Figure 2.10.

Figure 2.10. Possible structures of functional redundancy or overlap of species. Cases 1 and 5 represent the extremes of view currently being discussed (Lawton and Brown 1993). These are affectionately called the completely redundant and popped rivet hypotheses, respectively. Other intermediate structures are also possible. Determining the actual structures are also possible. Determining the actual structure will yield important insights as to how we define meaningful functional groupings of species.