| Title | Remotely sensed habitat diversity predicts butterfly species richness and community similarity in Canada |
| Download | Downloads (Preprint) |
| |
| Licence | Please note the adoption of the Open Government Licence - Canada
supersedes any previous licences. |
| Author | Kerr, J T; Southwood, T R E; Cihlar, J |
| Source | PNAS (Proceedings fot the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America); 98, 20, 2001 p. 11365-11370, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.201398398  Open
Access |
| Year | 2001 |
| Alt Series | Earth Sciences Sector, Contribution Series 20043084 |
| Document | book |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper; on-line; digital |
| File format | pdf |
| Released | 2001 01 01 |
| Abstract | Although there is no shortage of potential explanations for the large-scale patterns of biological diversity, the hypothesis that energy-related factors are the primary determinants is perhaps most
extensively supported, especially in cold-temperate regions. By using unusually high-resolution biodiversity and environmental data that have not previously been available, we demonstrate that habitat heterogeneity, as measured by remotely sensed
land cover variation, explains Canadian butterfly richness better than any energy-related variable we measured across spatial scales. Although species-richness predictability declines with progressively smaller quadrat sizes, as expected, we
demonstrate that most variability (>90%) in butterfly richness may be explained by habitat heterogeneity with secondary contributions from climatic energy. We also find that patterns of community similarity across Canada are strongly related to
patterns of habitat composition but not to differences in energy-related factors. Energy should still be considered significant but its main role may be through its effects on within-habitat diversity and perhaps, indirectly, on the sorts of habitats
that may be found in a region. Effects of sampling intensity and spatial autocorrelation do not alter our findings. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 219886 |
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