Species Richness, Environmental Correlates, and Spatial Scale: A Test Using South African Birds

Rensburg, Berndt J. van; Chown, Steven L.; Gaston, Kevin J.

doi:10.1086/339464

Cited by 170 publications

(148 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…In warm climates water availability restricts primary production (Hawkins et al 2003b) and often also species richness (van Rensburg et al 2002). The presence of surface water in lakes and waterholes strongly predicted species richness in our study.…”

Section: Water Regimesupporting

confidence: 47%

Influence and value of different water regimes on avian species richness in arid inland Australia

Schneider

Griesser

2008

Biodivers Conserv

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Riparian habitats in arid landscapes are recognised for their structurally diverse vegetation and diverse bird species assemblages. In the extensive semi-arid and arid centre of Australia, riparian woodland habitats are impacted by pastoral land-use which may negatively inXuence vegetation structure and avian species composition. However, pastoralism has promoted the establishment of artiWcial water bodies, so that additional riparian vegetation may occur in the landscape. In this study, we surveyed the importance of diVerent water regimes (i.e. artiWcial lakes, natural waterholes, desert sites) together with their associated vegetation on avian species richness in north-western New South Wales, Australia. Our results show that bird species richness was highest at water locations, in particular at artiWcial lakes. Avian species richness was negatively associated with distance to water bodies, both in desert vegetation types and in the riparian vegetation type along dry creeks. Moreover, riparian habitats supported larger avian assemblages and especially those of sedentary bird species compared to the surrounding shrub-steppe landscape. This indicates that artiWcial water bodies may be of signiWcance for arid zone bird species and might gain in importance with changing water availabilities due to climatic changes.

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Section: Water Regimesupporting

confidence: 47%

Influence and value of different water regimes on avian species richness in arid inland Australia

Schneider

Griesser

2008

Biodivers Conserv

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“…Spatial correlograms were constructed using Moran's I coefficients at 15 distance classes, using SAAP 4.3 (Wartenberg 1989). The spatial correlogram for the residuals indicates how much of the spatial structure was removed from data at different spatial scales (Badgley and Fox 2000;van Rensburg et al 2002;Diniz-Filho et al 2003). Significant unexplained spatial autocorrelation remains in the data if least one of the coefficients in a correlogram is significant at 0.05/15, where 15 is the number of distance classes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A test of multiple hypotheses for the species richness gradient of South American owls

2004

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Many mechanisms have been proposed to explain broad scale spatial patterns in species richness. In this paper, we evaluate five explanations for geographic gradients in species richness, using South American owls as a model. We compared the explanatory power of contemporary climate, landcover diversity, spatial climatic heterogeneity, evolutionary history, and area. An important aspect of our analyses is that very different hypotheses, such as history and area, can be quantified at the same observation scale and, consequently can be incorporated into a single analytical framework. Both area effects and owl phylogenetic history were poorly associated with richness, whereas contemporary climate, climatic heterogeneity at the mesoscale and landcover diversity explained ca. 53% of the variation in species richness. We conclude that both climate and environmental heterogeneity should be retained as plausible explanations for the diversity gradient. Turnover rates and scaling effects, on the other hand, although perhaps useful for detecting faunal changes and beta diversity at local and regional scales, are not strong explanations for the owl diversity gradient.

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“…What are the patterns of local extinction and colonization and what are the effects of isolation? How does species richness vary with latitude, longitude and altitude, and how is it affected by energy availability, primary productivity and habitat heterogeneity (van Rensburg et al 2002)? What are the contributions of more and less widely distributed species to the patterns of species richness (Evans et al 2005b;Lennon et al 2004)?…”

Section: Distribution and Habitatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizens, science and bird conservation

2007

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Collaborative research by networks of amateurs has had a major role in ornithology and conservation science and will continue to do so. It has been important in establishing the facts of migration, systematically recording distribution, providing insights into habitat requirements and recording variation in numbers, productivity and survival, thus allowing detailed demographic analyses. The availability of these data has allowed conservation work to be focussed on priority species, habitats and sites and enabled refined monitoring and research programmes aimed at providing the understanding necessary for sound conservation management and for evidencebased government policy. The success of such work depends on the independence of the science from those advocating particular policies in order to ensure that the science is unbiased. Wetland birds are surveyed in much of the world. Most countries also have a ringing scheme. Other forms of collaborative ornithology are strong in North America, Australia and Australasia, more patchily distributed in Asia (but with strong growth in some countries) and even patchier in Africa and South America. Such work is most successful where there is a strong partnership between the amateurs and the professional, based on their complementary roles. The participation of large numbers of volunteers not only enables work to be done that would otherwise be impossible but also facilitates democratic participation in the decisions made by society and builds social capital. The recruitment to and subsequent retention of people in the research networks are important skills. Surveys must be organized in ways that take into account the motives of the participants. It is useful to assess the skills of potential participants and, rather than rejecting those thought not to have adequate skills, to provide training. Special attention needs to be paid to ensuring that instructions are clear, that methods are standardized and that data are gathered in a form that is easily processed. Providing for the continuity of long-term projects is essential. There are advantages to having just one organization running most of the work in each country. Various sorts of organizations are possible: societies governed by their (amateur) members but employing professional staff to organize the work seem to be a particularly successful model. Independence from government and from conservation organizations is desirable.

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Species Richness, Environmental Correlates, and Spatial Scale: A Test Using South African Birds

Cited by 170 publications

References 44 publications

Influence and value of different water regimes on avian species richness in arid inland Australia

Influence and value of different water regimes on avian species richness in arid inland Australia

A test of multiple hypotheses for the species richness gradient of South American owls

Citizens, science and bird conservation

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