Extinction risk and rarity on an ecological timescale

摘要: The concept of rarity continues to have many different applications in the biological literature. It has long been recognized that can be measured on several axes, such as ecological specialization and distribution (Mayr, 1963), or local population size, habitat specificity geographical (Rabinowitz et al., 1986), well others less commonly identified (Chapter 3; Gaston, 1994). In addition, because these are all features vary continuously, should also regarded a continuous variable, Gaston (1994) recently provided some practical proposals for its definition analysis. purpose this chapter is review way which associated with persistence, how evolutionary pressures shaped kinds we see represented extant species.