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Science 16 September 1988:
Vol. 241. no. 4872, pp. 1441 - 1449
DOI: 10.1126/science.241.4872.1441
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Articles

How Many Species Are There on Earth?

ROBERT M. MAY 1

1 Department of Zoology, Oxford University, Oxford, OX1 3PS, England.

This article surveys current answers to the factual question posed in the title and reviews the kinds of information that are needed to make these answers more precise. Various factors affecting diversity are also reviewed. These include the structure of food webs, the relative abundance of species, the number of species and of individuals in different categories of body size, along with other determinants of the commonness and rarity of organisms.


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