Abundance/Biomass Comparison Method

by

Walter H. Smith

• LAST MODIFIED: 19 February 2025
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199830060-0257

Introduction

Detecting signatures of disturbance in ecological communities has long been a challenge for ecologists, particularly for complex communities composed of many species. Individual species’ responses to disturbance are often variable, while many forms of disturbance may not be visually apparent in some ecosystems. Other disturbances may also produce ecological legacies whose signatures may persist in organismal assemblages long after a disturbance event has passed. In spite of this variability, researchers have acknowledged that many disturbed communities are dominated by small-bodied taxa that contribute disproportionately to overall community abundance. By contrast, undisturbed communities are often dominated by large-bodied species that are less abundant but contribute disproportionately to overall community biomass. The abundance/biomass comparison (ABC) method provides an analytical framework for examining species’ dominance in terms of abundance and biomass in a community, allowing researchers to use an organismal assemblage to quantify the amount of perturbation in a habitat or sample of interest. Specifically, the method provides researchers with a potential snapshot of the ecological condition of a species assemblage made without reliance on a series of control samples collected across time and space. This article will examine the historical foundations of the ABC method, detail its general theoretical principles and analytical techniques, and explore its applications and critiques across a variety of ecosystem types and taxa.

General Overviews

A contemporary review of the abundance/biomass comparison (ABC) method in a stand-alone journal article has yet to be produced, with most sources instead focusing on the development of specific analytical components of the method, critiques of the method, or applications of the method to particular ecosystems or disturbance types. However, Warwick 2008 provides a comprehensive summary of the theoretical underpinnings of the approach as a textbook chapter. Warwick 1993 additionally features the ABC method as a component of a review article on measuring environmental impacts in marine communities, with the method also summarized alongside a variety of other biodiversity metrics in Magurran 2004, a text on measuring biological diversity.

• Magurran, A. E. 2004. Measuring biological diversity. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

  Comprehensive text discussing the measurement of biological diversity, including species richness estimators, abundance distributions, and biodiversity indices.

• Warwick, R. M. 1993. Environmental impact studies on marine communities: Pragmatical considerations. Australian Journal of Ecology 18:63–80.

  DOI: 10.1111/j.1442-9993.1993.tb00435.x

  Review article summarizing a variety of approaches to detecting and quantifying signals of ecological disturbance in marine communities, as well as associated metrics and analytical techniques.

• Warwick, R. M. 2008. Abundance biomass comparison method. In Encyclopedia of ecology. Edited by B. D. Fath and S. E. Jorgensen, 11–15. Oxford: Elsevier.

  DOI: 10.1016/B978-008045405-4.00084-7

  Textbook chapter providing an overview of the abundance/biomass comparison method, applications of the technique, and a discussion of problems and limitations surrounding the methodology.