The unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography is a theory and the title of a monograph by ecologist Stephen Hubbell.

The theory aims to explain the diversity and relative abundance of species in ecological communities, although like other neutral theories of ecology, Hubbell's theory assumes that the differences between members of an ecological community of trophically similar species are "neutral," or irrelevant to their success.

Despite contradicting the principle of "survival of the fittest", the theory has been applied successfully to many groups of species, including forest tree species, bacterial populations, moths, British birds, and vascular plants..

For more information about the topic Unified neutral theory of biodiversity, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:

R/K selection theory in ecology — In ecology, r/K selection theory relates to the selection of traits (in organisms) that allow success in particular environments. In unstable or ...  > read more

Trophic level — In ecology, the trophic level is the position that an organism occupies in a food chain - what it eats, and what eats it. Wildlife biologists look at ...  > read more

Ecological niche — In ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in an ecosystem. More formally, the niche includes how a ...  > read more

Ecological succession — Ecological succession, a fundamental concept in ecology, refers to more-or-less predictable and orderly changes in the composition or structure of an ...  > read more

Related Stories

Species Take Care Of Each Other In Ecological Communities (December 1, 2005) — Unspoken rules of existence in tropical rain forests mean no one species will take up too much space and squeeze others out, says new research conducted in part at the University of Alberta that ...  > read more

Why Do So Many Species Live In Tropical Forests And Coral Reefs? (November 6, 2007) — There is a new development in a major debate over a controversial hypothesis of biodiversity and species abundance. Ecologists are reporting good agreement between the species richness of two of the ...  > read more

Where Is The World's Greatest Biodiversity? Smithsonian Scientists Find The Answer Is A Question Of Scale (January 25, 2002) — Amazonia represents the quintessence of biodiversity – the richest ecosystem on earth. Yet a study by Smithsonian scientists, published this week in the journal Science, shows that differences ...  > read more

Ancient Pollen Yields Insight Into Forest Biodiversity (June 5, 2003) — By analyzing data on tree pollen extracted from ancient lake sediments, ecologists have sharpened the understanding of how forests can maintain a diversity of species. Their findings indicate that ...  > read more

Study Of Tropical Forests Overturns Important Theory In Ecology -- Finding May Cast Doubt On Some Conservation Methods (February 3, 1999) — A painstaking effort to track every square inch of plant life in large patches of tropical forests has started to produce significant discoveries in ecology. Princeton professor of ecology and ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily

Name That Species