Topic
Distance decay
About: Distance decay is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 430 publications have been published within this topic receiving 14401 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated how similarity changes with distance in biological communities, and explored whether growth form, dispersal type, rarity, or support affected the rate of distance decay in similarity.
Abstract: Aim Our aim was to understand how similarity changes with distance in biological communities, to use the distance decay perspective as quantitative technique to describe biogeographic pattern, and to explore whether growth form, dispersal type, rarity, or support affected the rate of distance decay in similarity. Location North American spruce-fir forests, Appalachian montane spruce-fir forests. Methods We estimated rates of distance decay through regression of log-transformed compositional similarity against distance for pairwise comparisons of thirty-four white spruce plots and twenty-six black spruce plots distributed from eastern Canada to Alaska, six regional floras along the crest of the Appalachians, and six regional floras along the east‐west extent of the boreal forest. Results Similarity decreased significantly with distance, with the most linear models relating the log of similarity to untransformed distance. The rate of similarity decay was 1.5‐1.9 times higher for vascular plants than for bryophytes. The rate of distance decay was highest for berry-fruited and nut-bearing species (1.7 times higher than plumose-seeded species and 1.9 times higher than microseeded/spore species) and 2.1 times higher for herbs than woody plants. There was no distance decay for rare species, while species of intermediate frequency had 2.0 times higher distance decay rates than common species. The rate of distance decay was 2.7 times higher for floras from the fragmented Appalachians than for floras from the contiguous boreal forest. Main conclusions The distance decay of similarity can be caused by either a decrease in environmental similarity with distance (e.g. climatic gradients) or by limits to dispersal and niche width differences among taxa. Regardless of cause, the distance decay of similarity provides a simple descriptor of how biological diversity is distributed and therefore has consequences for conservation strategy.
1,792 citations
TL;DR: It is concluded that regression of similarity against distance unites several ecological phenomena such as dispersal propensity and environmental structuring, and provides an effective approach for gauging the spatial turnover across sites.
Abstract: Biological similartiy typically decreases with geographical distance. Despite the recent attention to the distance decay relationship, there is no consensus on how the relationship varies across organism groups, geographic gradients and environments. We first conducted a quantitative meta-analysis of 401 distance decay relationships across a wide range of organisms, ecosystems and geographical gradients, and then united the effects of categorical and continuous variables on the rate of distance decay using a general linear model (GLM). As effect sizes we used the similarity at one km distance (initial similarity) and the distance that halves the similarity from its value at one km distance (halving distance). Both the initial similarity and halving distance were significantly affected by variables characterizing the spatial scale, organism properties, study region and ecosystem concerned. The patterns appear robust as the results of meta-analysis and GLM only differed in marginal details. According to GLM with Akaike’s information criterion, the most parsimonious models explained 55.3 and 37.6% of variance in initial similarity and halving distance, respectively. Across large scales, similarity was decreasing slightly faster at high latitudes than at low latitudes, while small-scale turnover was higher at low latitudes. We also found significant differences in initial similarity among the realms, with terrestrial systems showing higher small-scale beta diversity. The decrease in community similarity at large scales was higher among organisms that are actively mobile than among passively dispersed organisms. We conclude that regression of similarity against distance unites several ecological phenomena such as dispersal propensity and environmental structuring, and provides an effective approach for gauging the spatial turnover across sites. We also found that the patterns in beta-diversity are highly scale-dependent.
998 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review the literature regarding the aggregation of benefit value estimates for non-market goods and present an approach to aggregation which applies the spatial analytic capabilities of a geographical information system to combine geo-referenced physical, census and survey data to estimate a spatially sensitive valuation function.
525 citations
TL;DR: The impact of distance on the utilization of health care facilities in the Hadejia area of Kano State, Nigeria was examined and per capita utilization was found to decline exponentially with distance.
402 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed a general framework to describe how the distance-decay relationship is influenced by population aggregation and the landscape-scale species-abundance distribution, and used this general framework and data from three tropical forests to show that rare species have a weak influence on distancedecay curves, and that overall similarity and rates of decay are primarily influenced by species abundances and population aggregation respectively.
Abstract: Species spatial turnover, or β-diversity, induces a decay of community similarity with geographic distance known as the distance–decay relationship. Although this relationship is central to biodiversity and biogeography, its theoretical underpinnings remain poorly understood. Here, we develop a general framework to describe how the distance–decay relationship is influenced by population aggregation and the landscape-scale species-abundance distribution. We utilize this general framework and data from three tropical forests to show that rare species have a weak influence on distance–decay curves, and that overall similarity and rates of decay are primarily influenced by species abundances and population aggregation respectively. We illustrate the utility of the framework by deriving an exact analytical expression of the distance–decay relationship when population aggregation is characterized by the Poisson Cluster Process. Our study provides a foundation for understanding the distance–decay relationship, and for predicting and testing patterns of beta-diversity under competing theories in ecology.
Ecology Letters (2008) 11: 904–917
376 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 6 |
| 2024 | 15 |
| 2023 | 24 |
| 2022 | 48 |
| 2021 | 32 |
| 2020 | 25 |