Question

What is the significance of the slope regression in a species-area relationship?

Answer 1

The species richness of an area is predicted by the slope of regression in the species-area relationship. The species-area relationship indicates the dependency of species richness on the area of higher slope imitates the higher dependency of the area.

Complete answer: The species-area relationship was given by German naturalist Alexander Von Humbolt who was a great German naturalist. He observed the relationship of the species-area while he was doing his research in the jungles of South America. The species-area relationship is used to determine a curve that describes the relationship between the area of habitat and the number of species that are present in that given area; the larger the area, the larger will be the number of species present. Alexander Von Humbolt used the logarithmic scale relationship where the mathematical functions he used were the characteristic of the species-area relationship which changes with the different ranges of area, as the difference is seen in the species of area and functions which attribute to the sampling of the methodologies and the ecological and geographical process.

Note: The slope of regression is termed as Z, which has a great significance in the order to find the species-area relationship. The smaller areas where the species-area relation is already analyzed has found that the slopes of regression are similar in value regardless of the taxonomic group or the region. In larger areas, the slope of regression (Z) is quite steeper.