The local interspecific abundance - body weight relationship of ground beetles : a counterexample to the common pattern

The interspecific abundance - body weight relationship (AWR) is generally believed to follow a power function with a negative slope. Here we report on the AWR of two local assemblages of ground beetles in northern Poland spanning more than three orders of magnitude in body weight. Both assemblages showed significant positive AWR slopes in raw and grouped data plots even after controlling for phylogenetic and sampling effects. We conclude that ground beetles might be an exception from the overall AWR pattern.