Testing abundance-range size relationships in European carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae)

TY - JOUR

T1 - Testing abundance-range size relationships in European carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae)

AU - Kotze, J.

AU - Niemelä, J.

AU - O'Hara, R.B.

AU - Turin, H.

N1 - Reporting year: 2003 Metis note: 3284; CTE; PVP; file:///L:/Endnotedatabases/NIOOPUB/pdfs/Pdfs2003/Kotze_ea_3284.pdf

PY - 2003

Y1 - 2003

N2 - Four of the eight hypotheses proposed in the literature for explaining the relationship between abundance and range size (the sampling artifact, phylogenetic non-independence, range position and resource breadth hypotheses) were tested by using atlas data for carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) from Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands. A positive relationship between abundance and partial range size was found in all three countries, and the variation in abundance was lower for widespread species. Analysis of the data did not support three of the proposed hypotheses, but did support the resource breadth hypothesis (species having broader environmental tolerances and being able to use a wider range or resources will have higher local densities and be more widely distributed than more specialised species). Examination of species' characteristics revealed that widespread species are generally large bodied, generalists (species with wide niche breadths occurring in a variety of habitat types) and are little influenced by human-altered landscapes, while species with restricted distributions are smaller bodied, specialists (species with small niche breadths occurring in only one or two habitat types), and favour natural habitat. Landscape alteration may be an important factor influencing carabid abundance and range size in these three countries with a long history of human-induced environmental changes

AB - Four of the eight hypotheses proposed in the literature for explaining the relationship between abundance and range size (the sampling artifact, phylogenetic non-independence, range position and resource breadth hypotheses) were tested by using atlas data for carabid beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae) from Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands. A positive relationship between abundance and partial range size was found in all three countries, and the variation in abundance was lower for widespread species. Analysis of the data did not support three of the proposed hypotheses, but did support the resource breadth hypothesis (species having broader environmental tolerances and being able to use a wider range or resources will have higher local densities and be more widely distributed than more specialised species). Examination of species' characteristics revealed that widespread species are generally large bodied, generalists (species with wide niche breadths occurring in a variety of habitat types) and are little influenced by human-altered landscapes, while species with restricted distributions are smaller bodied, specialists (species with small niche breadths occurring in only one or two habitat types), and favour natural habitat. Landscape alteration may be an important factor influencing carabid abundance and range size in these three countries with a long history of human-induced environmental changes

KW - NIOO/CTE/PVP

U2 - 10.1034/j.1600-0587.2003.03488.x

DO - 10.1034/j.1600-0587.2003.03488.x

M3 - Article

SN - 0906-7590

VL - 26

SP - 553

EP - 566

JO - Ecography

JF - Ecography

IS - 5

ER -