Species richness and morphological diversity of passerine birds.

ABSTRACT: The relationship between species richness and the occupation of niche space can provide insight into the processes that shape patterns of biodiversity. For example, if species interactions constrained coexistence, one might expect tendencies toward even spacing within niche space and positive relationships between diversity and total niche volume. I use morphological diversity of passerine birds as a proxy for diet, foraging maneuvers, and foraging substrates and examine the morphological space occupied by regional and local passerine avifaunas. Although independently diversified regional faunas exhibit convergent morphology, species are clustered rather than evenly distributed, the volume of the morphological space is weakly related to number of species per taxonomic family, and morpholog

SUBMITTER: Ricklefs RE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3437851 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature