Búsqueda de patrones en macroecología: la regla de Rapoport
The Rapoport effect predicts that the geographic range of species increases with latitude, altitude, and depth. In this paper, I review the literature on the techniques for detecting the pattern, and discuss three analytical aspects that are crucial to test it more rigorously: (1) the detection of methodological artefacts, (2) the application of null models in biogeography, and (3) the application of the phylogenetic comparative method. I use data on the geographic distribution of 100 species of American turtles to show, in practice, the sensitivity of results to different methods of analysis. The study shows the change in methodological approaches that occurred since the mid ’90s and resulted in increasingly complex techniques for the analysis of geographic gradients in the size of the geographic ranges of species. The simultaneous application of several analytical approaches allows to convalídate those tendencies that repeatedly emerge after the application of different techniques whereas suspicion falls on those patterns’ found only when a particular method is applied. At present, the Rapoport effect is not a general, verified rule in nature. Instead, it is a biological hypothesis to be tested as a first step, while trying to elucidate the mechanisms that explain the variations in the size of the geographic ranges of species. In the present paper, I show how the basic ideas that should be taken into account while developing studies in this topic can be introduced into teaching, through the development of a practical exercise which can be put to the test of graduate and post-graduate students.
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| Format: | Digital revista |
| Language: | spa |
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Asociación Argentina de Ecología
1999
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| Online Access: | https://ojs.ecologiaaustral.com.ar/index.php/Ecologia_Austral/article/view/1609 |
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| Summary: | The Rapoport effect predicts that the geographic range of species increases with latitude, altitude, and depth. In this paper, I review the literature on the techniques for detecting the pattern, and discuss three analytical aspects that are crucial to test it more rigorously: (1) the detection of methodological artefacts, (2) the application of null models in biogeography, and (3) the application of the phylogenetic comparative method. I use data on the geographic distribution of 100 species of American turtles to show, in practice, the sensitivity of results to different methods of analysis. The study shows the change in methodological approaches that occurred since the mid ’90s and resulted in increasingly complex techniques for the analysis of geographic gradients in the size of the geographic ranges of species. The simultaneous application of several analytical approaches allows to convalídate those tendencies that repeatedly emerge after the application of different techniques whereas suspicion falls on those patterns’ found only when a particular method is applied. At present, the Rapoport effect is not a general, verified rule in nature. Instead, it is a biological hypothesis to be tested as a first step, while trying to elucidate the mechanisms that explain the variations in the size of the geographic ranges of species. In the present paper, I show how the basic ideas that should be taken into account while developing studies in this topic can be introduced into teaching, through the development of a practical exercise which can be put to the test of graduate and post-graduate students. |
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