The Environmental Control of Insular Variation in Bird Species Abundance
Hamilton TH, Barth, Jr. RH, Rubinoff I. 1964. The Environmental Control of Insular Variation in Bird Species Abundance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). 52(1):132 - 140
THEORY: It can be assumed that the number of species found breeding on a given island is a resultant of (a) the chances of reaching the island by dispersal, and (b) the chances, once there, of becoming reproductively established by the finding of vacant or available ecological niches or spheres. Isolation in this instance may have two roles: either a direct one which influences the probability of dispersing individuals reaching islands, or an indirect one influencing the success of any particular colonization attempt by effects on the previous filtering of species of plants and animals upon which new colonizers may be dependent for ecological support. 2 Information on the relative importance of the two facets of the colonization problem (viz., isolation and ecologic diversity) may be gained by the quantifying and testing of the influence on species numbers of various factors of the insular environment by multiple regression and variance analysis. Thus it is possible to determine the ability of an environmental variable to predict species numbers independently of variation in other parameters. It is the interaction of these variables in the natural regulation of species numbers which we seek to unravel for different phyletic groups in various geographical regions.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Hamilton, T; Barth, Jr., R; Rubinoff, I
- Units
- SFCN
- Keywords
- Concentration, Conditions, Habitat, Population factors, Size, Space