Prevalence of intraspecific relationships between range size and abundance in Danish birds

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this study, we investigate patterns in the prevalence of dynamic range–abundance relationships of the Danish avifauna, using breeding bird atlases from 1971 to 1974 and from 1993 to 1996. We focus on differences between common and rare species by dividing the assemblage into range‐size quartiles. The trend in total population size was determined using an index. Range was determined as grid cell occupancy and standardized to facilitate comparisons between common and rare species. While narrow‐ranging species showed strong and consistent range–abundance relationships, the relationships for widespread species were weak and exhibited considerable variation. This may be due to differences in patterns of resource use, since widespread species generally have wider niches, and so may be less affected by resource‐based factors linking range and abundance. Since a tight and dynamic relationship is upheld for rare species, monitoring strategies based on range size surveys seem viable.