Species Area Relationships
Species Area Relationships are characterized by the following "power" relationship:
S = k Az ,
where S is species richness, A is area, and k and z are fitted parameters. If we take logarithms of each side of the equation, we have
log(S) = log(k) + z log(A) .
The logarithm turns the relationship into a straight line when plotted on with
log axes.
The parameter z is a slope (on a log-log scale) that describes the increase in species richness with area.
- Species area relationships are not confined to islands.
- Arbitrary areas of mainland - Z = 0.1 -0.16 .
- Oceanic islands - Z = 0.18 -0.37 .
- Habitat islands - Z = 0.17 - 0.72 .