Figure 1 | Scientific Reports

Figure 1

From: Dispersal ability determines the scaling properties of species abundance distributions: a case study using arthropods from the Azores

Figure 1

The SADs as a function of sample size obtained with computer simulations: (a) high dispersal ability and (b) low dispersal ability. In the computer simulations each individual occupied a cell in a landscape modelled as a matrix of 1024 × 1024 elements. Thus sample size (the numbers in the right side of the figure) can be interpreted as the number of individuals or area size (e.g., “162” means a sample of 16 × 16 elements (or individuals, or size) of the landscape. Except for the largest size (10242) each curve is the average obtained from all samples with the same size. Each sample is a set of adjacent points in a matrix forming a square. The x-axis corresponds to classes of the logarithm of the number of individuals as follows: 1 individual, 2 to 3 individuals, 4 to 7 individuals, et seq. Plot (c) shows the skewness of the high (red) and low (black) dispersal ability distributions as a function of sample size.

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