Neutral theory, in which species do not interact, has been used to try to understand the relative species abundance of tropical forests, although its validity been questioned. A non-interacting theory with similarities and differences to conventional neutral theory is developed. The approach provides a unified and quantitatively accurate description of relative species abundance data from both tropical forests and coral reefs.
- Igor Volkov
- Jayanth R. Banavar
- Amos Maritan
