 One application of Dq versus Q in ecology is characterizing the distribution of species.Traditionally the relative species abundances is calculated for an area without taking into account the locations of the individuals.An equivalent representation of relative species abundances are species ranks, used to generate a surface called the species-rank surface, which can be analyzed using generalized dimensions to detect different ecological mechanisms like the ones observed in the neutral theory of biodiversity, metacommunity dynamics, or niche theory.