The multiple forms of the interspecific abundance-distribution relationship

Within a taxonomic assemblage, locally abundant species tend to be widespread and locally rare species lend to be restricted in their distribution. Although frequently treated en masse, the data sets on which studies of interspecific abundance-distribution relationships have been based differ enormously in the scales and forms of measurements of both abundance and distribution. It may thus be misleading to talk of the abundance-distribution relationship, for there appear to be a number of such relationships, albeit they are inter-related. In this paper the form of this variation and its significance are examined.