Diversity of life is unequally distributed on Earth with well documented increasing species richness towards tropical regions. Within them the hotspots of diversity are frequently found in the mountains, where a high number of restricted range species occur. This is mostly due to island like conditions on the mountain tops and the fact that geographical scales and processes meet along elevations. Specifically, ecological sorting of species along climatic and environmental gradients is combined with the importance of different species pools between lowlands and montane areas. Reported decrease of species diversity towards higher elevations is determined by changes in species’ elevational ranges. Those are limited by environmental conditions and biotic interactions. Moreover, a year-round stability of climate presumably affects elevational ranges via rate of specialization (sensu Janzen 1967) and therefore influences their geographical variation. The aim of this project is to investigate how elevational ranges of organisms (with a special focus on birds and trees that reflect their habitats) shape species richness patterns along elevations and how this differ between geographical locations, specially between the tropics and the temperate region. The study will (i) employ field data about elevational distribution of birds, trees and potentially other taxa collected on Mt. Cameroon and compare them with similar available datasets, (ii) review available literature on elevational ranges with a special focus on differences among taxa and locations, (iii) perform a large-scale meta-analysis of avian and tree elevational ranges to test congruences between altitudinal distribution of birds and their habitat.
Janzen DH (1967) Why mountain passes are higher in the tropics. Am Nat 101:233–249.
Ferenc, M., Fjeldså, J., Sedláček, O., Motombi, F. N., Nana, E. D., Mudrová, K., & Hořák, D. (2016). Abundance-area relationships in bird assemblages along an Afrotropical elevational gradient: space limitation in montane forest selects for higher population densities. Oecologia, 181(1), 225-233
Djomo Nana, E., Sedláček, O., Bayly, N., Ferenc, M., Albrecht, T., Reif, J., Motombi, F.N. & Hořák, D. 2014. Comparison of avian assemblage structures in two upper montane forests of the Cameroon volcanic line: lessons for bird conservation. Biodiversity and Conservation, 23(6), 1469-1484.
Reif, J., Hořák, D., Sedláček, O., Riegert, J., Pešata, M., Hrázský, Z., Janeček, Š. & Storch, D. 2006. Unusual abundance–range size relationship in an Afromontane bird community: the effect of geographical isolation? Journal of Biogeography 33:1959-1968.
Djomo Nana, E., Sedláček, O., Doležal, J., Dančák, M., Altman, J., Svoboda, M., Majeský, Ľ. & Hořák, D. (2015). Relationship between Survival Rate of Avian Artificial Nests and Forest Vegetation Structure along a Tropical Altitudinal Gradient on Mount Cameroon. Biotropica, 47(6), 758-764.
Vokurková, J., Motombi, F. N., Ferenc, M., Hořák, D., & Sedláček, O. (2018). Seasonality of vocal activity of a bird community in an Afrotropical lowland rain forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 34(1), 53-64.
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