Decreased competitive interactions drive a reverse species richness latitudinal gradient in subarctic forests

Ecology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 461-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie E. Marshall ◽  
Jennifer L. Baltzer
Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 363 (6425) ◽  
pp. eaat4220 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Grady ◽  
Brian S. Maitner ◽  
Ara S. Winter ◽  
Kristin Kaschner ◽  
Derek P. Tittensor ◽  
...  

Species richness of marine mammals and birds is highest in cold, temperate seas—a conspicuous exception to the general latitudinal gradient of decreasing diversity from the tropics to the poles. We compiled a comprehensive dataset for 998 species of sharks, fish, reptiles, mammals, and birds to identify and quantify inverse latitudinal gradients in diversity, and derived a theory to explain these patterns. We found that richness, phylogenetic diversity, and abundance of marine predators diverge systematically with thermoregulatory strategy and water temperature, reflecting metabolic differences between endotherms and ectotherms that drive trophic and competitive interactions. Spatial patterns of foraging support theoretical predictions, with total prey consumption by mammals increasing by a factor of 80 from the equator to the poles after controlling for productivity.


2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz W. Pyrcz ◽  
Keith Willmott ◽  
Rafał Garlacz ◽  
Pierre Boyer ◽  
Yuvinka Gareca

2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (15) ◽  
pp. R574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin J. Gaston

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 248-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heraldo L. Vasconcelos ◽  
Jonas B. Maravalhas ◽  
Rodrigo M. Feitosa ◽  
Renata Pacheco ◽  
Karen C. Neves ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Cao ◽  
Richard Condit ◽  
Xiangcheng Mi ◽  
Lei Chen ◽  
Haibao Ren ◽  
...  

AbstractThe latitudinal gradient of declining species richness at higher latitudes is among the most fundamental patterns in ecology. However, whether changes in species composition across space (beta-diversity) contribute to this global gradient of species richness remains debated. Previous studies that failed to resolve the issue suffered from a well-known tendency for small samples in high gamma-diversity areas to inflate measures of beta-diversity. We provide here a rigorous test, comparing species-packing and local heterogeneity across a latitudinal gradient in tree species richness in Asia, using beta-diversity metrics that correct the gamma-diversity and sampling bias. Our data include 21 large forest plots across a wide environmental gradient in East Asia. We demonstrate that local beta-diversity increases with topographic heterogeneity, but after accounting for this and correcting the gamma-diversity bias, tropical forests still have higher beta-diversity than temperate, contributing to the latitudinal gradient of species richness. This supports the hypothesis of tighter species packing and larger niche space in tropical forests while demonstrating the importance of local processes in controlling beta-diversity.


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