Geographic Range Size and Determinants of Avian Species Richness
Abstract
Geographic patterns in species richness are mainly based on wide-ranging species because their larger number of distribution records has a disproportionate contribution to the species richness counts. Here we demonstrate how this effect strongly influences our understanding of what determines species richness. Using both conventional and spatial regression models, we show that for sub-Saharan African birds, the apparent role of productivity diminishes with decreasing range size, whereas the significance of topographic heterogeneity increases. The relative importance of geometric constraints from the continental edge is moderate. Our findings highlight the failure of traditional species richness models to account for narrow-ranging species that frequently are also threatened.
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We thank D. Rogers, B. Bakker, W. Wint, and S. Hay for Geographic Information Systems advice and discussions; I. Woodward for providing productivity data; L. A. Hansen for assistance with access to the African bird database on behalf of the Zoological Museum University of Copenhagen (ZMUC); and E. Baker, N. Baker, F. Dowsett-Lemaire, R. Dowsett, J. Fjeldså, M. E. Gartshore, H. M. de Klerk, M. Languy, R. B. Payn, COC/BirdLife Cameroon, and BirdLife International for providing data for the ZMUC database. The manuscript benefited tremendously from discussions with R. K. Colwelland comments from J. Brown, J. Fjeldså, R. Freckleton, K. Gaston, N. J. Gotelli, G. R. Graves, P. Harvey, R. Lande, O. Lewis, R. May, I. Owens, and D. Rogers. W.J. was supported by Natural Environment Research Council and German Scholarship Foundation studentships; C.R. was supported by the Danish National Science Foundation (grant J. nr. 21-01-0547).
Materials and Methods
Supporting Text
Tables S1 to S3
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Published In
Science
Volume 297 | Issue 5586
30 August 2002
30 August 2002
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Received: 11 April 2002
Accepted: 25 July 2002
Published in print: 30 August 2002
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- Walter Jetz,
- Carsten Rahbek
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