Discontinuities in ecological data

摘要

Historically, ecology has focused on continuous distributions and smooth transitions. Only recently have discontinuities and thresholds become an explicit focus in some areas of ecology, especially in the realm of complex systems. The study of animal body mass distributions has been recognized for its potential to provide insight into the underlying processes shaping animal communities. Hutchinson (1) formalized the understanding of species niches and the potential for competition to shape body mass distributions. However, despite a long history of theoretical and empirical pursuit, the mechanisms driving patterns in body mass distributions remain poorly understood. The work of Scheffer and van Nes (2) in this issue of PNAS demonstrates that community interactions alone can create discontinuous, lumpy distributions of simulated species along a niche axis. Their contribution comes at a time of heightened interest in understanding the mechanisms that may lead to discontinuities in body mass or biomass distributions.