Abstract
Arising from F. He & S. P. Hubbell Nature 473, 368–371 (2011)10.1038/nature09985.
He and Hubbell developed a sampling theory for the species–area relationship (SAR) and the endemics–area relationship (EAR)1. They argued that the number of extinctions after habitat loss is described by the EAR and that extinction rates in previous studies are overestimates because the EAR is always lower than the SAR. Here we show that their conclusion is not general and depends on the geometry of habitat destruction and the scale of the SAR. We also question their critique of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment estimates, as those estimates are not dependent on the SAR only, although important uncertainties remain due to other methodological issues.
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All authors participated in the discussion of the ideas that resulted in this paper. H.M.P. wrote the paper, L.B.-d.-A. performed the data analysis, and I.S.M. prepared the data sets for analysis.
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Pereira, H., Borda-de-Água, L. & Martins, I. Geometry and scale in species–area relationships. Nature 482, E3–E4 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10857
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10857
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