The introduced Hawaiian avifauna reconsidered: Evidence for self-organized criticality?

Keitt T.H.; Marquet, P.A.,

Keywords: dynamics, evolution, competition, population, biodiversity, bird, states, ecosystem, article, priority, nonhuman, journal, united

Abstract

Over the last century, many bird species have been introduced into the Hawaiian islands. The data indicate a scenario in which island communities build up to a critical number of species, above which avalanches of extinction occur. Plotting the distribution of extinction event sizes approximates a power-law in accordance with the notion of a self-organized critical system. The lengths of time between introduction and extinction for different species also exhibit power-law scaling. These results suggest that ecological communities are not characterized by a well defined equilibrium, but rather by a detailed balance which is minimally stable to perturbations such that the introduction of species can trigger extinction cascades.

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Título de la Revista: JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY
Volumen: 182
Número: 2
Editorial: ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
Fecha de publicación: 1996
Página de inicio: 161
Página final: 167
URL: http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-0030596913&partnerID=q2rCbXpz