1. Patterns of Overlap in the Geographic Ranges of Palearctic and British Mammals
- Author
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Paul H. Harvey, Sean Nee, Andy J. Letcher, and Andy Purvis
- Subjects
Grande bretagne ,Ecology ,Null model ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Niche ,Interspecific competition ,Biology ,Body size ,Competition (biology) ,Geographic distribution ,Habitat ,Animal Science and Zoology ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,media_common - Abstract
1. The amount of overlap between the geographic ranges of closely related species is thought to depend, in part, on the extent to which similar species share the same habitat requirements and on the degree of competition between them. 2. The amount of overlap between pairs of closely related species is compared with an expected amount, generated using a null model. Two data sets are used: Palearctic mammals and British mammals. 3. Closely related species tend to overlap more than expected by chance, suggesting that species' distributions are more constrained by niche requirements than competition. Species that overlap less than expected are more similar in body size and vice versa, leading to the conclusion that competition may cause species with similar body sizes to reduce geographic range overlap more...
- Published
- 1994
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