Premium
Reconstructing the realized niche of phytoplankton species from environmental data: fitness versus abundance approach
Author(s) -
Grüner Nico,
Gebühr Christina,
Boersma Maarten,
Feudel Ulrike,
Wiltshire Karen H.,
Freund Jan A.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography: methods
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.898
H-Index - 72
ISSN - 1541-5856
DOI - 10.4319/lom.2011.9.432
Subject(s) - niche , abundance (ecology) , generalist and specialist species , ecological niche , ecology , environmental niche modelling , relative species abundance , phytoplankton , biology , nutrient , habitat
The classification of the ecological niche and the grouping of species into generalists and specialists are established ecological concepts. In this study, we compare two methods for the calculation of the realized ecological niche from long‐term species data. As the first method, we present a new approach to reconstruct the realized niche not in terms of abundance but via a measure of fitness (optimal niche), which we call the Optimal Niche Estimate (ONE). The second method, the outlying mean index (OMI) analysis, is performed with abundance data for calculating the ecological niche. We demonstrate and discuss differences between methods by applying them to time series of three phytoplankton species from the Helgoland Roads long‐term data set: Ceratium fusus, Odontella regia , and Paralia sulcata .