Abstract
Where distribution maps do not exist ecologists often use regional species lists to examine geographic patterns of species richness, despite the fact that inconsistent grain sizes across areas may complicate interpretation of the results. We compare patterns of species richness of European butterflies and dragonflies using regional species lists (varying grain size) and regular grids (constant grain size). We asked if species lists give results comparable to the gridded data when used in simple macroecological analysis of environmental correlates of species richness. We generated two equal-area grids (220 × 220 km and 440 × 440 km) to map the richness gradients and model species richness as a function of actual evapotranspiration (AET) and range in elevation. Then we used species checklists of 33 administrative regions of unequal sizes to construct the same environmental models while accounting for differences in area. Analysis of butterfly checklist data produced comparable results to the analysis of gridded data. In contrast, dragonfly checklist data had a distorted spatial pattern and much weaker associations with environmental variables than the gridded data. The robustness of checklist data appears to be variable, even within a single geographical region, and may not generate patterns congruent with those found using equal-area grids.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to David Storch, Irena Simova, Jiri Reif, Mrdka Z. Krtka, Andrés Baselga, Martin Konvicka and an anonymous referee for comments on the manuscript. The study was supported by the Grant Agency of Charles University (GAUK 106108), by the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the CR (IAA601970801) and by the Czech Ministry of Education (Grant LC06073).
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Appendix
Appendix
Mismatches between the sources for the GRID data and the LIST data
Butterfly species complexes represented by one map in Tolman (1997) but which are two or more species in van Swaay and Warren (1999): Spialia sertorius (Hoffmannsegg), Pyrgus carlinae (Rambur), Meleageria coridon (Poda), Agrodiaetus dolus (Hübner), Plebeius pylaon (Fischer von Waldheim), Aricia agestis (Denis & Schiffermüller), Lasiommata megera (Linnaeus). Butterfly species complexes represented as one species in van Swaay and Warren (1999) but which have two maps in Tolman (1997): Pontia daplidice (Linnaeus). Butterfly species listed only in van Swaay and Warren (1999): Pyrgus bellieri (Oberthür), Agrodiaetus fulgens (De Sagarra), Neolycaena rhymnus (Eversmann), Clossiana selenis (Eversmann), Triphysa phyrne (Pallas), Melanargia pherusa (Boisduval), Tomares callimachus (Eversmann).
The set of dragonfly species that were treated in Dijkstra and Lewington (2006) (the source for the GRID data) was identical to the set of species in Fauna Europaea (the source for the LIST data) except for Pyrrhosoma elisabethe (Schmidt) and Cordulegaster picta (Selys) that are absent in the Fauna Europaea database.
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Keil, P., Hawkins, B.A. Grids versus regional species lists: are broad-scale patterns of species richness robust to the violation of constant grain size?. Biodivers Conserv 18, 3127–3137 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-009-9631-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-009-9631-5