TY - JOUR
T1 - The case for ecological neutral theory
AU - Rosindell, James
AU - Hubbell, Stephen P.
AU - He, Fangliang
AU - Harmon, Luke J.
AU - Etienne, Rampal S.
PY - 2012/4
Y1 - 2012/4
N2 - Ecological neutral theory has elicited strong opinions in recent years. Here, we review these opinions and strip away some unfortunate problems with semantics to reveal three major underlying questions. Only one of these relates to neutral theory and the importance of ecological drift, whereas the others involve the link between pattern and process, the tradeoff between simplicity and complexity in modeling, and the role of stochasticity and drift in ecology. We explain how neutral theory cannot be simultaneously used both as a null hypothesis and as an approximation. However, we also show how neutral theory always has a valuable use in one of these two roles, even though the real world is not neutral.
AB - Ecological neutral theory has elicited strong opinions in recent years. Here, we review these opinions and strip away some unfortunate problems with semantics to reveal three major underlying questions. Only one of these relates to neutral theory and the importance of ecological drift, whereas the others involve the link between pattern and process, the tradeoff between simplicity and complexity in modeling, and the role of stochasticity and drift in ecology. We explain how neutral theory cannot be simultaneously used both as a null hypothesis and as an approximation. However, we also show how neutral theory always has a valuable use in one of these two roles, even though the real world is not neutral.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84858623494
U2 - 10.1016/j.tree.2012.01.004
DO - 10.1016/j.tree.2012.01.004
M3 - 文献综述
C2 - 22341498
AN - SCOPUS:84858623494
SN - 0169-5347
VL - 27
SP - 203
EP - 208
JO - Trends in Ecology and Evolution
JF - Trends in Ecology and Evolution
IS - 4
ER -