Probing the troublesome peaked relationship between avian species richness and natural land cover

Probing the troublesome peaked relationship between avian species richness and natural land cover | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Probing the troublesome peaked relationship between avian species richness and natural land cover Rafael Xavier De Camargo, David Currie This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-675821/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Context : Biodiversity models postulate that the relationship between richness and the proportion of natural land cover (pNLC i.e., not dominated by human uses) is: 1) monotonic positive, 2) reasonably strong , 3) consistent in different geographic areas . Earlier work examining 100-km 2 human-dominated landcover in Ontario, Canada, observed that surveyed avian species richness is a peaked function of pNLC. Objective : We tested whether the same relationship between avian species richness and pNLC is also observed in an independent geographic area that has similar biomes. We also tested whether the peaked relations might be caused by temperature gradients, gradients in the size of species pools, grain size in the analyses, and landscape heterogeneity. Methods : Using breeding bird atlases of Ontario (Canada) and New York State (USA), we estimated species richness in landscapes varying from 25 to 900 km 2 . We related richness to the pNLC in each landscape and examined the same relationships after controlling for temperature, habitat heterogeneity, and species pool size. Results : Landscape-level species richness is a peaked, and not very strong function of pNLC. The relationship is not an artefact of temperature gradients, species pool size, or land cover heterogeneity. Conclusions : The proposition that increased amounts of natural land cover promotes species richness is clearly true at the limit, in landscapes with relatively little (<30%) natural cover. In landscapes with higher amounts of natural cover, a certain amount of human-modified land covers can provide habitat for species that prefer open habitats. Structural Biology Behavioral Ecology Laboratory Diagnostics Birds species richness biodiversity land cover habitat amount range-maps breeding bird survey species-pool peaked species-habitat relationship Full Text Supplementary Files SIDeCamargoCurrieJE.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-675821","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":37525123,"identity":"cf9223fe-d75b-4d7c-bf5d-f13dd5225f0c","order_by":0,"name":"Rafael Xavier De 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range-maps, breeding bird survey, species-pool, peaked species-habitat relationship","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-675821/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-675821/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eContext : Biodiversity models postulate that the relationship between richness and the proportion of natural land cover (pNLC i.e., not dominated by human uses) is: 1) monotonic positive, 2) reasonably strong , 3) consistent in different geographic areas . Earlier work examining 100-km 2\u0026nbsp;human-dominated landcover in Ontario, Canada, observed that surveyed avian species richness is a peaked function of pNLC.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eObjective : We tested whether the same relationship between avian species richness and pNLC is also observed in an independent geographic area that has similar biomes. We also tested whether the peaked relations might be caused by temperature gradients, gradients in the size of species pools, grain size in the analyses, and landscape heterogeneity. \u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMethods : Using breeding bird atlases of Ontario (Canada) and New York State (USA), we estimated species richness in landscapes varying from 25 to 900 km 2 .\u0026nbsp;We related richness to the pNLC in each landscape and\u0026nbsp;examined the same relationships after controlling for temperature, habitat heterogeneity, and species pool size. Results : Landscape-level species richness is a peaked, and not very strong function of pNLC.\u0026nbsp;The relationship is not an artefact of temperature gradients, species pool size, or land cover heterogeneity.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eConclusions :\u0026nbsp;The proposition that increased amounts of natural land cover promotes species richness is clearly true at the limit, in landscapes with relatively little (\u0026lt;30%) natural cover.\u0026nbsp;In landscapes with higher amounts of natural cover, a certain amount of human-modified land covers can provide habitat for species that prefer open habitats.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Probing the troublesome peaked relationship between avian species richness and natural land cover","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2021-07-08 12:15:33","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-675821/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"23a331ba-3e6f-4e11-b718-3730792829f1","owner":[],"postedDate":"July 8th, 2021","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":5526120,"name":"Structural Biology"},{"id":5526121,"name":"Behavioral Ecology"},{"id":5526122,"name":"Laboratory Diagnostics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2021-08-19T21:56:49+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2021-07-08 12:15:33","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-675821","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-675821","identity":"rs-675821","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"WrCJVZZCHTDjtuVLN7oU0","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}