Mapping biodiversity using surrogates for species richness: macro-scales and New World birds

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Abstract
A number of surrogates have been suggested for predicting relative levels of biodiversity (typically expressed in terms of species richness) in areas for which this information is not available. However, to date there has been little attempt to perform direct and explicit empirical comparisons of their effectiveness. Here we examine the relative predictive value of some environmental variables and of the numbers of higher taxa, using the avifauna of the New World. Numbers of genera and families are found to have the strongest correlations with species richness, and to provide the best predictions of the numbers of species in areas of Central and South America on the basis of data for North America. Their effectiveness as surrogates may result from the fact that they themselves represent an alternative currency for expressing levels of biodiversity.

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