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Article: Avian habitat selection: pattern from process in nest-site use by ducks?
- Article from:
- Ecology
- Article date:
- January 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Ecological Society of America. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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INTRODUCTION
Organisms are typically not distributed randomly among habitats, and it is generally assumed that nonrandom distribution patterns result from natural selection (Southwood 1977). Interspecific differences in habitat selection are often ascribed to variation in morphology or physiology (Cody 1985, Morse 1985, Sherry and Holmes 1985, Martin 1995). However, variation in fitness, which is implicit in these studies (Fretwell and Lucas 1970, Fretwell 1972, Kirsch 1996), is seldom explicit in tests of habitat selection. A further deficiency in much of the habitat selection literature is evidence of adaptation to spatial variation in fitness (cf. Gavin 1991). ...