Ecography
Biogeography aims to understand the temporal and spatial distribution of life on Earth. Biogeographical research is aimed not only at describing where organisms live, at what densities, with whom, and how it all relates to the environmental and geographical setting but also why this is so. The International Biogeography Society, IBS, is a young and vibrant international and interdisciplinary society...
The question of whether closely related species share similar ecological requirements has attracted increasing attention, because of its importance for understanding global diversity gradients and the impacts of climate change on species distributions. In fact, the assumption that related species are also ecologically similar has often been made, although the prevalence of such a phylogenetic signal...
Many insular vertebrates have undergone rapid and dramatic changes in body size compared to their mainland counterparts. Here we explore the relationship between two well known patterns of island body size – the tendency for large‐bodied species to dwarf and small‐bodied species to get larger on islands, known as the “island rule”, and the scaling of maximum and minimum body size of island assemblages...
The relative importance of environmental filtering, biotic interactions and neutral processes in community assembly remains an openly debated question and one that is increasingly addressed using phylogenetic approaches. Closely related species may occur together more frequently than expected (phylogenetic clustering) if environmental filtering operates on traits with significant phylogenetic signal...
We present software that facilitates quantitative comparisons of environmental niche models (ENMs). Our software quantifies similarity of ENMs generated using the program Maxent and uses randomization tests to compare observed similarity to that expected under different null hypotheses. ENMTools is available online free of charge from <http://purl.oclc.org/enmtools>.
Understanding how ecological communities change over time is critical for biodiversity conservation, but few long‐term studies directly address decadal‐scale changes in both the within‐ and among‐community components of diversity. In this study, we use a network of permanent forest vegetation plots, established in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (USA) in 1978, to examine the factors that influence...
Studying the relationships among introduced species, their preferred habitats, and native species can be important for predicting the effects of invasions on native populations. Examining the colonization of North America by the Eurasian collared‐dove Streptopelia decaocto, we quantified the habitat characteristics of sites most likely to be occupied by this invasive bird species in the early stages...
Many species of leaf‐cutter ants (Atta and Acromyrmex) increase in abundance following natural or anthropogenic disturbances in the vegetation. However, the mechanisms responsible for such an increase are still poorly understood. We evaluated the effects of nesting site and the availability of palatable forage on survival and growth of Atta laevigata colonies at different developmental stages. Foundress...
Graph‐theoretic connectivity analyses provide opportunities to solve problems related to the management, design and maintenance of fragmented landscapes. However, several modern connectivity metrics are implemented using algorithms that are affected by a grid‐induced bias. When paths through a regular grid are calculated, distance errors are introduced into the metric outputs, with patterns based...
Different management regimes imposed on similar habitat types provide opportunities to investigate mechanisms driving community assembly and changes in species composition. We investigated the effect of pasture management on vegetation composition in wetlands with varying spatial isolation on a Florida cattle ranch. We hypothesized that increased pasture management intensity would dampen the expected...
A matrix‐based projection model is used in conjunction with the results of a coupled bio‐physical dispersal model to examine the spread of alleles through subdivided populations over time, and the associated development of genetic structural patterns. Applying this approach, it becomes possible to quantitatively evaluate the contribution of spatially explicit migration towards patterns of genetic...
Graph structures and habitat availability metrics are two recent and complementary approaches for analysing landscape connectivity. They have gained rapid popularity and provided significant conceptual improvements for decision making in conservation planning. We present a further methodological development of the habitat availability concept and metrics by partitioning them into three separate fractions...
Biological atlases are, for many species, the only source of information on their distribution over large geographical areas, and are widely used to inform models of the environmental distribution of species. Such data are not collected using standardized survey techniques, however, and spatial variations in coverage (the relative extent or completeness of records) may lead to variations in the probability...
Geophagy is well known among some Neotropical parrots. The clay apparently adsorbs dietary toxins and/or provides supplemental nutrients. We used location data and 23 environmental layers to develop a predictive model of claylick distribution using Maxent software. We related species characteristics to claylick use and examined how parrot assemblages using claylicks changed with distance from the...
Ecosystem engineers are organisms that directly or indirectly control the availability of resources to other organisms by causing physical state changes in biotic or abiotic materials. Termites (Insecta, Isoptera) are among the most important ecosystem engineers in tropical ecosystems. We used a field experiment in the tall grasslands of Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, to investigate 1) the consumption...
Agri‐environment schemes (AES) have been suggested to counter negative effects of agricultural intensification and enhance farmland biodiversity, but evaluations have produced inconsistent results. We suggest that this is partly a consequence of scale‐dependence, i.e. that the consequence of organic farming will differ depending on the scale of uptake in a particular landscape. To test our hypothesis...
Transplant experiments are a useful tool both for determining species’ ranges and understanding their cause, yet such experiments have seldom been performed in areas where plants reach extremely high elevations. We examined the position of the upper elevational limits of vascular plants in E Ladakh, India, by transplanting individuals of 14 subnival species from 5800–5850 m elevation to a control...
We compared changes in body condition (relative weight) and mercury concentrations ([Hg]) in two species of coregonid fish (lake herring Coregonus artedi, lake whitefish C. clupeaformis) among discrete populations in Ontario between 1967 and 2006. Temporal comparisons among populations were made to determine whether 1) the establishment of Bythotrephes longimanus had affected coregonid populations,...