Open AccessSpecies richness and rarity in European rodents
Author(s) -
Kryštufek Boris,
Griffiths Huw I.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
ecography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.973
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1600-0587
pISSN - 0906-7590
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0587.2002.250114.x
Subject(s) - species richness , endemism , ecology , range (aeronautics) , geography , ecotone , deciduous , steppe , rodent , physical geography , biology , habitat , materials science , composite material
The presence or absence of 77 rodent species was scored within 427 squares of 100×100 miles. The grid encompassed the entirety of Europe west of the Urals and north of the Caucasus, but excluded all offshore islands. Rodent distributional ranges varied between 26 000 and 22 670 000 km 2 . Very large ranges were uncommon and 53% of species had ranges covering <20% of the study area. Range size showed no correlation with body size, nor did it depend on taxonomic provenance. However, saltatorial rodents appeared to have the largest median ranges and fossorial species the smallest. Species densities varied between 4 and 26 species/grid square, with the highest densities coinciding broadly with the steppe–deciduous forest ecotone. The degree of endemism showed a different geographic pattern from that of species density, with the highest values at lower latitudes. Forty‐nine squares (11% of Europe's surface) identified as species richness and endemism “hot spots” contained >80% of genera and species, their largest contiguous coincidence being in the southern Balkans, the Carpathian Basin, southern Ukraine and cis‐Caucasia.