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Opposing Mechanisms Drive Richness Patterns Of Core And Transient Bird Species, Jessica R. Coyle, Allen H. Hurlbert, Ethan P. White

Biology Faculty Publications

Studies of biodiversity typically assume that all species are equivalent. However, some species in a community maintain viable populations in the study area, while others occur only occasionally as transient individuals. Here we show that North American bird communities can reliably be divided into core and transient species groups and that the richness of each group is driven by different processes. The richness of core species is influenced primarily by local environmental conditions, while the richness of transient species is influenced primarily by the heterogeneity of the surrounding landscape. This demonstrates that the well-known effects of the local environment and …