Scale and species richness: towards a general, hierarchical theory of species diversity

By Robert J. Whittaker, K. Willis, Richard Field. 2001

1,562 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d1e8889dd9abd0258f220141eb35e248826875d8

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Citations in the corpus

The importance of biotic interactions for modelling species distributions under climate change (2007, background): “Indeed, it is widely contended that processes operating at a local scale (such as interspecific competition or parasitism) do not exert a similarly dominant role at macroecological scales (e.g. Huston, 1999; Whittaker et al ., 2001).”
The geographic scaling of biotic interactions (2013, background): “It is typically assumed that the geographical signature of biotic interactions is scale dependent, with climate structuring the broad outlines of species ranges and biotic interactions affecting patterns of local abundances (Whittaker et al. 2001, Pearson and Dawson 2003).”
Orchid species richness along Himalayan elevational gradients (2011, methodology): “This unimodal pattern may be caused by the interaction of water and energy along the elevational gradient, but several non-environmental factors may also influence this pattern, such as area (Rosenzweig, 1995; Whittaker et al., 2001) and the interpolation method itself (Grytnes & Vetaas, 2002).”
Macro‐scale bird species richness patterns of the East Asian mainland and islands: energy, area and isolation (2006, background): “Many of the proposed factors could have operated together, either sequentially or concurrently, to affect current latitudinal patterns of species richness (Brown & Lomolino, 1998; Whittaker et al., 2001).”
Modelling the species richness distribution of French dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae) and delimiting the predictive capacity of different groups of explanatory variables (2002, background): “Unfortunately, there are many candidate factors (Hengeveld, 1990; Huston, 1994; Whittaker et al., 2001).”
The biogeography of lower Mesoamerican freshwater fishes (2005, result): “This observation lends support to the importance of a top-down approach to the study of species richness and diversity (Tonn et al., 1990; Ricklefs & Schluter, 1993; Whittaker et al., 2001).”
GlobalAnts: a new database on the geography of ant traits (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) (2017, neutral): “One of the central goals in ecology is to understand how diversity varies in time and space (Rosenzweig, 1995; Whittaker et al ., 2001).”
Which function describes the species–area relationship best? A review and empirical evaluation (2009, background): “Scaledependent processes are proposed as causes for the different shapes of portions of SARs (Preston, 1960; Shmida & Wilson, 1985; Rosenzweig, 1995; Hubbell, 2001; Whittaker et al., 2001; Turner & Tjørve, 2005), and understanding the area effect in SARs allows one to test other effects on biodivers”
Incorporating spatial autocorrelation may invert observed patterns (2006, result): “More importantly, though, the spatial ESAR model estimated a negative relationship between plant species richness and altitude (and a positive relationship between plant species richness and temperature), which is consistent with ecological theories and/or previous observations (e.g. Currie, 1991; S”
Fern species richness along a central Himalayan elevational gradient, Nepal (2004, background): “Nor, 2001; Whittaker et al., 2001 and reference therein).”
Biodiversity of Aquatic Insects: Spatial Gradients and Environmental Correlates of Assemblage-Level Measures at Large Scales (2009, neutral): “The importance of considering grain and extent is closely related to the fact that patterns and associated processes typically change with regard to the spatial scales considered (Levin, 1992; Whittaker et al., 2001).”
Odd man out: why are there fewer plant species in African rain forests? (2014, background): “For example, area size should be maintained constant and diversity metrics well defined (Whittaker et al. 2001).”