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Determinants of Mammal and Bird Species Richness in China Based on Habitat Groups

Understanding the spatial patterns in species richness is a central issue in macroecology and biogeography. Analyses that have traditionally focused on overall species richness limit the generality and depth of inference. Spatial patterns of species richness and the mechanisms that underpin them in...

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Autores principales: Xu, Haigen, Cao, Mingchang, Wu, Jun, Cai, Lei, Ding, Hui, Lei, Juncheng, Wu, Yi, Cui, Peng, Chen, Lian, Le, Zhifang, Cao, Yun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4668080/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26629903
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143996
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author Xu, Haigen
Cao, Mingchang
Wu, Jun
Cai, Lei
Ding, Hui
Lei, Juncheng
Wu, Yi
Cui, Peng
Chen, Lian
Le, Zhifang
Cao, Yun
author_facet Xu, Haigen
Cao, Mingchang
Wu, Jun
Cai, Lei
Ding, Hui
Lei, Juncheng
Wu, Yi
Cui, Peng
Chen, Lian
Le, Zhifang
Cao, Yun
author_sort Xu, Haigen
collection PubMed
description Understanding the spatial patterns in species richness is a central issue in macroecology and biogeography. Analyses that have traditionally focused on overall species richness limit the generality and depth of inference. Spatial patterns of species richness and the mechanisms that underpin them in China remain poorly documented. We created a database of the distribution of 580 mammal species and 849 resident bird species from 2376 counties in China and established spatial linear models to identify the determinants of species richness and test the roles of five hypotheses for overall mammals and resident birds and the 11 habitat groups among the two taxa. Our result showed that elevation variability was the most important determinant of species richness of overall mammal and bird species. It is indicated that the most prominent predictors of species richness varied among different habitat groups: elevation variability for forest and shrub mammals and birds, temperature annual range for grassland and desert mammals and wetland birds, net primary productivity for farmland mammals, maximum temperature of the warmest month for cave mammals, and precipitation of the driest quarter for grassland and desert birds. Noteworthily, main land cover type was also found to obviously influence mammal and bird species richness in forests, shrubs and wetlands under the disturbance of intensified human activities. Our findings revealed a substantial divergence in the species richness patterns among different habitat groups and highlighted the group-specific and disparate environmental associations that underpin them. As we demonstrate, a focus on overall species richness alone might lead to incomplete or misguided understanding of spatial patterns. Conservation priorities that consider a broad spectrum of habitat groups will be more successful in safeguarding the multiple services of biodiversity.
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spelling pubmed-46680802015-12-10 Determinants of Mammal and Bird Species Richness in China Based on Habitat Groups Xu, Haigen Cao, Mingchang Wu, Jun Cai, Lei Ding, Hui Lei, Juncheng Wu, Yi Cui, Peng Chen, Lian Le, Zhifang Cao, Yun PLoS One Research Article Understanding the spatial patterns in species richness is a central issue in macroecology and biogeography. Analyses that have traditionally focused on overall species richness limit the generality and depth of inference. Spatial patterns of species richness and the mechanisms that underpin them in China remain poorly documented. We created a database of the distribution of 580 mammal species and 849 resident bird species from 2376 counties in China and established spatial linear models to identify the determinants of species richness and test the roles of five hypotheses for overall mammals and resident birds and the 11 habitat groups among the two taxa. Our result showed that elevation variability was the most important determinant of species richness of overall mammal and bird species. It is indicated that the most prominent predictors of species richness varied among different habitat groups: elevation variability for forest and shrub mammals and birds, temperature annual range for grassland and desert mammals and wetland birds, net primary productivity for farmland mammals, maximum temperature of the warmest month for cave mammals, and precipitation of the driest quarter for grassland and desert birds. Noteworthily, main land cover type was also found to obviously influence mammal and bird species richness in forests, shrubs and wetlands under the disturbance of intensified human activities. Our findings revealed a substantial divergence in the species richness patterns among different habitat groups and highlighted the group-specific and disparate environmental associations that underpin them. As we demonstrate, a focus on overall species richness alone might lead to incomplete or misguided understanding of spatial patterns. Conservation priorities that consider a broad spectrum of habitat groups will be more successful in safeguarding the multiple services of biodiversity. Public Library of Science 2015-12-02 /pmc/articles/PMC4668080/ /pubmed/26629903 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143996 Text en © 2015 Xu et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Xu, Haigen
Cao, Mingchang
Wu, Jun
Cai, Lei
Ding, Hui
Lei, Juncheng
Wu, Yi
Cui, Peng
Chen, Lian
Le, Zhifang
Cao, Yun
Determinants of Mammal and Bird Species Richness in China Based on Habitat Groups
title Determinants of Mammal and Bird Species Richness in China Based on Habitat Groups
title_full Determinants of Mammal and Bird Species Richness in China Based on Habitat Groups
title_fullStr Determinants of Mammal and Bird Species Richness in China Based on Habitat Groups
title_full_unstemmed Determinants of Mammal and Bird Species Richness in China Based on Habitat Groups
title_short Determinants of Mammal and Bird Species Richness in China Based on Habitat Groups
title_sort determinants of mammal and bird species richness in china based on habitat groups
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4668080/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26629903
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0143996
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