Who is rare? Artefacts and complexities of rarity determination

In order to distinguish those factors or traits that are related to the commonness or rarity of species, one must first somehow define which species are common and which are rare. Most definitions of rarity include consideration either of the geographical range of a species (typically, its extent of occurrence, sensu Gaston, 1991), or its abundance within an area, or both together (e.g. Rabinowitz, 1981; Rabinowitz et al., 1986; Gaston, 1994a). Species are generally considered to be rare if their geographical ranges are limited, and/or if their abundances are low. However, what constitutes a low abundance or a limited range can only be determined with reference to the distributions of values of these traits among some relevant set of species. For example, a bird species considered common might attain a density of 100 individuals/km2, and a bird species considered rare a density of one individual/km2, but an insect distributed at either of these densities might be considered rare. Thus, rarity is a relative concept (Gaston, 1994a).

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