Why species are rather scarce then abundant. The distribution of species abundances has been traditionally considered to by lognormal, generated by some random multiplicate process, comprising for instance unequal random division of resources among species. However, we have shown hat the lognormal distribution cannot universally apply across spatial scales. Moreover, the observed shape of the distribution at particular spatial scale can be attributed to the process of splicing from the distribution occurring at smaller scales, given that there is spatial turnover in species composition between neighbouring plots, and that species abundances are spatially autocorrelated. The distribution of species population sizes thus results from the fact that landscape is heterogenous and there are limits of population dispersal.