Hughes, E.C. orcid.org/0000-0003-4682-6257, Edwards, D.P. orcid.org/0000-0001-8562-3853, Bright, J.A. et al. (4 more authors) (2022) Global biogeographic patterns of avian morphological diversity. Ecology Letters, 25 (3). pp. 598-610. ISSN 1461-023X
Abstract
Understanding the biogeographical patterns, and evolutionary and environmental drivers, underpinning morphological diversity are key for determining its origins and conservation. Using a comprehensive set of continuous morphological traits extracted from museum collections of 8353 bird species, including geometric morphometric beak shape data, we find that avian morphological diversity is unevenly distributed globally, even after controlling for species richness, with exceptionally dense packing of species in hyper-diverse tropical hotspots. At the regional level, these areas also have high morphological variance, with species exhibiting high phenotypic diversity. Evolutionary history likely plays a key role in shaping these patterns, with evolutionarily old species contributing to niche expansion, and young species contributing to niche packing. Taken together, these results imply that the tropics are both ‘cradles’ and ‘museums’ of phenotypic diversity.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | avian biodiversity; community structure; morphological diversity; morphological traits; morphospace; niche expansion; niche packing; Animals; Beak; Biodiversity; Biological Evolution; Birds; Phenotype |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Natural Environment Research Council NE/T01105X/1 The Royal Society UF120016; URF\R\180006 European Research Council 615709 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 28 Feb 2022 13:36 |
Last Modified: | 10 Feb 2023 14:12 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/ele.13905 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:184176 |