Niche breadth predicts geographical range size: a general ecological pattern

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 ecolo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology letters 2013-08, Vol.16 (8), p.1104-1114
Main Authors: Slatyer, Rachel A., Hirst, Megan, Sexton, Jason P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal Distribution
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Biodiversity
Biogeography
Biological and medical sciences
Chordata - physiology
Climatic changes
Cycadopsida - physiology
Diet
Ecology
Ecosystem
Environment
Evolutionary biology
Extinction risk
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
geographical range
Geography
Habitats
Invertebrates - physiology
Magnoliopsida - physiology
meta-analysis
niche breadth
Plant Dispersal
rarity
specialisation
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Summary: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. For the latest news from the journal don't forget to bookmark www.ecologyletters.com
ISSN:1461-023X
1461-0248
DOI:10.1111/ele.12140