Journal ArticleDOI
Niche breadth predicts geographical range size: a general ecological pattern.
TLDR
Despite significant variability in the strength of the relationship among studies, the general positive relationship suggests that specialist species might be disproportionately vulnerable to habitat loss and climate change due to synergistic effects of a narrow niche and small range size.Abstract:
The range of resources that a species uses (i.e. its niche breadth) might determine the geographical area it can occupy, but consensus on whether a niche breadth–range size relationship generally exists among species has been slow to emerge. The validity of this hypothesis is a key question in ecology in that it proposes a mechanism for commonness and rarity, and if true, may help predict species' vulnerability to extinction. We identified 64 studies that measured niche breadth and range size, and we used a meta-analytic approach to test for the presence of a niche breadth–range size relationship. We found a significant positive relationship between range size and environmental tolerance breadth (z = 0.49), habitat breadth (z = 0.45), and diet breadth (z = 0.28). The overall positive effect persisted even when incorporating sampling effects. Despite significant variability in the strength of the relationship among studies, the general positive relationship suggests that specialist species might be disproportionately vulnerable to habitat loss and climate change due to synergistic effects of a narrow niche and small range size. An understanding of the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that drive and cause deviations from this niche breadth–range size pattern is an important future research goal.read more
Citations
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The measure of success: geographic isolation promotes diversification in Pachydactylus geckos
TL;DR: The results are consistent with a model in which lineages more likely to become geographically isolated diversify to a greater extent, although some patterns also resemble those expected of an adaptive radiation in which ecological divergence acts as a driver of speciation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Temperature responses of photosynthesis and respiration in evergreen trees from boreal to tropical latitudes
TL;DR: In this article , the responses of photosynthesis and respiration to warming in 101 evergreen species from boreal to tropical biomes were reviewed and analyzed, and the combination of more constrained acclimation of photosynthetic and increasing respiration rates with warming could possibly result in a reduced carbon sink in future warmer climates.
Journal ArticleDOI
Predicting occupancy and abundance by niche position, niche breadth and body size in stream organisms.
Mariana Perez Rocha,Luis Mauricio Bini,Tadeu Siqueira,Jan Hjort,Mira Grönroos,Marja Lindholm,Satu Maaria Karjalainen,Jani Heino +7 more
TL;DR: A positive occupancy–abundance relationship is found in both diatoms and insects, and it is found that niche-based variables were the main predictors of variation in regional occupancy and local abundance.
Journal ArticleDOI
Vascular plant endemism in the Western Carpathians: spatial patterns, environmental correlates and taxon traits
Patrik Mráz,Dušan Barabas,Lucia Lengyelová,Peter Turis,András Schmotzer,Monika Janišová,Michał Ronikier +6 more
TL;DR: A strong positive correlation between the distribution range of endemic taxa and altitudinal and niche breadths and the best linear model explained almost 75% of endemic richness patterns, and included maximal altitude and its interactions with the proportion of calcareous areas and total area of OGUs as the best predictors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Identifying the paths leading to variation in geographical range size in western North American monkeyflowers
TL;DR: This is the first study to show that climatic niche breadth, via its effects on the amount of climatically suitable habitat, is a strong predictor of geographical range size, thereby improving the understanding of the mechanisms driving species rarity.
References
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