Positive range–abundance relationships in Indo-Pacific bird communities

Reeve et al. (2016, Ecography, 39, 990–997) recently reported negative range–abundance relationships in Indo-Pacific bird communities and speculated that geographical isolation facilitates the evolution of broad-niched, small-ranged and abundant species. We tested this relationship using a large ind...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of biogeography 2017-09, Vol.44 (9), p.2161-2163
Main Authors: Theuerkauf, Jörn, Chartendrault, Vivien, Desmoulins, Frédéric, Barré, Nicolas, Gula, Roman
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abundance
Biological evolution
bird
Birds
Census
CORRESPONDENCE
Endemic species
Geographical isolation
Indo‐Pacific
Loyalty Islands
New Caledonia
niche breadth
Niches
range size
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Reeve et al. (2016, Ecography, 39, 990–997) recently reported negative range–abundance relationships in Indo-Pacific bird communities and speculated that geographical isolation facilitates the evolution of broad-niched, small-ranged and abundant species. We tested this relationship using a large independent data set on range and abundance of birds across New Caledonia (over 4,000 bird census points for 17,300 km2). In contradiction to Reeve et al. (2016, Ecography, 39, 990–997), we found clear evidence that range–abundance relationships are positive and endemic species have narrower habitat niches than wide-range species. Our findings are likely valid also for other islands in the Indo-Pacific.
ISSN:0305-0270
1365-2699
DOI:10.1111/jbi.13021