Vertebrate Feeding Guilds in California’s Sierra Nevada

In biogeography, as in other parts of physical geography, it has become conventional wisdom to assert that a change in the scale of analysis necessitates a change in explanatory factors. In this article, we present an empirical study at a regional scale and compare the results to earlier data analyzed at a subcontinental scale. We describe the spatial patterns of vertebrates, characterized by taxonomic Classes and feeding guilds, on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada of California. The analysis indicates that numbers of total species, species within Classes, and species within both individual and aggregated guilds all relate strongly to environmental conditions of vegetation structure and climate. Compared to the subcontinental scale patterns for the American West, the results seem similar for guild structure but less so for taxonomic characteristics, probably because guilds and taxa respond differently to factors at different scales. Changing spatial scales may or may not necessitate changing explanatory factors, depending upon the nature of the system being investigated and the characteristics used for analysis

Biogeography · Biology · Cartography · Geography · Guild · Habitat · Scale (ratio) · Spatial ecology · Taxon · Vegetation (pathology) · Ecology · Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies · Species Distribution and Climate Change · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

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