Relative Measures of Geographic Range Size: Empirical Comparisons

Many different measures of range size are used for both empirical and conservation purposes. The possible consequences of the particular methods used in determining observed patterns of results are seldom considered. Using species of butterflies and freshwater molluscs in Britain, we investigate the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oecologia 1996-07, Vol.107 (2), p.179-188
Main Authors: Quinn, Rachel M., Gaston, Kevin J., Arnold, Henry R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Brackish
Butterflies
Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife
Estimation methods
Frequency distribution
Frequency ranges
Freshwater
Freshwater mollusks
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Lepidoptera
Marine
Mollusca
Mollusks
Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking
Polygons
Population Ecology
Species
Squares
Wildlife conservation
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:Many different measures of range size are used for both empirical and conservation purposes. The possible consequences of the particular methods used in determining observed patterns of results are seldom considered. Using species of butterflies and freshwater molluscs in Britain, we investigate the relationship between the range sizes measured by nine different methods and the sets of rare species they distinguish. A comparison of range sizes measured at different scales, Britain and Europe, is also made for the butterflies. We find that for many studies involving range size the various measures of range size are interchangeable. With respect to the identification of rare species the results are not as clear.
ISSN:0029-8549
1432-1939
DOI:10.1007/BF00327901