Effects of including non-breeding bird species on predicted bird distributions for conservation planning in New Mexico

There has been uncertainty in the national gap analysis program about including non-breeding birds in distribution models because of concerns that distributions of migrant and winter birds are difficult to predict and are not necessary to assess biodiversity patterns. New Mexico gap analysis included migrant and non-breeding birds assuming that distributions could be predicted using habitat associations, and that excluding non-breeding bird habitat from avian richness projections potentially underestimates community types important to birds. We compared biodiversity estimates including non-breeding birds (inclusive estimate - 324 species) to estimates including only breeding birds (breeding bird estimate - 257 species)...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Biodiversity, Birds, GIS, Gap analysis, Habitat association, All tags... Habitat relationships, Migrant birds, Model comparison, New Mexico, Species richness, Fewer tags