Relationship between evenness and body size in species rich assemblages

Evenness is a key measure of community structure. Here, we examine the relationship between evenness and size–abundance distributions for both individuals and species using data gathered from Amazonian fish assemblages. We show that evenness increases as the fraction of numerically abundant species in larger body-size classes rises. As any processes that enable larger bodied species to increase their numerical dominance will influence evenness, these results help explain why evenness is an important correlate of ecosystem function.