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Science 22 September 2006:
Vol. 313. no. 5794, p. 1739
DOI: 10.1126/science.1129133
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Technical Comments

Response to Comments on "A Keystone Mutualism Drives Pattern in a Power Function"

John Vandermeer1,2* and Ivette Perfecto2

The comments by Alonso and Pascual and by Pueyo and Jovani clarify the power law distribution of subpopulations of the scale insect Coccus viridis. The low density deviations are now seen as part of a negative binomial distribution and the high density deviations as resulting from a change in the parameters of the power law. Our biological conclusion that an ant mutualism modifies the form of the power law is thus strengthened.

1 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
2 School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jvander{at}umich.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)