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Energy, Water, and Broad-Scale Geographic Patterns of Species Richness

Ecology (Durham), 2003-12, Vol.84 (12), p.3105-3117 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

Copyright 2003 Ecological Society of America ;2003 by the Ecological Society of America ;2004 INIST-CNRS ;Copyright Ecological Society of America Dec 2003 ;Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ;ISSN: 0012-9658 ;EISSN: 1939-9170 ;DOI: 10.1890/03-8006 ;CODEN: ECGYAQ

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Title:
Energy, Water, and Broad-Scale Geographic Patterns of Species Richness
Author: Hawkins, Bradford A. ; Field, Richard ; Cornell, Howard V. ; Currie, David J. ; Guégan, Jean-François ; Kaufman, Dawn M. ; Kerr, Jeremy T. ; Mittelbach, Gary G. ; Oberdorff, Thierry ; O'Brien, Eileen M. ; Porter, Eric E. ; John R. G. Turner
Subjects: Animal and plant ecology ; Animal, plant and microbial ecology ; Animals ; Biodiversity ; Biodiversity and Ecology ; Biological and medical sciences ; Climate models ; Concepts and Synthesis: Emphasizing New Ideas to Stimulate Research in Ecology ; diversity gradients ; Energy ; energy hypothesis ; Environmental Sciences ; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology ; General aspects ; Geography ; Global climate models ; latitudinal gradient ; Life Sciences ; Mammals ; Plants ; Productivity ; productivity hypothesis ; Rain ; Species ; Species diversity ; species richness ; species–energy theory ; Synecology ; Water ; water–energy dynamics
Is Part Of: Ecology (Durham), 2003-12, Vol.84 (12), p.3105-3117
Description: 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.
Publisher: Washington, DC: Ecology Society of America
Language: English
Identifier: ISSN: 0012-9658
EISSN: 1939-9170
DOI: 10.1890/03-8006
CODEN: ECGYAQ
Source: Hyper Article en Ligne (HAL) (Open Access)

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Energy, Water, and Broad-Scale Geographic Patterns of Species Richness

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