Occupational Relationship Research Articles

Demographic and clinical profile of patients with brain metastases: A retrospective study

Context:Brain metastases are the most common type of intracranial neoplasm, with the total number outnumbering primary brain tumors by a ratio of 10:1 and occur in about 25% of cancer patients. However, controversies exist regarding demographic and clinical profile of brain metastases.Aims:The purpose of this study was to analyze retrospectively the demographic and clinical profile of patients with brain metastases.Settings and Design:Retrospective, single institutional study.Materials and Methods:A retrospective study of 72 patients with brain metastasis was carried out from November 2010 to October 2012. The data pertaining to these patients was entered in a standardized case record form. These include History; clinical examination and other investigations including computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging scan of the brain.Statistical Analysis:A statistical analysis was performed on the data collected using the MedCalc version 11.Results:Brain metastases were more common in male and occur in 6th decade of life mostly. There was no relationship of occupation or socio-economic status with the incidence of brain metastases. Carcinoma lung was the most common primary giving rise to brain metastases followed by breast. Adenocarcinoma accounts for most common histology of the primary that give rise to metastases. Multiple metastases were more common than the single group. Supratentorial lesions were more common than infratentorial lesions. Among them, parietal lobe was the most common site of involvement.Conclusions:The present study highlights that the incidence of brain metastasis is common in elderly population and mostly due to primary lung. Adenocarcinoma was the most common histology of primary. Majority of lesions has been observed at parietal lobe.

A closer look at the species behind abundance–occupancy relationships

AbstractGuedo & Lamb (), in this issue of the Journal of Vegetation Science, used a 35‐yr data series from two prairie communities to show that abundance–occupancy relationships change over time. Scrutinizing the details behind this finding, they show that species groups follow different trajectories during succession after disturbance. These results will inspire further species‐level studies unraveling mechanisms behind abundance–occupancy relationships.

Occupational engagement as a constraint on restoration during leisure time in forest settings

Abundant evidence affirms that contact with nature can promote physical and mental health, but the relationship appears to be contingent on multiple factors. We address the possibility that having paid work related to a natural environment constrains the psychological restoration that can be realized in such environments. Using data from a cross-sectional survey administered to a national probability sample of Swiss adults (N=1678), we tested a multiple-mediator regression model in which having an occupational relationship to forests is assumed to affect the degree to which a person reports experiencing restoration with visits to forests, as mediated by experiences of being away and fascination and by familiarity with the forest. The results indicate that having a forest profession was associated with greater familiarity, which was in turn associated with greater reported restoration. At the same time, however, this positive indirect association was more than offset by a lower sense of being away during forest visits, which was itself a positive predictor of reported restoration. Fascination did predict reported restoration, but it was not associated with forest profession. The pattern of associations held after adjustment for different characteristics, like age, gender, level of employment, and intensity of forest visitation. The results illustrate that the restorative value of nature experience is contingent on occupational engagement with the natural environment, and they indicate some pathways through which occupational engagement can affect restoration. Landscape professionals can use these results to articulate more nuanced arguments regarding access to natural environments for restoration purposes.

Integration of non-indigenous species within the interspecific abundance–occupancy relationship

There is a broad consensus that habitat disturbance and introduction of non-indigenous species may dramatically modify community structure, particularly in insular ecosystems. However, it is less clear whether emergent macroecological patterns are similarly affected. The positive interspecific abundance–occupancy relationship (IAOR) is one of the most pervasive macroecological patterns, yet has rarely been analyzed for oceanic island assemblages. We use an extensive dataset for arthropods from six islands within the Azorean archipelago to test: (1) whether indigenous and non-indigenous species are distributed differently within the IAOR; and (2) to the extent that they are, can differences can be attributed to two indices of disturbance. We implemented modeling averaged methods using five of the most common IAOR models to derive an averaged IAOR fit for each island. After testing if species colonization status (indigenous versus non-indigenous) may explain the residuals of the IAOR, we identified true negative and positive outliers and tested the effect of colonization status on the likelihood of a species being a positive or negative outlier. We found that the indigenous and non-indigenous species are randomly distributed on both sides of the overall IAOR. Only for Flores Island, were non-indigenous species more aggregated than indigenous species. We were unable to detect a meaningful relationship between deviation from the IAOR and disturbance, despite the undoubted impact of both severe habitat loss and non-indigenous species on these oceanic islands. Our results show that the non-indigenous species have been integrated alongside indigenous species in the contemporary Azorean arthropod communities such that they are mostly undetectable by the study of the IAOR.

Non linear mixed effects analysis in PET PK-receptor occupancy studies

The characterisation of a pharmacokinetic-receptor occupancy (PK-RO) relationship derived from a PET study is typically modelled in a conventional non-linear least squares (NLLS) framework. In the present work, we explore the application of a non-linear mixed effects approach (NLME) and compare this with NLLS estimation (using both naive pooled data and two-stage approaches) in the context of a direct PK-RO relationship described by an Emax model, using simulated data sets. Target and reference tissue time-activity curves were simulated using a two-tissue compartmental model and an arterial plasma input function for a typical PET study (12 subjects in 3 dose groups with 3 scans each). A range of different PET scenarios was considered to evaluate the impact of between-subject variability and reference region availability. The PET outcome measures derived from the simulations were then used to estimate the parameters of the PK-RO model. The performance of the two approaches was compared in terms of parameters estimates (square mean error SME, root mean square error RMSE) and prediction of the exposure-occupancy relationship. In general, both NLME and NLLS estimation methods provided unbiassed and precise population estimates for the Emax model parameters, although a slight bias was observed for the individual-NLLS method due to a few outliers. The increased value of NLME over NLLS was most notable in the estimation of the between-subject variability (BSV), especially in the case of a more complex PK-RO model when no reference region was available (maximum SME and RMSE values related to BSV of EC₅₀ of 27.6% and 86.5% from NLME versus 264.6% and 689.5% from NLLS). Overall, the NLME approach provided a more robust estimation and produced less-biassed estimates of the population means and variances than either the NLLS approach for the simulations considered.

Oligarchies in Amazonian tree communities: a ten‐year review

This paper revisits various hypotheses about oligarchic patterns in Amazonian tree communities put forward by Pitman et al. (2001). Together, these hypotheses predict that most lowland sites in the Amazon are located within large patches of relatively homogeneous edaphic and other environmental conditions, where an oligarchy of common, frequent tree species accounts for a majority of trees. To assess the degree to which these hypotheses have been corroborated or refuted over the last ten years, we reviewed > 200 studies published since 2001. We found overwhelming support for the hypo thesis that large‐scale oligarchies of common and frequent species are a common feature of Amazonian tree communities. At least 22 studies have documented oligarchies in Amazonian woody plant communities to date, and no studies have looked for oligarchies as defined by Pitman et al. (2001) and failed to find them. We argue that six publications that offer critiques of the oligarchy hypothesis do not constitute valid tests. The other hypotheses in Pitman et al. (2001)– one regarding the specific oligarchic taxa that dominate forests near the eastern base of the Andes and one that attempts to explain why oligarchic species exist – are less well supported by the literature, in large part because they have not been subjected to many tests. We discuss links between these hypotheses and other well‐known patterns and hypotheses in ecology (the abundance–occupancy relationship, the Janzen–Connell hypothesis, the niche‐environment hypothesis, and the niche breadth hypothesis), and provide additional detail to facilitate rigorous tests in the future. The paper concludes by presenting remote sensing evidence that large patches of relatively homogeneous environmental conditions account for most of the upland forest landscape across Amazonian Peru.

Disentangling the effects of dispersal and salinity on beta diversity in estuarine benthic invertebrate assemblages

AbstractAimThe identification of sources of beta diversity, the turnover component of diversity, is important to understand the generation of diversity, and thus central to biodiversity and biogeography. We investigated the relative importance of environmental filtering and dispersal‐based factors affecting beta diversity in benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages at different spatial scales in an estuary, and tested the hypothesis that species with a long pelagic larval life are more dispersive and have lower beta diversity than species with direct benthic development.LocationDenmark, the North Sea–Baltic Sea transition area.MethodsAdditive partitioning of alpha diversity computed with multiplicative beta diversity was performed on species abundance of 279 species using 330 samples from 110 sites at four hierarchically arranged spatial scales where the largest scale comprised regions (> 100 km) with different salinity regimes, each subdivided into two sediment habitats. Pairwise beta diversity between sites was examined across environmental gradients and by distance decay functions within areas with more homogeneous environments.ResultsBeta diversity was high among regions and among sites within habitats, but low between habitats. Abundance–occupancy relationships suggested that species with a long pelagic life were more dispersive than species with direct benthic development. Beta between sites in the two dispersal groups changed at the same rate with salinity difference among regions, but showed different rates of geographical distance decay among sites within regions. Average beta diversity and decay rates were higher, and halving distances were shorter for the less dispersive species.Main conclusionsDifferent beta diversity of species groups with different propagule vagility suggest that beta diversity is negatively related to dispersivity. With the environmental filtering factor salinity as the overriding factor at the regional scale (> 100 km), and restrictions on dispersal affecting beta diversity at smaller scales, results show that the relative importance of niche‐based and dispersal‐based factors changes with scale.

Evaluation of [18F]MK-0911, a positron emission tomography (PET) tracer for opioid receptor-like 1 (ORL1), in rhesus monkey and human

Antagonism of the central opioid receptor like-1 receptor (ORL1) has been implicated in cognition, and has been a focus of drug discovery efforts to ameliorate the cognitive deficits that remain during the stable treatment of schizophrenia with current antipsychotics. In order to facilitate dose selection for phase II clinical testing an ORL1-specific PET tracer was developed to determine drug plasma concentration versus occupancy relationships in order to ensure that the doses selected and the degree of target engagement were sufficient to ensure adequate proof of concept testing. MK-0911 is a selective, high affinity antagonist for the ORL1 receptor radiolabeled with high specific activity (18)F for positron emission tomography (PET) studies. Evaluation of [(18)F]MK-0911 in rhesus monkey PET studies showed a pattern of brain uptake which was consistent with the known distribution of ORL1. In vitro autoradiography with [(18)F]MK-0911 in rhesus monkey and human brain tissue slices showed a regional distribution that was consistent with in vivo imaging results in monkey. Pre-treatment of rhesus monkeys with high doses of structurally diverse ORL1 antagonists MK-0584, MK-0337, or MK-5757 achieved blockade of [(18)F]MK-0911 in all gray matter regions. Baseline PET studies with [(18)F]MK-0911 in healthy human subjects showed tracer distribution and kinetics similar to that observed in rhesus monkey. Quantification of [(18)F]MK-0911 uptake in repeat human baseline PET studies showed a test-retest variability in volume of distribution (V(T)) averaging 3% across brain regions. Humans dosed orally with MK-5757 showed reduced [(18)F]MK-0911 tracer concentration in brain proportional with MK-5757 dose and plasma level. [(18)F]MK-0911 was useful for determining MK-5757-induced receptor occupancy of ORL1 to guide MK-5757 dose-selection for clinical proof-of-concept studies. Additionally, [(18)F]MK-0911 may be a useful tool for studying the pharmacology of ORL1 in various human populations and disease states.

Genomic insights of protein arginine methyltransferase Hmt1 binding reveals novel regulatory functions

BackgroundProtein arginine methylation is a post-translational modification involved in important biological processes such as transcription and RNA processing. This modification is catalyzed by both type I and II protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs). One of the most conserved type I PRMTs is PRMT1, the homolog of which is Hmt1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Hmt1 has been shown to play a role in various gene expression steps, such as promoting the dynamics of messenger ribonucleoprotein particle (mRNP) biogenesis, pre-mRNA splicing, and silencing of chromatin. To determine the full extent of Hmt1’s involvement during gene expression, we carried out a genome-wide location analysis for Hmt1.ResultsA comprehensive genome-wide binding profile for Hmt1 was obtained by ChIP-chip using NimbleGen high-resolution tiling microarrays. Of the approximately 1000 Hmt1-binding sites found, the majority fall within or proximal to an ORF. Different occupancy patterns of Hmt1 across genes with different transcriptional rates were found. Interestingly, Hmt1 occupancy is found at a number of other genomic features such as tRNA and snoRNA genes, thereby implicating a regulatory role in the biogenesis of these non-coding RNAs. RNA hybridization analysis shows that Hmt1 loss-of-function mutants display higher steady-state tRNA abundance relative to the wild-type. Co-immunoprecipitation studies demonstrate that Hmt1 interacts with the TFIIIB component Bdp1, suggesting a mechanism for Hmt1 in modulating RNA Pol III transcription to regulate tRNA production.ConclusionsThe genome-wide binding profile of Hmt1 reveals multiple potential new roles for Hmt1 in the control of eukaryotic gene expression, especially in the realm of non-coding RNAs. The data obtained here will provide an important blueprint for future mechanistic studies on the described occupancy relationship for genomic features bound by Hmt1.

Using virtual species to study species distributions and model performance

AbstractSimulations of virtual species (i.e. species for which the environment–occupancy relationships are known) are increasingly being used to test the effects of different aspects of modelling and sampling strategy on performance of species distribution models (SDMs). Here we discuss an important step of the simulation process: the translation of simulated probabilities of occurrence into patterns of presence and absence. Often a threshold strategy is used to generate virtual occurrences, where presence always occurs above a specific simulated probability value and never below. This procedure effectively translates any shape of simulated species response into a threshold one and eliminates any stochasticity from the species occupancy pattern. We argue that a probabilistic approach should be preferred instead because the threshold response can be treated as a particular case within this framework. This also allows one to address questions relating to the shape of functional responses and avoids convergence issues with some of the most commonSDMs. Furthermore, threshold‐based virtual species studies generate over‐optimistic performance measures that lack classification error or incorporate error from a mixture of sampling and modelling choices. Incorrect use of a threshold approach can have significant consequences for the practising biogeographer. For example, low model performance may be interpreted as due to sample bias or poor model choice, rather than being related to fundamental biological responses to environmental gradients. We exemplify these shortcomings with a case study where we compare results from threshold and probabilistic simulation approaches.

Temporal changes in abundance–occupancy relationships within and between communities after disturbance

AbstractQuestionsA positive relationship between abundance and occupancy of species (AOR) is commonly observed in ecological communities, but the mechanisms driving this pattern are elusive. Succession after disturbance is an important factor structuring many plant communities, yet little is known about how and if this may shape AORs, and if AORs change over time within and between plant communities. Do AORs change through time as a plant community recovers from disturbance? Do patterns in AOR differ between plant communities?LocationPrince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada.MethodsChanges in AOR were evaluated through time following prescribed burning of fescue grassland and adjacent forest transition plant communities invaded by Populus tremuloides Michx. using a 35‐yr data set. Species presence data were used as a frequency measure of abundance and mean species cover was used as a relative measure for abundance. Species data used for the abundance and occupancy measures were collected in permanent sampling plots prior to burning in 1975, and after burning in 1983, 1995 and 2010.ResultsChanges in grassland AORs based on the frequency were shown through time since disturbance, as an increase in abundance relative to occupancy occurred in 1983 and 2010. There was no significant change in grassland AORs when the relative abundance data were used. The forest transition AOR based on frequency showed the 1983 post‐burn AOR had lower abundance relative to occupancy, while the relative abundance measure showed the pre‐burn 1975 AOR had lower abundance relative to occupancy. The removal of litter, changes in soil resources and increase in trembling aspen suckering after fire may have caused changes to plant community structure after burning, explaining differing AOR patterns in the grassland and forest transition plant communities.ConclusionsAlthough exact mechanisms behind the observed changes in AOR are hard to determine, the phenomenon of change within and between communities over time since disturbance has not previously been documented. The observed differences in AOR between frequency and relative abundance indicate that measures of abundance should be chosen cautiously. Post‐disturbance succession should be considered as a mechanism influencing AORs in communities impacted by disturbance.

Attachment, Occupation, and Identity: Considerations in Infancy

This paper discusses the relationship of attachment, attachment behavior, occupation, and co-occupation in early childhood development. It explores the inextricable relationship among these concepts and the agency of the infant in affecting the infant-mother dyadic relationship. The reciprocity of intersubjectivity and its component parts of attunement, joined attention, and joined intention in the infant-mother dyad are discussed in light of the concept of co-occupation. Internal working models, which are the product of attachment, are discussed as a correlate to personal identity which, in turn, is thought of as being shaped by occupation. The importance of a secure attachment and, conversely, the problems with insecure attachment are considered. Relevance to occupational science and future directions for exploration and research are reviewed.

Interpreting outputs of agent-based models using abundance–occupancy relationships

Reliable assessments of how human activities affect wild populations are essential for effective natural resource management. Agent-based models provide a powerful tool for integration of multiple drivers of ecological systems, but selecting and interpreting their output is often challenging. Here, we develop an indicator (the AOR-index) based on the abundance–occupancy relationship to facilitate the interpretation of agent-based model outputs. The AOR-index is based on the distribution of individuals in the landscape translated into the number of individuals in each cell of a regular grid. The proportion of grid cells with at least one individual is used to quantify occupancy and the mean number of individuals in occupied cells is used to quantify abundance. The AOR-index is a two-dimensional index giving the relative change in abundance and occupancy in response to a scenario (e.g. a change in land use or climate). We systematically modify a digital version of a real landscape to produce a set of artificial landscapes differing only in the degree of landscape fragmentation. We test how these different landscapes affect the AOR-index of six model animal species in four different land use scenarios using an agent-based model framework (ALMaSS). Our results suggest that the AOR-index is a sensitive tool to demonstrate how different species respond to particular land-use scenarios. The bird and mammal species generally showed larger responses than the invertebrates and changes in abundance and occupancy were often of different magnitude. The different responses are caused by species-specific habitat requirements and dispersal abilities, but the importance of such life history traits depend on landscape structure. Hence, predictions of species-specific responses to land-use changes in terms of abundance and occupancy are greatly improved by incorporation in a model framework taking spatial and temporal dynamics into account. The AOR-index facilitates the evaluation of multiple scenarios and allows for multi-species assessments. Its use, however, still requires identified management goals in order to evaluate scenario responses.

What is considered important for life balance? Similarities and differences among some working adults

Life balance seems subjective, health related, and multidimensional. However, the concept is complex. Exploring what people themselves consider more or less important for their life balance and whether this differs between people would develop new knowledge. Q methodology was chosen for the present study, in which 32 working men and women without recent long-term sick leave participated. They sorted 42 statements regarding life balance according to their importance for each participant's life balance. The analysis resulted in four different viewpoints concerning life balance. All four viewpoints considered good relationships with those closest to them, as well as knowing that these people were doing well, as important. Each viewpoint also showed a unique orientation towards what was considered important for life balance: occupational balance (viewpoint 1), self-actualization (viewpoint 2), self-awareness (viewpoint 3), and reciprocal relationships (viewpoint 4). The results. showed support for life balance as being a subjective, multidimensional, and health-related phenomenon. The results demonstrated the importance of relationships for life balance and heterogeneity in what people considered important for their own life balance.

Characterizing abundance–occupancy relationships: there is no artefact

ABSTRACTPositive abundance–occupancy relationships (AORs) are among the most general macroecological patterns: locally common species are regionally widespread, locally rare species are regionally restricted. In a recent contribution, Wilson (Global Ecology and Biogeography, 2011, 20, 193–202) made three claims: (1) that AORs are critically dependent on the method used to calculate average abundance; (2) averaging abundance over occupied sites tends to lead to a very high incidence of negative relationships; (3) this represents a statistical artefact that should be considered in studies of AORs. Here we show that this outcome arises in Wilson's simulations purely due to an arbitrary choice of occupancy models and parameter ranges. The resulting negative relationships are not statistical artefacts, but are easily interpreted in terms of spatial aggregation in abundant species. The fact that empirical evidence fails to support a high prevalence of negative AORs suggests, however, that such parameter combinations arise only rarely in nature. We conclude that simulations that are based on untested assumptions, and that produce patterns unsupported by empirical evidence, have limited use in characterizing AORs, and add little to understanding of the processes driving important relationships between local population size and regional occupancy.

Predicting Brain Occupancy from Plasma Levels using PET: Superiority of Combining Pharmacokinetics with Pharmacodynamics while Modeling the Relationship

Positron emission tomography (PET) studies of dopamine receptor occupancy can be used to assess dosing of antipsychotics. Typically, studies of antipsychotics have applied pharmacodynamic (PD) modeling alone to characterize the relationship between antipsychotic dose and its effect on the brain. However, a limitation of this approach is that it does not account for the discrepancy between the time courses of plasma concentration and receptor occupancy by antipsychotics. Combined pharmacokinetic-PD (PK-PD) modeling, by incorporating the time dependence of occupancy, is better suited for the reliable analysis of the concentration-occupancy relationship. To determine the effect of time on the concentration-occupancy relationship as a function of analysis approach, we measured dopamine receptor occupancy after the administration of aripiprazole using [(11)C]raclopride PET and obtained serial measurements of the plasma aripiprazole concentration in 18 volunteers. We then developed a PK-PD model for the relationship, and compared it with conventional approach (PD modeling alone). The hysteresis characteristics were observed in the competitor concentration-occupancy relationship and the value of EC(50) was different according to the analysis approach (EC(50) derived from PD modeling alone=11.1 ng/mL (95% confidence interval (CI)=10.1 to 12.1); while that derived from combined PK-PD modeling=8.63 ng/mL (95% CI=7.75 to 9.51)). This finding suggests that PK-PD modeling is required to obtain reliable prediction of brain occupancy by antipsychotics.

Abundance–variance and abundance–occupancy relationships in a marine host–parasite system: The importance of taxonomy and ecology of transmission

Abundance–occupancy and abundance–variance relationships are two of the most general macroecological patterns capturing essential fundamentals of the structuring of species distributions and are widely documented for free-living animal and plant species populations at different spatial scales. However, empirical data for parasites have been gathered using appropriate sampling designs only recently. We performed analyses across species of the variation in infection parameters and patterns of aggregation of the most widespread parasites in the marine sparid fish Boops boops across seven localities of two marine biogeographical regions, the North East Atlantic and the Mediterranean. We used a large dataset of multiple population samples replicated over time for 20 parasite species and carried out assessments both intraspecifically and interspecifically, across taxonomic and ecological groupings. This taxonomically diverse complex of species representing five major metazoan higher taxa with differing transmission ecologies allowed us to assess the effect of taxonomic and ecological determinants on the abundance–occupancy and abundance–variance relationships in the model marine host–parasite system. The results revealed that: (i) a power function, relating spatial variance to mean abundance, represents a suitable model for the spatial distribution of the species; (ii) prevalence, abundance and the degree of spatial heterogeneity are true species characteristics and differ consistently between higher level taxonomic groupings; (iii) infection parameters and abundance–variance relationship are dependent on host specificity and regional distribution patterns of the parasites; and (iv) the observed infection parameters agree well with predictions from the epidemiological negative binomial abundance–occupancy model built on parameters of Taylor’s power law both within and across species.

Biogeography of avian blood parasites (Leucocytozoon spp.) in two resident hosts across Europe: phylogeographic structuring or the abundance–occupancy relationship?

Relationships between hosts and parasites represent complex co-evolving systems that can vary both temporally and spatially. This variation may result in different phylogeographic outcomes, ranging from highly geographically structured parasite populations comprised of specialist lineages that are locally abundant but have restricted global occupancy to geographically unstructured parasite populations consisting of widespread parasites. Here, we present results from a large biogeographic study of the Leucocytozoon blood parasites of two nonmigrant bird species, conducted at nine sites across Europe. The aim was to determine whether the parasite lineages of the two hosts were phylogeographically structured across Europe. Employing molecular methods, we found a large diversity of parasites, and although overall prevalence varied greatly, the parasites were not genetically structured. Several measures of local parasite abundance were associated with the number of sites that the lineage occurred in, which is consistent with the macroecological phenomenon of the abundance-occupancy relationship. Taken together, our results show that parasite dispersal is somewhat uncoupled to that of the host in this system: we suggest that broad host and/or vector preference may play an important role in determining the distribution of these parasites and in affecting host-parasite coevolution in this system.

Positive interspecific relationship between temporal occurrence and abundance in insects.

One of the most studied macroecological patterns is the interspecific abundance–occupancy relationship, which relates species distribution and abundance across space. Interspecific relationships between temporal distribution and abundance, however, remain largely unexplored. Using data for a natural assemblage of tabanid flies measured daily during spring and summer in Nova Scotia, we found that temporal occurrence (proportion of sampling dates in which a species occurred in an experimental trap) was positively related to temporal mean abundance (number of individuals collected for a species during the study period divided by the total number of sampling dates). Moreover, two models that often describe spatial abundance–occupancy relationships well, the He–Gaston and negative binomial models, explained a high amount of the variation in our temporal data. As for the spatial abundance–occupancy relationship, the (temporal) aggregation parameter, k, emerged as an important component of the hereby named interspecific temporal abundance–occurrence relationship. This may be another case in which a macroecological pattern shows similarities across space and time, and it deserves further research because it may improve our ability to forecast colonization dynamics and biological impacts.

The birds and the seas: body size reconciles differences in the abundance–occupancy relationship across marine and terrestrial vertebrates

Despite some fundamental differences in production processes and the ecology of consumer species on land and in the sea, further understanding of pattern and process in both biomes might be gained by applying common methods of macroecological analysis. We develop methods that reconcile apparent differences in abundance and occupancy for marine and terrestrial vertebrates, as exemplified by fish and birds. These recognize and take account of those aspects of the life history and ecology of marine and terrestrial animals that influence their abundance, distribution and trophic role. When abundance and occupancy are averaged within species over time we show that variation within a region is less for birds than fish, but when abundance and occupancy are averaged over space, the difference between birds and fish disappears. Further, we develop size rather than species‐structured abundance–occupancy relationships for fish assemblages and demonstrate that patterns of intra‐size class variation that are very similar to intraspecific variation in bird species, over both time and space. We argue that this result reflects the relative importance of body size and species identity respectively in determining trophic roles in marine and terrestrial environments. Selection of the appropriate analytical unit on land (species) and in the sea (size) helps to reconcile apparently divergent macroecological patterns, especially when these are driven by contrasting patterns of energy acquisition and use.