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Science 23 November 1990:
Vol. 250. no. 4984, pp. 1125 - 1127
DOI: 10.1126/science.250.4984.1125
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Articles

Scaling Population Density to Body Size in Rocky Intertidal Communities

Pablo A. Marquet 1, Sergio A. Navarrete 1, and Juan C. Castilla 1

1 Departmento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile

Interspecific comparisons of animal population density to body size has been the subject of active research in the last decade, especially for terrestrial animals when considering particular taxa or taxonomic assemblages. Studies of rocky intertidal communities showed that animal population density scales with body size to the -0.77 power. This relation held within local communities representing a broad array of animal taxa and was not affected by a dramatic alteration in the network of between-species interactions, as revealed by two long-term human exclusion experiments.


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