ENERGY, WATER, AND BROAD-SCALE GEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS OF SPECIES RICHNESS
2003/12/01 by Bradford A. Hawkins, Richard Field, Howard V. Cornell +11 · 61 citations
Environmental Science · #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Isotope Analysis in Ecology #Rangeland and Wildlife Management
paper · doi:10.1890/03-8006
Abstract
It is often claimed that we do not understand the forces driving the global diversity gradient. However, an extensive literature suggests that contemporary climate constrains terrestrial taxonomic richness over broad geographic extents. Here, we review the empirical literature to examine the nature and form of the relationship between climate and richness. Our goals were to document the support for the climatically based energy hypothesis, and within the constraints imposed by correlative analyses, to evaluate two versions of the hypothesis: the productivity and ambient energy hypotheses. Focusing on studies extending over 800 km, we found that measures of energy, water, or water–energy balance explain spatial variation in richness better than other climatic and non-climatic variables in 82 of 85 cases. Even when considered individually and in isolation, water/energy variables explain on average over 60% of the variation in the richness of a wide range of plant and animal groups. Further, water variables usually represent the strongest predictors in the tropics, subtropics, and warm temperate zones, whereas energy variables (for animals) or water–energy variables (for plants) dominate in high latitudes. We conclude that the interaction between water and energy, either directly or indirectly (via plant productivity), provides a strong explanation for globally extensive plant and animal diversity gradients, but for animals there also is a latitudinal shift in the relative importance of ambient energy vs. water moving from the poles to the equator. Although contemporary climate is not the only factor influencing species richness and may not explain the diversity pattern for all taxonomic groups, it is clear that understanding water–energy dynamics is critical to future biodiversity research. Analyses that do not include water–energy variables are missing a key component for explaining broad-scale patterns of diversity.
Cited by
- TESTING FOR LATITUDINAL BIAS IN DIVERSIFICATION RATES: AN EXAMPLE USING NEW WORLD BIRDS
- Are mountain passes higher in the tropics? janzen's hypothesis revisited
- There is little evidence that spicy food in hot countries is an adaptation to reducing infection risk
- Latitudinal and seasonal patterns in clutch size of some single‐brooded British birds
- Impact of climate change on communities: revealing species' contribution
- Links between the Environment, Abundance and Diversity of Andean Moths
- Human activities influence the occupancy probability of mammalian carnivores in the Brazilian Caatinga
- Diversity patterns in terrestrial tetrapod clades are governed by equilibrium dynamics
- Hierarchical filters determine community assembly of urban species pools
- Leaf‐level resistance to frost, drought and heat covaries across European temperate tree seedlings
- Pleistocene Forest Stability Predicts Patterns of Frog Diversity in Central Africa
- Spatial pattern of adaptive and neutral genetic diversity across different biomes in the lesser anteater (<i>Tamandua tetradactyla</i>)
- Functional stasis and changing habitat preferences among mammalian communities from the PETM of the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming
- Drought and Vegetation Lag Effects Influence Lizard Abundance: A 10‐Year Study of Perennial and Intermittent Urban River Areas
- Spatial and seasonal trait selection in dung beetle assemblages along an aridity gradient in the Sahara
- Determinants of local ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) species richness and activity density across Europe
- Consistent energy-diversity relationships in terrestrial vertebrates
- Preferred nectar sources for the monarch butterfly (<i>Danaus plexippus plexippus</i>) along the Great Plains migration pathway
- Determinants of plant species richness along elevational gradients: insights with climate, energy and water–energy dynamics
- Phylogenetic diversity and interspecies competition shaped species diversity in adaptive radiated <i>Ligustrum</i> (Oleaceae)
- Range Shift and Climatic Refugia for Alpine Lichens Under Climate Change
- Soil nitrogen cycling rates are linked to microbial functional and taxonomic groups across the United States
- Colour-driven activity adjustments mediate thermoregulation in sand lizards
- Global multifaceted biodiversity patterns, centers, and conservation needs in angiosperms
- <i>Rhododendron</i> diversity patterns provide new insights for conserving China's montane flora
- Effects of productivity on biodiversity in forest ecosystems across the United States and China
- The dynamics of the diversity–energy relationship during the last 21,000 years
- Water economics of African savanna herbivores: How much does plant moisture matter?
- Precipitation Steepness Drives Global Patterns of Changes in Bird Community Composition Without Major Phylogenetic Signal
- What determines trophic niche breadth? A global analysis of freshwater fishes using isospaces
- Ice age, current climate, habitat availability, and the diversity of European dragonflies and damselflies
- Net primary productivity but not its remote‐sensing proxies predict mammal diversity in Andean‐Amazonian rainforests
- Decline in plant species richness with a chronic decrease of precipitation: The mediating role of the dominant species
- FosSahul 2.0, an updated database for the Late Quaternary fossil records of Sahul
- Global models and predictions of plant diversity based on advanced machine learning techniques
- BRYOPHYTE RICHNESS AND HABITAT OCCUPANCY ALONG AN ELEVATION GRADIENT STARTING IN A MEDITERRANEAN CLIMATE
- Plant species radiations: where, when, why? [europepmc]
- Global associations between terrestrial producer and vertebrate consumer diversity. [europepmc]
- On the relationship between farmland biodiversity and land-use intensity in Europe. [europepmc]
- Phylogeny, niche conservatism and the latitudinal diversity gradient in mammals. [europepmc]
- Projected impacts of climate change on regional capacities for global plant species richness. [europepmc]
- Global drivers of human pathogen richness and prevalence. [europepmc]
- An exceptional role for flowering plant physiology in the expansion of tropical rainforests and biodiversity. [europepmc]
- Lineage divergence detected in the malaria vector Anopheles marajoara (Diptera: Culicidae) in Amazonian Brazil. [europepmc]
- Biogeography and ecology: towards the integration of two disciplines. [europepmc]
- How diversification rates and diversity limits combine to create large-scale species-area relationships. [europepmc]
- The influence of past and present climate on the biogeography of modern mammal diversity. [europepmc]
- Trait-based approaches to conservation physiology: forecasting environmental change risks from the bottom up. [europepmc]
- Prediction of phylogeographic endemism in an environmentally complex biome. [europepmc]
- Geographical variation in species' population responses to changes in temperature and precipitation. [europepmc]
- A Systematic Review of Global Drivers of Ant Elevational Diversity. [europepmc]
- The underestimated biodiversity of tropical grassy biomes. [europepmc]
- Plant and animal functional diversity drive mutualistic network assembly across an elevational gradient. [europepmc]
- Amphibian community structure along elevation gradients in eastern Nepal Himalaya. [europepmc]
- Maxent modeling for predicting the spatial distribution of three raptors in the Sanjiangyuan National Park, China. [europepmc]
- Distribution and relative age of endemism across islands worldwide. [europepmc]
- A meta-analysis of global fungal distribution reveals climate-driven patterns. [europepmc]
- Evolutionary diversity in tropical tree communities peaks at intermediate precipitation. [europepmc]
- Plant community diversity will decline more than increase under climatic warming. [europepmc]
- A global assessment of the drivers of threatened terrestrial species richness. [europepmc]
- The geography of climate and the global patterns of species diversity. [europepmc]
Related