Ecotones are gradients of change between expanses of similar species composition. These regions often mark co-occurring range limits for several species, and thus are ideal for elucidating ecological and biogeographical phenomena. The forest to tundra transition (FTT) is one of the world's most prominent ecotones, but remains poorly studied especially with regard to vertebrate species occurrence. Vertebrate diversity, ecological structure and resource selection were characterized across the Yukon FTT using diversity metrics, ordination, hierarchical clustering, and resource modeling. The FTT represents an abrupt drop in vertebrate species richness within the more gradual, continental scale diversity gradient. Despite the patchiness [...]
