Question : Describe species area relationships.

1.	Question : Describe species area relationships.
Answer» Solution :The great German naturalist and geographer Alexander Von Humboldt during his pioneering and extensive explorations in the wilderness of South American jungles observed that within a region species richness increased with increasing explored area but only up to a limit. In fact the relation between species richness and area for a wide VARIETY of taxa [angiosperm plants, BIRDS, bats, fresh water fishes] turns out to be a rectangular hyperbola. On a logarithmic scale, the relationship is a straight line described by the equation `log S = log C+Z log A` Where S=Species richness V = Area Z = Slope of the line [regression co-efficient] C = Y-intercept Ecologists have discovered that the value of Z lines in the range of 0.1 to 0.2, regardless of the taxomomic GROUP or the region [whether it is the plants in Britain, birds in California or molluscs in New York state, the slopes of the regression line are amazingly similar.] But if we analyse the species area relationship among very LARGE areas like the entire continents we will find that the slope of the line to be much steeper [Z values in the range of 0.6 to 1.2.] For example for frugivorous [fruit eating] birds and mammals in the tropical forests of different continents, the slope is found to be 1.15.

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