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Density-range size relationships in French riverine fishes

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Abstract

We examined the relation between the local density of species and the size of the geographic range for French riverine fishes. As for most other taxonomic groups, a positive interspecific relationship is found for this group. This relationship is robust to the confounding effects of phylogeny and is not a priori a product of other potential mechanistic artefacts. We formally tested two of the principal biological mechanisms already proposed (i.e. the niche breadth hypothesis and the resource availability hypothesis). We found no support for the niche breadth hypothesis. In contrast, we found consistent support for the closely related resource availability hypothesis. Species utilising resources (habitats) that are marginal tend to appear at low density and to have narrow distribution whereas species utilising widespread habitats tend to be more abundant and more widely distributed. Using data on body size and reproductive traits we explored the potential influence of these variables in explaining significant variation around the density-range size relationship. Only body size explains significant variation around the relationship, being negatively correlated with local density and positively correlated with range size.

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Acknowledgements

Our thanks to Bernard Hugueny and two anonymous referees for comments and to Gordon Copp who helped to bring the paper to its final form. We thank the French Ministry of the Environment for financial support through the GICC-AQUABIO program.

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Author notes

  1. Thierry Oberdorff

    Present address: ULRA, Universidad Mayor de San Simon, C.P. 2352, Cochabamba, Bolivia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d’Ichtyologie, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, 43 rue Cuvier, 75231 , Paris Cedex 05, France

    Evelyne Tales, Philippe Keith & Thierry Oberdorff

  2. CEMAGREF.URE Qualité et Fonctionnement Hydrologique des Systèmes Aquatiques, Parc de Tourvoie, B.P. 44, 92163, Antony, France

    Evelyne Tales

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Correspondence to Thierry Oberdorff.

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Tales, E., Keith, P. & Oberdorff, T. Density-range size relationships in French riverine fishes. Oecologia 138, 360–370 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-003-1430-1

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