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Avian reproductive failure in tropical forest fragments

Avian reproductive failure in tropical forest fragments Ecology, unlike mathematics or physics, has few laws. Instead, our law, if you will, is that the ecological world is a messy place and that variation rules the day. What happens in one place does not necessarily happen everywhere. Although variation in ecological phenomena across time and space can be intellectually exciting, it also hinders our ability to produce results worthy of generalization. Much of our field of study may be dominated by the law of ecological variation, but we do have at least one reliable, recurring pattern that might truly allow us to describe it as a law: the species–area relationship ( Lomolino, 2001 ). That is, the number of species living in a habitat patch declines as the area of that patch declines ( Arrhenius, 1921 ). The pattern occurs in nearly all habitat types and with nearly all kinds of organisms ( Rosenzweig, 1995 ). The spatial scale at which the pattern is observed varies in interesting ways depending on the space needs of particular organisms, among other factors. Yet, at some point, if habitat area is reduced enough, there is indeed a decline in the number of species living and reproducing in the patch. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Animal Conservation Wiley

Avian reproductive failure in tropical forest fragments

Animal Conservation , Volume 12 (4) – Aug 1, 2009

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References (24)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2009 The Zoological Society of London
ISSN
1367-9430
eISSN
1469-1795
DOI
10.1111/j.1469-1795.2009.00287.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Ecology, unlike mathematics or physics, has few laws. Instead, our law, if you will, is that the ecological world is a messy place and that variation rules the day. What happens in one place does not necessarily happen everywhere. Although variation in ecological phenomena across time and space can be intellectually exciting, it also hinders our ability to produce results worthy of generalization. Much of our field of study may be dominated by the law of ecological variation, but we do have at least one reliable, recurring pattern that might truly allow us to describe it as a law: the species–area relationship ( Lomolino, 2001 ). That is, the number of species living in a habitat patch declines as the area of that patch declines ( Arrhenius, 1921 ). The pattern occurs in nearly all habitat types and with nearly all kinds of organisms ( Rosenzweig, 1995 ). The spatial scale at which the pattern is observed varies in interesting ways depending on the space needs of particular organisms, among other factors. Yet, at some point, if habitat area is reduced enough, there is indeed a decline in the number of species living and reproducing in the patch.

Journal

Animal ConservationWiley

Published: Aug 1, 2009

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