Topography, energy and the global distribution of bird species richness
Journal
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Journal Volume
274
Journal Issue
1614
Pages
1189-1197
Date Issued
2007
Author(s)
Abstract
A major goal of ecology is to determine the causes of the latitudinal gradient in global distribution of species richness. Current evidence points to either energy availability or habitat heterogeneity as the most likely environmental drivers in terrestrial systems, but their relative importance is controversial in the absence of analyses of global (rather than continental or regional) extent. Here we use data on the global distribution of extant continental and continental island bird species to test the explanatory power of energy availability and habitat heterogeneity while simultaneously addressing issues of spatial resolution, spatial autocorrelation, geometric constraints upon species' range dynamics, and the impact of human populations and historical glacial ice-cover. At the finest resolution (1°), topographical variability and temperature are identified as the most important global predictors of avian species richness in multipredictor models. Topographical variability is most important in single-predictor models, followed by productive energy. Adjusting for null expectations based on geometric constraints on species richness improves overall model fit but has negligible impact on tests of environmental predictors. Conclusions concerning the relative importance of environmental predictors of species richness cannot be extrapolated from one biogeographic realm to others or the globe. Rather a global perspective confirms the primary importance of mountain ranges in high-energy areas. © 2007 The Royal Society.
Subjects
Geometric constraints; Global biodiversity; Habitat heterogeneity; Species richness; Species-energy theory; Topography
SDGs
Other Subjects
autocorrelation; biodiversity; biogeography; bird; global perspective; heterogeneity; latitudinal gradient; species richness; topography; article; biodiversity; biogeography; bird; continental shelf; ecology; energy; environmental change; geographic distribution; glacier; habitat; land biome; latitude; mathematical analysis; nonhuman; prediction; predictor variable; priority journal; spatial autocorrelation analysis; species richness; temperature dependence; topography; Aves
Type
journal article