Species ranges: fundamental ecological units or intractable complexity?
Several have argued that the geographic range of a species is a fundamental unit of biogeography and more generally of ecology. Certainly, the distribution of a species, and the fact that all species show distributional limits, is a critical fact. Others have argued that ranges are “just” the outcome of spatial variation in population dynamics. And still others have argued that ranges are to large and abstract to be treated meaningfully, being the outcome of dozens of smaller scale processes. I will start with ranges as units and range boundaries. I will review current summary knowledge about range sizes and range boundaries. I will look at the fundamental vs. realized niche and how these relate to ranges. I will then turn to looking how abundance is distributed within a species across its range. I will look at general patterns, and the predictability from climate and population dynamics, and explore the types of variation in population dynamics across a range.
About our speaker: Brian McGill completed a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona in 2003 and has been a Professor at the University of Maine since 2010. As a macroecologist, his research focuses on biodiversity, global change, and big data. The study of species geographic ranges is a thread running through his entire career, but remains very much a hill not yet conquered!
