The prevalence of species-habitat association is not adequate for justifying the niche differentiation hypothesis.

The hypothesis of niche differentiation with respect to resources is considered to be one of the most influential explanations for the maintenance of species diversity. The hypothesis has been examined extensively by testing its prediction of species-habitat association, which posits that the spatial distribution of species is highly correlated with environmental vari ables. However, we argue that widespread evidence of the species-habitat association lacks adequate rigor to justify the niche differentiation hypothesis. In this study, we tested whether and to what extent the observed species-habitat association could be caused by ecological processes other than niche differentiation, in a 20-ha subtropical forest plot.

资源维度下的生态位分化假说，被视为阐释物种多样性维持机制的最具影响力的理论之一。该假说已通过检验其物种-生境关联预测得到广泛研究——这一预测指出，物种的空间分布与环境变量高度相关。然而，本研究认为，当前已有的物种-生境关联相关证据，其严谨性尚不足以支撑生态位分化假说。本研究依托一块20公顷的亚热带森林样地，检验了观测到的物种-生境关联是否、以及在多大程度上可由生态位分化之外的其他生态过程所导致。