Abstract
Changes in taxa composition among different communities in a landscape or along an environmental gradient are defined as β-diversity. From a biogeographic point of view, it is interesting to analyse patterns of β-turnover across latitudinal bands, and to understand whether β-diversity is significantly associated with endemism at lower latitudes, as predicted by theory. We inspected these issues by using squirrels (Rodentia, Sciuridae) as a study case. Distribution data for each genus were obtained from literature and mapped. The two hemispheres were subdivided into 23 latitudinal bands of equal area, and we calculated a β-turnover index between latitudinal bands with two formulae: Wilson and Shmida’s (1984) and Lennon et al.’s (2001) indices. We found that the peak of number of Sciuridae genera significantly corresponded to the peak in β-turnover scores at the same latitudes (25–31°N) with Wilson and Shmida’s (1984), but not with Lennon et al.’s (2001) index. We also found that the turnover between ground and tree squirrels corresponded to the grassland vegetation latitudinal bands (around 40° N), and the beginning of the latitudinal bands characterized by tropical and subtropical forests is accomplished with the occurrence of tree and flying squirrels.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- WMP:
-
World Map program
- LB:
-
latitudinal bands
- STOT:
-
total genera richness of squirrels
- SF:
-
genera richness of flying squirrels
- SG:
-
genera richness of ground squirrels
- ST:
-
genera richness of tree squirrels
References
Amori, G. and S. Gippoliti. 2001. Identifying priority ecoregions for rodent conservation at the genus level. Oryx 35: 158–165.
Amori, G., S. Gippoliti, L. Luiselli, and C. Battisti. 2009a. Do interlinks between geography and ecology explain the latitudinal diversity patterns in Sciuridae? An approach at the genus level. Can. J. Zool. 87:1–8.
Amori, G., S. Gippoliti, L. Luiselli, and C. Battisti. 2009b. Sciuridae, Rapoport’s effect and the mismatch between range size, conservation needs, and scientific productivity: an approach at the genus level. Web Ecol. 9:1–7.
Arita, H.T. and P. Rodriguez. 2002. Geographic range, turnover rate and the scaling of species diversity. Ecography 25:541–550.
Brown, J.H. 1995. Macroecology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Cody, M.L. 1975. Towards a theory of continental species diversities: bird distributions over Mediterranean habitat gradients. In: M.L. Cody and J.M. Diamond (eds), Ecology and Evolution of Communities. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. pp. 214–257.
Gaston, K.J. 2000. Global patterns in biodiversity. Nature 405:220–227.
Gaston, K.J. and T.M. Blackburn. 2000. Pattern and Process in Macroecology. Blackwell Science, Oxford.
Gaston, K.J. and P.H. Williams. 1996. Spatial patterns in taxonomic diversity. In: K. J. Gaston (ed), Biodiversity: A Biology of Numbers and Difference. Blackwell Science, Oxford. pp. 202–229.
Gaston, K.J., R.G. Davies, C.D.L. Orme, V.A. Olson, G.H. Thomas, T.-S. Ding, P.C. Rasmussen, J.J. Lennon, P.M. Bennett, I.P.F. Owens and T.M. Blackburn. 2007. Spatial turnover in the global avifauna. Proc. Roy. Soc. B. 274:1567–1574.
Gotelli, N. J. and G.L. Entsminger. 2002. EcoSim: null models software for ecology. Version 7.0. Jericho, Vermont, USA: Acquired Intelligence and Kesey-Bear, https://doi.org/homepages.together.net/;gentsmin/ecosim.htm.
Helgen, K.M., F.R. Cole, L.E. Helgen & D.E. Wilson. 2009. Generic revision in the Holarctic ground squirrel genus Spermophilus. J. Mammal. 90:270–305.
Koleff, P., J.J. Lennon and K.J. Gaston. 2003a. Are there latitudinal gradients in species turnover? Global Ecol. Biogeogr. 12:483–498.
Koleff, P., J.J. Lennon and K.J. Gaston. 2003b. Measuring beta diversity for presence–absence data. J. Animal Ecol. 72:367–382.
La Ferla, B., J.Taplin, D. Ockwell and J.C. Lovett. 2002. Continental scale patterns of biodiversity: can higher taxa accurately predict African plant distributions? Bot. J. Linnean Soc. 138:225–235.
Lawton, J.H. 1999. Are there general laws in ecology? Oikos 75:145–147.
Lennon, J.J., P. Koleff, J.J.D Greenwood and K.J. Gaston. 2001. The geographical structure of British bird distributions: diversity, spatial turnover and scale. J. Anim. Ecol. 70:966–979.
Manly, B.F.J. 1991. Randomization, Boostrap, and Monte Carlo Methods in Biology. Chapman and Hall, New York.
McKnight, M.W., P.S. White, R.I. McDonald, J.F. Lamoreux, W. Sechrest, R.S. Ridgely and S.N. Stuart. 2007. Putting beta-diversity on the map: broad-scale congruence and coincidence in the extremes. PLos Biology 5:2424–2432.
Melo, A.S., T. Fernando, L. V. B. Rangel and J. A. F. Diniz-Filho. 2009. Environmental drivers of beta-diversity patterns in New-World birds and mammals. Ecography 32:226–236.
Pianka, E.R. 1966. Latitudinal gradients in species diversity: a review of concepts. Amer. Nat. 100:33–46.
Qian, H. and R.E. Ricklefs. 2007. A latitudinal gradient in large-scale beta diversity for vascular plants in North America. Ecol. Lett. 10:737–744.
Qian, H. and R.E. Ricklefs. 2008. Global concordance in diversity patterns of vascular plants and terrestrial vertebrates. Ecol. Lett. 11:547–553.
Qian, H., R.E. Ricklefs and P. S. White. 2005. Beta diversity of an-giosperms in temperate floras of eastern Asia and eastern North America. Ecol. Lett. 8:15–22.
Rabenold, K.N. 1992. Latitudinal gradientsin avian species diversity and the role of long-distance migration. Current Ornithol. 10:247–274.
Rodríguez, P. and H. T. Arita. 2004. Beta diversity and latitude: testing the hypothesis of covariation. Ecography 27:547–556.
Rohde, K. 1992. Latitudinal gradients in species diversity: the search for the primary cause. Oikos 65:514–527.
Rohde, K. 1997. The larger area of the tropics does not explain latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Oikos 79:169–172.
Rosenzweig, M.L. and E.A. Sandlin. 1997. Species diversity and latitudes: listening to area’s signal. Oikos 80:172–176.
Roy, K., D. Jablonski and J.W. Valentine. 2000. Dissecting latitudinal biodiversity gradients: functional groups and clades of marine bivalves. Proc. Roy. Soc. London B 267:293–299.
Shmida, A. and M.V. Wilson. 1985. Biological determinants of species diversity. J. Biogeogr. 12:1–20.
Simpson, G.G. 1943. Mammals and the nature of continents. Amer. J. Sci. 241:1–31.
Stevens, G.C. 1989. The latitudinal gradient in geographical range: how so many species coexist in the tropics. Amer. Nat. 133:240–256.
Stevens, R.D. and M.R. Willig. 2002. Geographical ecology at the community level: perspectives on the diversity of New World bats. Ecology 8:545–560.
Whittaker R.H. 1960. Vegetation of the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon and California. Ecol. Monogr. 30: 279–338.
Whittaker, R.H. 1972. Evolution and measurement of species diversity. Taxon 21:213–251.
Williams, P. 2001. Worldmap software. Natural History Museum, London.
Williams, P.H., H.M. de Klerk and T.M. Crowe. 1999. Interpreting biogeographical boundaries among Afrotropical birds: spatial patterns in richness gradients and species replacement. J. Bio-geogr. 26:459–474.
Willig M.R. and M.R. Gannon. 1997. Gradients of species density and turnover in marsupials: a hemispheric perspective. J. Mammal. 78:756–765.
Willig M.R., D.M. Kaufman and R.D. Stevens. 2003. Latitudinal gradients of Biodiversity: pattern, porcess, scale, and synthesis. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 34:273–309.
Wilson, D.E. and D.M. Reeder. 2005. Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. 3rd ed. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
Wilson, M.V. and A. Shmida. 1984. Measuring beta diversity with presence-absence data. J. Ecol. 72:1055–1064.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Amori, G., Gippoliti, S., Luiselli, L. et al. Are there latitudinal gradients in taxa turnover? A worldwide study with Sciuridae (Mammalia: Rodentia). COMMUNITY ECOLOGY 11, 22–26 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1556/ComEc.11.2010.1.4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/ComEc.11.2010.1.4