Ecological limits to local species richness in Dusky Salamanders (genus <i>Desmognathus</i>)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Species richness commonly varies with elevation, but in many montane regions, the greatest number of species occurs at mid-elevations. A recent regional analysis showed this pattern in Appalachian salamanders of the genus Desmognathus Baird, 1850. The authors proposed that the phylogenetic niche conservatism of these salamanders causes species to accumulate at intermediate elevations, which are characterized by the ancestral climate for the genus. They further suggested that physiological tolerances limit dispersal into higher or lower elevations. We tested this hypothesis using geographic information systems (GIS) based analysis of 235 local Desmognathus communities. Consistent with the regional analysis, local species richness was greatest at mid-elevations. However, the number of species is not limited by physiological tolerances but appears to be restricted ecologically by climate variables favoring aridity, as well as by biotic factors. Whether such ecological limits on species richness at the local level influences richness across regions or evolutionary clades remains to be tested.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".