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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Journal ArticleDOI
Habitat area and climate stability determine geographical variation in plant species range sizes
Naia Morueta-Holme,Brian J. Enquist,Brian J. Enquist,Brian J. McGill,Brad Boyle,Peter M. Jørgensen,Jeffrey E. Ott,Robert K. Peet,Irena Šímová,Lindsey L. Sloat,Barbara M. Thiers,Cyrille Violle,Susan K. Wiser,Steven B. Dolins,John C. Donoghue,Nathan J. B. Kraft,Jim Regetz,Mark Schildhauer,Nick Spencer,Jens-Christian Svenning +19 more
TL;DR: It is found that plant range sizes are codetermined by habitat area and long- and short-term climate stability, and the joint roles of area and climate stability strengthen concerns over the potential effects of future climate change and habitat loss on biodiversity.
Journal ArticleDOI
Correlates of extinction risk in squamate reptiles: the relative importance of biology, geography, threat and range size
Monika Böhm,Rhiannon Williams,Rhiannon Williams,Huw R. Bramhall,Huw R. Bramhall,Kirsten M. McMillan,Kirsten M. McMillan,Ana D. Davidson,Ana D. Davidson,Andrés García,Lucie M. Bland,Jon Bielby,Ben Collen +12 more
TL;DR: Range size was the most important predictor of extinction risk, reflecting the high frequency of reptiles assessed under range-based IUCN criteria, and squamate reptiles that are range-restricted habitat specialists living in areas highly accessible to humans are likely to become extinct first.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Multidimensional Nutritional Niche.
TL;DR: In this article, nutritional geometry is used to integrate nutrition with food-level approaches to the dietary niche and illustrate the application of this framework in the important context of invasion biology, using an example that involves a model with four hypothetical nonexclusive scenarios.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ecological generalism and behavioural innovation in birds: technical intelligence or the simple incorporation of new foods?
TL;DR: The results provide new insights into the nature of the generalists' advantage in the face of environmental changes, and suggest that dietary and habitat generalism are different, but convergent, routes to feeding flexibility and adaptation to changed environments.
Journal ArticleDOI
The erosion of biodiversity and biomass in the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot.
Renato A. F. de Lima,Renato A. F. de Lima,Alexandre Adalardo de Oliveira,Gregory R. Pitta,André Luís de Gasper,Alexander Christian Vibrans,Jérôme Chave,Hans ter Steege,Hans ter Steege,Paulo Inácio Prado +9 more
TL;DR: An unprecedented dataset of 1819 field surveys covering the entire Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot is used, showing that biomass erosion across the Atlantic Forest remnants is equivalent to the loss of 55−70 thousand km2 of forests or US$2.3−2.6 billion in carbon credits.
References
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