| We examined patterns of commonness and rarity among plant species in montane wet grasslands of Iberia. This examination is set within two contexts. First, we expanded on an earlier scheme for classifying species as common or rare by adding a fourth criterion, the ability of that species to occupy a larger or smaller fraction of its potential suitable habitats, i.e., habitat occupancy. Second, we explicated two theories, the superior organism theory and the generalist/specialist trade-off theory. The data consisted of 232 species distributed among 92 plots. The species were measured for mean local abundance, size of environmental volume occupied, percentage of volume occupied, range within Iberia, and range in Europe and the Mediterranean basin. In general,... |
