Nathaniel Dinolfo
Pronouns: he/him
Research Mentor(s): Miriam Zelditch
Research Mentor School/College/Department: University of Michigan / LSA
Program:
Authors: Nathaniel Dinolfo, Miriam Zelditch
Session: Session 7: 4:40 pm – 5:30 pm
Poster: 72
Abstract
A longstanding method of analyzing the determinants of biodiversity and species richness is to combine geographic ranges of species with their ecological trait data. This method attempts to use these two types of data to distinguish the characteristics of species rich environments from those of species poor environments. This study uses this same method to analyze the species richness of Nearctic Sciuridae. Additionally, we have collected data from multiple popular databases (Mammalian Species Accounts, PanTHERIA, COMBINE, and EltonTraits) and analyzed their similarity. This was done by creating dissimilarity matrices using Gower’s distances for each database, and then using Mantel tests to compare the matrices. Then, species ranges were mapped using geographic data compiled from the IUCN Red List, and the intersection of ecological trait data and species richness was analyzed. We have not yet collected results from the study, but we expect to find that the matrices do have a moderate level of correlation, and that they will reveal different spatial patterns of the determinants of species richness. We also hope to improve the usefulness of the existing databases (Mammalian Species Accounts, PanTHERIA, COMBINE, and EltonTraits) by providing useful information on the consistency of the data across the various databases.
