Small mammal species richness is directly linked to regional productivity, but decoupled from food resources, abundance, or habitat complexity
McCain CM, King SR, Szewczyk T, Beck J. 2018. Small mammal species richness is directly linked to regional productivity, but decoupled from food resources, abundance, or habitat complexity. Journal of Biogeography. 45(11):2533-2545
Species richness is often strongly correlated with climate. The most commonly invoked mechanism for this climate‐richness relationship is the more‐individuals‐hypothesis (MIH), which predicts a cascading positive influence of climate on plant productivity, food resources, total number of individuals, and species richness. We test for a climate‐richness relationship and an underlying MIH mechanism, as well as testing competing hypotheses including positive effects of habitat diversity and heterogeneity, and the species‐area effect.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- McCain, Christy; King, Sarah; Szewczyk, Tim; Beck, Jan
- Units
- ROMO
- Keywords
- arthropods, elevational gradients, food resources, habitat heterogeneity, NPP plant biomass, species richness