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Just a hypothesis: a reply to Hanski
Author(s) -
Fahrig Lenore
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of biogeography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1365-2699
pISSN - 0305-0270
DOI - 10.1111/jbi.12504
Subject(s) - biogeography , alternative hypothesis , statistical hypothesis testing , test (biology) , epistemology , ecology , null hypothesis , biology , econometrics , mathematics , statistics , philosophy
Hanski's critique of the habitat amount hypothesis (Hanski, 2015, Journal of Biogeography , 42 , 989–993) does not actually constitute a test of the hypothesis, but rather a series of arguments for why he suspects that it is not correct. But the habitat amount hypothesis is exactly that – a hypothesis. It will remain ‘just’ a hypothesis until it has been rigorously tested against empirical data. To facilitate such testing, in Fahrig (2013, Journal of Biogeography , 40 , 1649–1663) I presented specific, testable predictions of the hypothesis. Here, I reiterate the main tests needed, in the hope that some readers will be encouraged to carry them out. I appreciate this opportunity to emphasize that the habitat amount hypothesis needs to be tested against empirical data, and I look forward to seeing the results of such tests.