverged significantly from the null model at both regional landscape and habitat levels. Applications of abundance-occupancy relationships for plant conservation showed that 36% of the species in the study region is at risk of extinction.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item