Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Ecology

Volume

87

Publisher

Ecological Society of America

Publication Date

2006

First Page

2121

Last Page

2125

Abstract

Null models have had a long and contentious history in community ecology (Connor and Simberloff 1979, Harvey et al. 1983, Gotelli and Graves 1996, Graves and Rahbek 2005). Much of this debate has arisen because multiple strategies for null models can be used to address a particular question of interest, and the present exchange is no exception. To assess constancy in species richness through time in a desert rodent community, Nichols et al. (2006) have proposed a Markov Chain model as an alternative to the random-walk model we developed (Goheen et al. 2005). While both null models simulate stochastic local extinction and colonization of species from a regional pool, our objectives differ substantially from those of Nichols et al. in ways that influence the choice of models and interpretation of results.

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