Beyond just species: is Africa the most taxonomically diverse bird continent?
| dc.contributor.author | Lotz, Chris N | |
| dc.contributor.author | Caddick, John A | |
| dc.contributor.author | Forner, Monika | |
| dc.contributor.author | Cherry, Michael I | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2016-06-09T13:51:16Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2016-06-09T13:51:16Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2013 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2016-06-09T13:46:09Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | We analysed avian diversity in 8 similar-sized regions of Africa, and in an additional 16 regions spread across the world; half of these 24 regions were tropical and the other half were temperate. For each region, counts of species, genus, family and order were recorded rather than only a species count. We assert that this approach gives more accurate insights into diversity patterns, as we show that in relatively species-rich parts of the world species are on average taxonomically more similar to each other than in species-poor areas. Northwestern South America is the world's most species-rich region for birds, but we show that sub-Saharan Africa has greater diversity at higher taxonomic levels and is thus arguably the richest corner of the world for birds: the Mozambique–Zimbabwe region displays the highest diversity at the order level (with 30 orders), with all other sub-Saharan regions having between 27 and 29 orders each. Northern India is also extremely diverse (surprisingly so for a marginally temperate region) at all taxonomic levels below that of order. We hope that our study might generate further analyses of avian diversity beyond the species level. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier | http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/ sajs.2013/20120002 | |
| dc.identifier.apacitation | Lotz, C. N., Caddick, J. A., Forner, M., & Cherry, M. I. (2013). Beyond just species: is Africa the most taxonomically diverse bird continent?. <i>South African Journal of Science</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19981 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.chicagocitation | Lotz, Chris N, John A Caddick, Monika Forner, and Michael I Cherry "Beyond just species: is Africa the most taxonomically diverse bird continent?." <i>South African Journal of Science</i> (2013) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19981 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.citation | Lotz, C. N., Caddick, J. A., Forner, M., & Cherry, M. I. (2013). Beyond just species: Is Africa the most taxonomically diverse bird continent?. South African Journal of Science, 109(5-6), 01-04. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.issn | 0038-2353 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.ris | TY - Journal Article AU - Lotz, Chris N AU - Caddick, John A AU - Forner, Monika AU - Cherry, Michael I AB - We analysed avian diversity in 8 similar-sized regions of Africa, and in an additional 16 regions spread across the world; half of these 24 regions were tropical and the other half were temperate. For each region, counts of species, genus, family and order were recorded rather than only a species count. We assert that this approach gives more accurate insights into diversity patterns, as we show that in relatively species-rich parts of the world species are on average taxonomically more similar to each other than in species-poor areas. Northwestern South America is the world's most species-rich region for birds, but we show that sub-Saharan Africa has greater diversity at higher taxonomic levels and is thus arguably the richest corner of the world for birds: the Mozambique–Zimbabwe region displays the highest diversity at the order level (with 30 orders), with all other sub-Saharan regions having between 27 and 29 orders each. Northern India is also extremely diverse (surprisingly so for a marginally temperate region) at all taxonomic levels below that of order. We hope that our study might generate further analyses of avian diversity beyond the species level. DA - 2013 DB - OpenUCT DO - 10.1590/sajs.2013/20120002 DP - University of Cape Town J1 - South African Journal of Science LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2013 SM - 0038-2353 T1 - Beyond just species: is Africa the most taxonomically diverse bird continent? TI - Beyond just species: is Africa the most taxonomically diverse bird continent? UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19981 ER - | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19981 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/sajs.2013/20120002 | |
| dc.identifier.vancouvercitation | Lotz CN, Caddick JA, Forner M, Cherry MI. Beyond just species: is Africa the most taxonomically diverse bird continent?. South African Journal of Science. 2013; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19981. | en_ZA |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.publisher | Academy of Science of South Africa | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.department | Department of Biological Sciences | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Faculty of Science | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher.institution | University of Cape Town | |
| dc.rights | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) | * |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | en_ZA |
| dc.source | South African Journal of Science | en_ZA |
| dc.source.uri | http://www.sajs.co.za/ | |
| dc.subject.other | systematics | |
| dc.subject.other | avian diversity | |
| dc.subject.other | species | |
| dc.subject.other | genus | |
| dc.subject.other | conservation | |
| dc.title | Beyond just species: is Africa the most taxonomically diverse bird continent? | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Journal Article | en_ZA |
| uct.type.filetype | Text | |
| uct.type.filetype | Image | |
| uct.type.publication | Research | en_ZA |
| uct.type.resource | Article | en_ZA |