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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Rescue effect drives local persistence of fish species in the Upper Paraná River floodplain
Rafaela Vendrametto Granzotti,Fernanda A. S. Cassemiro,Angelo Antonio Agostinho,Luis Mauricio Bini +3 more
Journal ArticleDOI
Plant specialisation may limit climate‐induced vegetation change to within topographic and edaphic niches on a sub‐Antarctic island
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors determined the altitudinal ranges of vascular plant species (n = 13) on sub-Antarctic Marion Island and measured air temperature, topographic, foliar and soil properties along transects on geologically distinct substrates.
Journal ArticleDOI
Niche Differentiation at Multiple Spatial Scales on Large and Small Mediterranean Islands for the Endemic Silene velutina Pourr. ex Loisel. (Caryophyllaceae).
Valentina Murru,Emmanuele Farris,Andrea Santo,Oscar Grillo,Carole Piazza,Antonella Gaio,Gianluigi Bacchetta,John D. Thompson +7 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate niche variations in endemic Silene velutina (Caryophyllaceae, Angiosperms) on Mediterranean islands that differ in size.
Journal ArticleDOI
Variation in Host Plant Usage and Diet Breadth Predict Sibling Preference and Performance in the Neotropical Tortoise Beetle Chelymorpha alternans (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae).
TL;DR: How variation in diet breadth and host usage affect oviposition preference, development, survival, and gain in mass of a Neotropical tortoise beetle Chelymorpha alternans Boheman 1854 is characterized.
Journal ArticleDOI
Erratum for Kastman et al., “Biotic Interactions Shape the Ecological Distributions of Staphylococcus Species”
Erik K. Kastman,Noelani Kamelamela,Josh W. Norville,Casey M. Cosetta,Rachel J. Dutton,Benjamin E. Wolfe +5 more
TL;DR: The integrated approach demonstrates that fungi can structure the ecological distributions of closely related bacterial species, and the data highlight the importance of bacterium-fungus interactions in attempts to design and manipulate microbiomes.
References
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