The relationship between abundance and body size in British birds

摘要: THE relationship between abundance and body size is the subject of considerable debate in ecology1–15. Several data sets spanning a large range sizes show linear negative relationships weight l–6 when these are measured on logarithmic scale. But other studies abundances species from single taxa, such as birds, which span narrower reveal either little or no relationship, triangular 9–15. Errors estimating might obscure that do exist over narrow sizes. We describe here British whose population estimates unusually good. Abundance across all declines with −0.75 power weight, conforms energetic equivalence 'rule'2,16. There is, however, significant positive within lower taxa. Those tribes not share recent common ancestry birds most likely to their constituent species. thus phylogenetic relatedness be an important indicator structure abundance.