Energy Costs and Avian Distributions: Limitations or Chance?‐‐A Comment

Castro, Gonzalo

doi:10.2307/1941385

Cited by 17 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The value of MR RB /BMR shows a significant correlation with T RB (r ϭ Ϫ0.43, P Ͻ 0.05, n ϭ 26), contradicting the observation of Castro (1989) and Root (1989) that northern and southern species show the same MR RB /BMR ratio. However, independent contrast analyses predicting T RB from MR RB /BMR show no significant relationship (P Ͼ 0.10, n ϭ 25 for both hypotheses).…”

Section: Predicted Limiting Temperaturesmentioning

confidence: 66%

Metabolic Adaptation and Climatic Constraints on Winter Bird Distribution

Canterbury

2002

Ecology

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I used two methods to estimate limiting environmental temperatures for 28 North American passerine species studied in the physiological literature: indirect estimation from body mass and allometric equations, and direct estimation from physiological measurements of basal metabolic rate (BMR), lower critical temperature, and thermal conductance. I compared these predicted limiting temperatures to mean minimum temperatures at northern winter range boundaries determined from Christmas Bird Count data. Estimates derived from physiological parameters predicted minimum temperatures at range boundaries more accurately than did allometric equations. Phylogenetic analyses of independent contrasts under two branch length hypotheses corroborated that physiological parameters were superior to allometric equations as predictors of range boundary temperature. Thus using body mass as a surrogate for physiological data underestimates the association between physiological cold tolerance and northern range limits. However, this association could be explained by phenotypic acclimatization to different environments as well as by genetic differences among species; thus low values of the physiological temperature limit may be a result rather than a cause of northerly ranges. The distribution of predicted metabolic rates at northern range boundaries relative to BMR did not cluster at a clear upper boundary, so it is uncertain whether a constraint on maximum metabolic rate limits distribution of some species. Metabolic rate at the northern range boundary was a smaller multiple of BMR for insectivores than for non-insectivores, suggesting that food availability may limit winter ranges of insectivores, but analysis of independent contrasts did not verify this effect. The data do not indicate clearly whether the distribution of non-insectivorous bird species is limited by abiotic or biotic factors.

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Section: Predicted Limiting Temperaturesmentioning

confidence: 66%

Metabolic Adaptation and Climatic Constraints on Winter Bird Distribution

Canterbury

2002

Ecology

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“…For some taxa, the reasons for range limits are well understood (e.g., Terborgh 1973;Means and Simberloff 1987;Root 1988;Castro 1989;Ellison 2002;Gaston 2003). In the absence of such specific knowledge, the best guess regarding domain limits is simply the collective limits of distribution for the group, a sort of biological assay of the minimum domain.…”

Section: Setting Domain Limitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mid‐Domain Effect and Species Richness Patterns:What Have We Learned So Far?

Colwell

Rahbek

Gotelli

2004

The American Naturalist

540

705

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If species' ranges are randomly shuffled within a bounded geographical domain free of environmental gradients, ranges overlap increasingly toward the center of the domain, creating a "mid-domain" peak of species richness. This "mid-domain effect" (MDE) has been controversial both in concept and in application. Empirical studies assess the degree to which the evolutionary, ecological, and historical processes that undeniably act on individual species and clades produce geographical patterns that resemble those produced by MDE models. MDE models that resample empirical range size frequency distributions (RSFDs) balance the risk of underestimating and overestimating the role of MDE, whereas theoretical RSFDs are generally biased toward underestimating MDE. We discuss the inclusion of nonendemic species in MDE models, rationales for setting domain limits, and the validity of one- and two-dimensional MDE models. MDE models, though null models, are not null hypotheses to be simplistically rejected or accepted. They are a means of estimating the expected effect of geometric constraints within the context of multiple causality. We call for assessment of MDE on an equal statistical footing with other candidate explanations for richness gradients. Although some critics have categorically dismissed MDE, an overview of the 21 MDE studies published to date reveals a substantial signature of MDE in natural patterns and justifies continued work.

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“…Also the winter ranges of fourteen studied birds were restricted to areas where the energy needed to compensate for a colder environment was not greater than c . 2.5 times their basal metabolic rate (Root, 1988b; but see Castro, 1989; Repasky, 1991). Some other studies have also found support for the idea that species physiological capacities can determine distributional ranges (Weathers & von Riper, 1982; Hayworth & Weathers, 1984).…”

Section: Relative Importance Of Abiotic Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of climate in limiting European resident bird populations

Forsman

Mönkkönen

2003

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim To study densities of eight groups of resident forest bird populations across Europe to examine their association with abiotic (temperature, precipitation) factors. Location Europe. Methods Densities of residents (and migrant birds, which were used as a control group) were extracted from published breeding bird censuses. For each census location we obtained geographical co‐ordinates (latitude and longitude), temperature and precipitation variables describing both breeding and non‐breeding seasons. Resident densities were first examined separately in relation to co‐ordinates and principal component axes, which were extracted from temperature and precipitation variables. The relative impact of each explaining factor (co‐ordinates and principal component axis) on resident densities was checked by using residual examination and partial correlation. Results Densities of resident birds were in general negatively correlated with both latitude and longitude and temperature and precipitation factors, but latitude and temperature proved to be the strongest individual factors along which resident densities varied. The higher the latitude or the lower the temperatures, the lower were the densities of most resident birds. Partial correlation analysis suggested that of those two factors, latitude was the dominant one. Both the density of resident and migrant birds decreased towards the north, but the decrease of residents was steeper, and in the north they comprised only a small fraction of breeding bird numbers, whereas further south they commonly comprise half of the breeding bird numbers. Main conclusions The best explanatory factor for resident densities was latitude. For this reason, it was difficult to separate the relative effect of each individual factor, because latitude partly describes all the original variables (temperature and precipitation). The results suggested that precipitation was of less importance and that the interplay between latitude and ambient temperatures was not the sole factor behind the strong effect of latitude. We suggest that the coupled effect of harshening climate and decreasing amount of available energy with increasing latitude is limiting the population sizes of resident birds. We also propose that the effect of those factors is most apparent in northern Fennoscandia, where resident densities are suggested to be lower than would be expected on the basis of summer time carrying capacity.

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Energy Costs and Avian Distributions: Limitations or Chance?‐‐A Comment

Cited by 17 publications

References 2 publications

Metabolic Adaptation and Climatic Constraints on Winter Bird Distribution

Metabolic Adaptation and Climatic Constraints on Winter Bird Distribution

The Mid‐Domain Effect and Species Richness Patterns:What Have We Learned So Far?

The role of climate in limiting European resident bird populations

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