Geographic range dynamics of South Africa's bird species

dc.contributor.advisorUnderhill, Les
dc.contributor.advisorAltwegg, Res
dc.contributor.authorLoftie-Eaton, Megan
dc.date.accessioned2022-07-06T06:35:52Z
dc.date.available2022-07-06T06:35:52Z
dc.date.issued2014
dc.date.updated2022-07-06T06:26:21Z
dc.description.abstractA key issue in species conservation is a knowledge of the geographic ranges of species, and how these are changing through time. For birds there is a special opportunity to undertake studies of range changes, making use of the data collected by the First and Second Southern African Bird Atlas Projects (SABAP1 and SABAP2), which are separated in time by about two decades. In this thesis, I first describe the strengths and the weaknesses of the databases collected by these two citizen science projects, and therefore discuss the limitations placed on the analyses. We then undertake two sets of analyses, one focused on species, and one focused on areas. I show that, across all species, the Family to which the species belongs is an explanatory variable which explains approximately 45% of range expansion or contraction of a species. Diet and mass are also significant explanatory variables. For the analyses by areas, we demonstrate that the general encroachment of shrubs and trees in the savanna biome appears to have had a profound impact on the occurrence and abundance of a large suit of bird species, with the small insectivores and frugivores showing the largest increases.
dc.identifier.apacitationLoftie-Eaton, M. (2014). <i>Geographic range dynamics of South Africa's bird species</i>. (). ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Biological Sciences. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36622en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationLoftie-Eaton, Megan. <i>"Geographic range dynamics of South Africa's bird species."</i> ., ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Biological Sciences, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36622en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationLoftie-Eaton, M. 2014. Geographic range dynamics of South Africa's bird species. . ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Biological Sciences. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36622en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Master Thesis AU - Loftie-Eaton, Megan AB - A key issue in species conservation is a knowledge of the geographic ranges of species, and how these are changing through time. For birds there is a special opportunity to undertake studies of range changes, making use of the data collected by the First and Second Southern African Bird Atlas Projects (SABAP1 and SABAP2), which are separated in time by about two decades. In this thesis, I first describe the strengths and the weaknesses of the databases collected by these two citizen science projects, and therefore discuss the limitations placed on the analyses. We then undertake two sets of analyses, one focused on species, and one focused on areas. I show that, across all species, the Family to which the species belongs is an explanatory variable which explains approximately 45% of range expansion or contraction of a species. Diet and mass are also significant explanatory variables. For the analyses by areas, we demonstrate that the general encroachment of shrubs and trees in the savanna biome appears to have had a profound impact on the occurrence and abundance of a large suit of bird species, with the small insectivores and frugivores showing the largest increases. DA - 2014 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - biological sciences LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PY - 2014 T1 - Geographic range dynamics of South Africa's bird species TI - Geographic range dynamics of South Africa's bird species UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36622 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/36622
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationLoftie-Eaton M. Geographic range dynamics of South Africa's bird species. []. ,Faculty of Science ,Department of Biological Sciences, 2014 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36622en_ZA
dc.language.rfc3066eng
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Biological Sciences
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Science
dc.subjectbiological sciences
dc.titleGeographic range dynamics of South Africa's bird species
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationlevelMSc
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