title: Seasonal and daily climate variation have opposite effects on species elevational range size.
abstract: The climatic variability hypothesis posits that the magnitude of climatic variability increases with latitude, elevation, or both, and that greater variability selects for organisms with broader temperature tolerances, enabling them to be geographically widespread. We tested this classical hypothesis for the elevational range sizes of more than 16,500 terrestrial vertebrates on 180 montane gradients. In support of the hypothesis, mean elevational range size was positively correlated with the scope of seasonal temperature variation, whereas elevational range size was negatively correlated with daily temperature variation among gradients. In accordance with a previous life history model and our extended versions of it, our findings indicate that physiological specialization may be favored under shorter-term climatic variability.
authors.affiliation: Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wei-Ping
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan. Department of Life Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan.
authors.forename: I-Ching
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. Departmento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal de Goiás, CP 131, 74.001-970 Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil.
authors.forename: Robert K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Colwell
authors.affiliation: Institute of Statistical Science, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wei-Chung
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Cho-Ying
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan. shensf@sinica.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Sheng-Feng
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002980:Climate; D057232:Global Warming; D012621:Seasons; D013696:Temperature; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000502:physiology*