a theory of

Global Biodiversity
MONOGRAPHS IN POPULATION BIOLOGY
SIMON A. LEVIN AND HENRY S. HORN, SERIES EDITORS

A complete series list follows the index.

 a theory of
Global Biodiversity

bo ris wo rm
and
derek p. tittens or

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2018 by Princeton University Press

Published by Princeton University Press,

41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540

In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,

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Library of Congress Control Number 2017958993

ISBN 978-0-691-15483-1

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This work is dedicated to Sylvie Moe, and all the other children

who will inherit the fragile beauty that graces our planet.
 Contents

Acknowledgments ix

1. Introduction 1
1.1. Integrating Land and Sea 2
1.2. A Brief History of Biodiversity Research 5
1.3. Goals and Structure of This Book 8

2. Observed Patterns of Global Biodiversity 10

2.1. Marine Coastal Biodiversity 12
2.2. Marine Pelagic Biodiversity 24
2.3. Deep-Sea Biodiversity 31
2.4. Terrestrial Biodiversity 35
2.5. Changes in Biodiversity Patterns through Time 41
2.6. Robustness of Documented Biodiversity Patterns 44
2.7. Synthesis 50

3. Drivers and Predictors of Global Biodiversity 56

3.1. Hypothesized Drivers of Diversity 57
3.2. Spatial and Temporal Scale 73
3.3. Empirical Predictors of Diversity 76
3.4. Synthesis 90

4. Developing a Theory of Global Biodiversity 93

4.1. Basic Neutral Theory 94
4.2. Implementation in Forward and Coalescence Mode 101
4.3. Including Metabolic Theory 104
4.4. Including Habitat Area and Productivity 109
4.5. Including Temperature Niches 113
4.6. Discussion and Comparison with Other Theory 122

5. Predicting Global Biodiversity Patterns from Theory 124

5.1. Fitting Theoretical Predictions to Empirical Data 125
5.2. Ectotherms versus Endotherms 137
5.3. Including Niches 142
5.4. Synthesis 143
viii CONTENTS

6. Conservation Applications 149

6.1. Global Biodiversity Hotspots and Conservation Priorities 150
6.2. Observed Biodiversity Change and Its Drivers 155
6.3. Projecting Biodiversity Change from Theory 162
6.4. The Future of Biodiversity 169

7. Conclusions 171
7.1. Summary of Major Findings 171
7.2. Ecological Theory 174
7.3. A Niche for Neutrality? 176
7.4. Spatial Scale 177
7.5. Ecological versus Evolutionary Time 178
7.6. Applications 179
7.7. Limitations 180
7.8. Final Outlook 182

References 185

Index 207
 Acknowledgments

This volume attempts an empirical and theoretical synthesis of global patterns

in biodiversity. Clearly, any synthetic work in this field, including this one, first
and foremost builds on the detailed taxonomic and biogeographical surveys per-
formed by thousands of dedicated and inspired colleagues. We admire, and feel
greatly indebted to, these collective efforts. Without the venerable and frequently
unrecognized persistence of naturalists, taxonomists, field researchers, evolution-
ary scientists, and paleontologists, both past and present, none of this work could
have been attempted. Furthermore, any conceptual advances herein could not
have emerged without the foundational work on spatial patterns in biodiversity
by many others. We feel especially lucky to have been inspired by discussions we
had with some of the great minds in the field. These include our former mentors
Anthony R. O. Chapman, Ransom A. Myers, and Ulrich Sommer, who helped to
shape our scientific inquiry into nature’s patterns and processes. We have greatly
benefited from and are deeply grateful to our friends, colleagues, and students
Drew Allen, Greg Britten, Jim Brown, James Estes, John Grady, John Grant,
Mike Harfoot, Stephen Hubbell, Walter Jetz, Mark Johnston, Heike Lotze, Eric
Mills, Camilo Mora, Tim Newbold, Robert Paine, Drew Purves, Thorsten Reusch,
Gabriel Reygondeau, James Rosindell, Edward Vanden Berghe, Hal Whitehead,
and many others who have provided much valuable feedback, critical advice and
inspiring debate and discussion over the years.
Special thanks also to colleagues and institutions that shared data or made
them freely available on the Web for the purposes of this volume. These include
Kevin Gaston, Benjamin Halpern, David Jablonski, Kristin Kaschner, Stuart
Kininmonth, Holger Kreft, Jorge Molinos, Willem Renema, Callum Roberts, Jim
Valentine, Skip Woolley, NOAA, and the International Union for Conservation
of Nature (IUCN). We gratefully acknowledge further support by colleagues and
staff at Dalhousie University in Halifax. We also thank Dalhousie University,
the UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre, and Neil Burgess,
Stephen Emmott, Jon Hutton, Tim Johnson, Sally Newton, and Jörn Scharlemann
for providing an environment and opportunity conducive to making this under-
taking possible. We also thank the Census of Marine Life and the Natural Sci-
ence and Engineering Research Council of Canada for financial support. We feel
x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

indebted to our partners, Heike Lotze and Andrea Moe, who were incredibly sup-
portive over the period of writing this volume. Finally, we are grateful to the Tri-
dent coffee shop and The Henry House, Halifax, for providing inspiring writing
environments and appropriate hydration.
 A Theory of
Global Biodiversity
 CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

The most striking feature of Earth is the existence of life,

and the most striking feature of life is its diversity.
—David Tilman

Our planet is characterized by two highly unusual, and intriguingly beautiful,

aspects: the fact that it contains life at all, and the spectacular ways in which
novel life forms have diversified and assembled into complex communities and
ecosystems. We have not—at the time of writing—discovered life on other celes-
tial bodies, and even if life forms do exist elsewhere, the complexity of Earth’s
diversity may still remain unique or inordinately rare. As far as we know, the
first microbial life on Earth originated in a primordial abiotic ocean some 3 to 4
billion years ago, possibly at hydrothermal vents (Martin et al. 2008), although
several competing hypotheses exist (Mulkidjanian et al. 2012). From there, the
remarkable biodiversity that now defines and shapes life on our planet evolved
further, dispersing across the global ocean, and, about 0.6 billion years ago, onto
the land (Retallack 2013). A cornucopia of profound biochemical, physiological,
structural, and behavioral developments and adaptations facilitated this expansion
into previously lifeless and often hostile environments. The evolutionary history
of marine to terrestrial colonization is still visible in the distribution of higher taxa
today: almost all animal phyla occur in the oceans, while fewer than half exist on
land (May 1988). Yet, total species richness of eukaryotes is estimated to be about
threefold greater on land (Mora et al. 2011), in large part due to the extraordinary
radiation of insects. Remarkably, however, we have only a rough idea how many
species exist either on land or in the oceans, possibly comprising some 8 to 9 mil-
lion eukaryotes in total (Mora et al. 2011), with most of them still awaiting formal
description. The challenge of identifying and explaining the seemingly endless
variety of life on Earth remains one of the most profound tasks in biology, and
perhaps in the sciences as a whole.
Apart from the sheer magnitude of biodiversity, its prominent spatial patterns
have long been of interest. The nonrandom spatial distribution of biodiversity is
apparent even to the casual observer. It is likely that early hominids who traveled
and expanded their reach across different biomes would have already been cog-
nizant of the substantial differences between the richness of ecological communi-
ties at large scales and their broad relationship to latitude, altitude, and moisture
2 CHAPTER 1

regimes. Ever since naturalists began describing, organizing, and documenting

the variety of species in more detail, some very general patterns have emerged.
For many taxonomic groups surveyed on land, including plants, vertebrates, and
insects, species richness (the number of species found in a particular area at a
given time) peaks in the wet, warm tropics and falls off sharply toward higher
latitudes and altitudes (Gaston 2000). This first-order pattern of global biodiver-
sity (Krug et al. 2009) is exceedingly well documented (Hillebrand 2004), but
poorly understood from a theoretical perspective, with a raft of possible mecha-
nisms proposed (Rohde 1992). In the oceans, similar gradients in species richness
have been observed from the tropics to the poles in some well-studied coastal
taxa (Stehli et al. 1967; Roberts et al. 2002). Open-ocean (pelagic) species, from
zooplankton to whales, have been analyzed more recently and often display a
different pattern that peaks at subtropical or even temperate latitudes (Titten-
sor et al. 2010). Deep-sea taxa, while sparsely sampled, appear different again
(Woolley et al. 2016). Explaining these large-scale patterns has become a core
question in ecology and evolutionary biology, often addressed through correlative
methods linking hypothesized mechanisms to environmental variables. Although
such approaches can help to identify possible drivers, they cannot necessarily
distinguish between them or shed light on the mechanisms involved. An alterna-
tive route for enhancing our understanding of the spatial distribution of global
biodiversity is through developing a model that enables, or at least proposes, a
mechanistic understanding of the fundamental processes structuring global pat-
terns in biodiversity, an ideal that has been called the “holy grail of modern bio-
geography and macroecology” (Gotelli et al. 2009).
Clearly, fundamental questions about species diversity are not just interesting
to ecologists but are also central to our understanding of the world we live in
and how we relate to it. Species diversity is akin to a periodic table of biology:
it provides the fundamental building blocks for the ecosystems we all inhabit.
How is the global richness of species organized, and how does it vary across taxa
and through space and time? What are the environmental factors that may drive
this variation and to what extent are these factors influenced by human perturba-
tions? And finally, can we explain this bewildering variety from simple ecological
theory and provide a more mechanistic understanding of the fundamental distri-
butional patterns of life? These questions have long been at the core of ecology,
and they form the focus of this book.

1.1. INTEGRATING LAND AND SEA

A key premise of our work here is that a more comprehensive understanding of

global biodiversity can be gained only by overcoming a disciplinary divide that has
 INTRODUCTION 3

0.00000900 Diversity
0.00000800 Plant
0.00000700
Frequency (%)

0.00000600
0.00000500
0.00000400
0.00000300 Fish
Bird
0.00000200 Insect
Tree
0.00000100 Invertebrate
0.00000000 Coral
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Year published

Figure 1.1. Mentioning of species diversity in published books. Plant diversity is referenced
for around three times longer than and at least eight times as often as any other group. Note the
increasing mention of other species groups only after around 1970, when spatial biodiversity
science further expanded to other realms. Data from Google ngram project (https://books.google
.com/ngrams).

long separated the study of biodiversity on land and in the sea. Since humans are
land animals, we have often been primarily concerned with the terrestrial organ-
isms that we can more easily observe. This is also reflected in the history of eco-
logical study. Many scientists who shaped the foundations of our field, such as
von Humboldt, Darwin, Wallace, Elton, Hutchinson, and MacArthur, had a ter-
restrial or sometimes freshwater focus, but they rarely considered the oceans in
detail (Darwin’s beautiful monographs on corals and barnacles being among the
notable exceptions). These pioneers also shared a keen interest in the forces that
shape patterns of species richness. Hence, published work on this topic is heavily
biased toward the land. A quick online search confirms that there are about 30%
more scientific articles and books devoted to the biodiversity of a single terrestrial
habitat type—forests—alone than to marine biodiversity. Likewise, the mention of
“plant diversity” in all published books, scientific or otherwise, goes back at least
to the beginning of the twentieth century, whereas marine species groups appeared
much later in this context and have only slowly risen to more prominence (fig. 1.1).
In focusing on the oceans in addition to the land in this book, we treat different
marine habitats as further “replicates” of global biodiversity patterns: different
from terrestrial, but potentially organized (at least at some fundamental level) by
similar principles (fig. 1.2). At the very least, this assertion is a null-hypothesis to
be confronted with data. At the very best, it increases the “degrees of freedom”
when we test our ability to understand and predict the first-order patterns of bio-
diversity on our planet. As the marine environment is less familiar to most, it
tends to challenge our assumptions about how the world works, and allows us to
critically examine ecological concepts that have been developed with a largely
terrestrial focus. Are these patterns, ideas, hypotheses, and theories truly general
4 CHAPTER 1

A B

C D

Figure 1.2. Biodiversity across marine and terrestrial habitats provides four largely independent
“replicates” with which to explore patterns of biodiversity. Examples of (A) coastal; (B) pelagic;
(C) deep sea; and (D) terrestrial diversity are shown. Credits: (A) Ami Gur; (B) Samuel Blum;
(C) NOAA; (D) Frank Brodrecht.

to all systems? It is our assertion that ecology, and its theoretical foundations,
should be general, no matter whether its subjects happen to be wet or dry.
At the same time, our—and indeed society’s—current interest in biodiversity
is much more than academic. The rapid erosion of biodiversity—both on land
and in the ocean—is cause for much concern, as it threatens individual species
with extinction (Dirzo et al. 2014; McCauley et al. 2015), and ecosystems with
loss of functionality, essential services, and resilience (Worm et al. 2006; Hooper
et al. 2012). There is growing awareness of this biodiversity crisis as a defining
problem of our time (Tickell 1997), with international policies being shaped in an
attempt to slow and ultimately reverse the rate of loss (Tittensor et al. 2014). This
has also resulted in renewed interest in the fundamental processes that give rise to,
maintain, or threaten, biodiversity at local, regional, and global scales.
Some of these fundamental processes can be further unveiled by contrasting and
comparing current patterns of and changes in diversity to those that have unfolded
INTRODUCTION 5

through deep time (Jablonski et al. 2006; Valentine and Jablonski 2015; Yasuhara et
al. 2015). By carefully dissecting the paleontological record, researchers have been
able to trace patterns of species richness throughout Earth’s history, learning how
they have changed as the environment around them became altered by geological,
biological, and climatic forces (Renema et al. 2008; Krug et al. 2009; Yasuhara et
al. 2012; Jablonski et al. 2013; Mannion et al. 2014). At present, human beings are
exerting pressures and inducing changes as pronounced as many of these deep-time
processes, and are certainly a dominant force shaping life on Earth (Waters et al.
2016). As an example, CO2 is now emitted at a rate ~20 times greater than the fastest
CO2 emission rates in recorded geological history (Zachos et al. 2008), and is warm-
ing the planet at record speed. Yet, our ability to predict the future of biodiversity is
both more limited and more uncertain than our understanding of its past (Sala et al.
2000). We posit that a more general understanding of global biodiversity patterns,
and in particular the ecological and evolutionary forces that shape them, may help
us to forecast biological reconfigurations in both the short and the long term under
a given rate and pattern of environmental change.

1.2. A BRIEF HISTORY OF BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH

It is often instructive to trace the origin and evolution of a question or an idea

through history. Observations on patterns of species richness at local scales likely
date back to the beginnings of human inquiry. Traditional hunter-gatherer soci-
eties, for example, acquired and still hold detailed knowledge of many species
and their distributions (Cotton 1996), and devised observation-based heuristics
to explain such patterns. Early scientific inquiry was exemplified by Aristotle’s
strikingly detailed observations on both terrestrial and marine animals, particu-
larly their morphology and distribution. These important observations were not
synthesized in much greater detail until the Age of the Enlightenment. Specifi-
cally, Linnaeus’s Systema Naturae (Linnæus 1758) established taxonomy and
systematics, and enabled a more structured inquiry into patterns of species rich-
ness and how they unfolded based on the relatedness of individual organisms.
Subsequently, major scientific expeditions were organized, discovering new spe-
cies and ecological communities as they surveyed land and ocean areas around
the globe. For example, Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland’s expedi-
tions to South America of 1799–1804 initiated modern biogeography, while the
Challenger expedition of 1872–1876 laid the foundations of oceanography, and
catalogued over 4000 unknown species from marine waters around the world.
A common thread running through this “era of discovery” was that it became
increasingly evident that our planet held far more forms of life than had hitherto
6 CHAPTER 1

been anticipated, and that much of it was concentrated in tropical forests on land,
or contained in structured habitats such as kelp forests and coral reefs in the
ocean. In the marine realm, however, the pace of discovery was generally slower,
particularly in the vast reaches of the open ocean and the deep sea, the latter long
presumed to be devoid of life.
Darwin’s theory of evolution (Darwin 1859) provided another milestone. The
theory was elegant in that it required only two fundamental processes—specifi-
cally, the generation of variation in species’ traits and the forces of natural selec-
tion acting upon that variation—to explain the emergence of new species, and by
extension all of biodiversity. Although the Modern Synthesis suggests that other
processes, such as drift, are also important, the ramifications of Darwin’s theory
as a structural foundation for anchoring an understanding of the spatial distribu-
tion of biodiversity are obvious. Yet, there was little theory available or developed
at the time to understand the processes shaping the distribution of those species
across regions and around the globe.
Modern biodiversity science was arguably born out of Gene Evelyn Hutchin-
son’s “Homage to Santa Rosalia” (Hutchinson 1959), in which he posed the
question of how the great variety of observed species could coexist in a given
environment while competing for a few limiting resources. Examples include the
astounding richness of plankton species that can coexist in a single drop of water,
or the large number of tree species found in a patch of tropical forest. Hutchin-
son’s student Howard Sanders took this question to the deep sea, where he and
Robert Hessler discovered surprising levels of macrofaunal diversity that were
at the time perceived to perhaps match those of hyperdiverse tropical forests and
coral reefs (Hessler and Sanders 1967). Soon Sanders, among others, was for-
mulating theory to explain these observations (Sanders 1968). The stability-time
hypothesis, which was borne out of these observations, was one of the first theo-
ries specifically developed to explain observed biodiversity patterns; it related
large-scale differences in species richness to the severity and frequency of dis-
turbances. This work partially inspired several decades’ worth of research into
marine biodiversity patterns, both from biologists, focusing on coral reef and
deep-sea macrofauna (McCoy and Heck 1975; Grassle and Maciolek 1992; Rex
et al. 1993; Roberts et al. 2002; Brandt et al. 2007), and geologists, focusing on
bivalves, foraminifera, and other microfossils (Ruddiman 1969; Stehli et al. 1969;
Rutherford et al. 1999; Valentine and Jablonski 2015).
In a parallel development, MacArthur and Wilson published their Theory of
Island Biogeography, arguably the first mathematical theory of biodiversity pat-
terns (MacArthur and Wilson 1967). While originally focusing on the immigration
and extinction of terrestrial species on oceanic islands, it was subsequently applied
to other isolated habitats such as lakes, mountaintops, and forest fragments. A
INTRODUCTION 7

later extension of this theory, The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Bio-
geography (Hubbell 2001), which built on MacArthur and Wilson’s work, was
heavily informed by observations in tropical forests. When its predictions were
tested in other habitats both marine (Dornelas et al. 2006) and terrestrial (McGill
et al. 2006), however, results were mixed, and its generality remained unclear. The
Metabolic Theory of Ecology is another, more recent theory that makes general
predictions about changes in community structure and consequently biodiversity
in relation to temperature (Brown et al. 2004). On its own, it also falls short of
capturing a majority of diversity gradients on land (Hawkins et al. 2007), but it has
not been evaluated in comprehensive detail for marine environments.
The new millennium brought about an era of large-scale data integration and
synthesis, spurred by the growth of macroecology as a prominent subfield in
ecology (Brown 1995; Gaston 2000). The First Global Census of Marine Life
(2000–2010), for example, built on Fred Grassle’s and Jesse Ausubel’s bold
vision to systematically chart and understand marine biodiversity patterns across
all the many different habitats, from shallow reefs to abyssal plains (Ausubel
1999; Grassle and Stocks 1999). Grassle was a student of Sanders, and thus it is
conceivable that the vision of a systematic and global marine census may ulti-
mately be traced back through a direct academic lineage to Hutchinson’s seminal
thoughts on patterns of species diversity. The Census of Marine Life was by far
the largest initiative of its kind and certainly invigorated interest in marine bio-
diversity, both in academia and in the public eye through regular media coverage
of its many spectacular and photogenic discoveries. Scientifically, it fostered an
interdisciplinary, comparative, and highly collaborative approach that culminated
in a series of synthetic papers on the large-scale patterns of species distribution,
abundance, and richness across different marine habitats (Tittensor et al. 2010;
Block et al. 2011; Mora et al. 2011; Ramirez-Llodra et al. 2011). At the same
time, parallel synthetic developments in terrestrial ecology led to similar efforts at
empirical synthesis, focusing largely on patterns in plant (Kier et al. 2005; Kreft
and Jetz 2007) and vertebrate species richness (Jetz and Rahbek 2002; Grenyer et
al. 2006; Jetz and Fine 2012). Finally, the creation of dedicated institutions such
as the National Center of Ecological Analysis of Synthesis (NCEAS) spurred the
search for general ecological principles to be extracted from these newly docu-
mented global patterns. Most recently, online databases such as the Encyclopedia
of Life (http://eol.org/); the Map of Life (https://www.mol.org/); the International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List (http://www.iucnredlist.org/);
the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (http://www.gbif.org/); and the
Ocean Biogeographic Information System (http://www.iobis.org/) have enabled
even better integration of biological and environmental data, facilitating further
syntheses of observed patterns of species richness and community structure.
8 CHAPTER 1

Despite these exciting advances, however, biodiversity research has not yet
produced a testable body of theory that can coherently explain the manifold pat-
terns of global biodiversity on land and in the sea. Yet, the time seems ripe to
attempt such a synthesis. On the empirical side, field ecologists have compiled an
unprecedented number of observations across multiple taxonomic groups along
with associated environmental predictors that might be related to underlying pro-
cesses. There also exists an extensive list of hypothesized drivers and mecha-
nisms (Rohde 1992), but no cohesive model to reconstruct observed patterns of
biodiversity from such mechanisms at the global scale. Especially challenging is
the fact that some of the hypothesized drivers, such as temperature, can operate
through both ecological (for example, niche constraints) and evolutionary (for
example, speciation rates) mechanisms, and correlative models provide no way to
separate these effects. Another obstacle is that much relevant theory (for example,
island biogeography theory, metabolic theory, or indeed neutral theory) has been
developed with a terrestrial focus, and its applicability to marine habitats has been
less extensively explored in terms of spatial distributions of biodiversity. Integrat-
ing empirical observations with mechanistic models both on land and in the ocean
may provide a clearer picture of both their generality and their limitations.

1.3. GOALS AND STRUCTURE OF THIS BOOK

Our goal in this book is to construct an integrated understanding of large-scale

patterns of marine and terrestrial biodiversity at regional to global scales (hun-
dreds to tens of thousands of km). Although we recognize that the term bio-
diversity is used to encompass all levels of biological variation (UN 1992), here
we shall use it primarily to describe the number of species in a given community
(species richness); other aspects of biodiversity such as phylogenetic or functional
diversity will remain an area for future research. We begin by describing and syn-
thesizing the state of scientific knowledge of species richness patterns for coastal,
pelagic (open ocean), and deep-sea (>2000 m depth) environments, and compare
these to patterns found on land and in freshwater (chapter 2), treating these major
habitats as largely independent “replicates” across which we strive to understand
contrasting patterns of diversity. We then discuss and analyze the environmental
correlates that best explain these patterns (chapter 3). Based on this empirical
understanding, we construct a simple theoretical model that attempts to explain
the present latitudinal distribution of species, in an idealized ocean (chapter 4). In
starting with a “minimal realistic model” and then building on it to produce some-
thing more closely aligned with observed patterns, we find that we need to unify
three preeminent ecological theories—namely, neutral, niche, and metabolic
INTRODUCTION 9

theory. From this emerge a number of predictions on species richness, but also
range size, niche breadth, and other macroecological patterns that are explored
in some detail. When confronting our model with empirical data (chapter 5), we
derive surprisingly realistic predictions of species richness for known marine and
terrestrial species groups on a global grid that includes both the continents and
the oceans. On the more applied side (chapter 6), we use our empirical synthesis
to map out possible priority areas for conserving biodiversity at large scales, and
employ our theoretical model to explore scenarios of long-term changes in future
biodiversity patterns in response to projected global warming. In the long term, it
is our hope that our thoughts will in some way contribute to a broader, unifying
synthesis in biodiversity science (chapter 7).
The ideas presented in this book are necessarily circumscribed by inherent biases
in our collective knowledge of different species groups. We tend to be familiar with
larger-bodied taxa that are easily observable, or that we find beautiful, nutritious,
or fearsome. Much less information is available, particularly when seeking global
coverage, for those taxa that are smaller, less visually interesting, or less obviously
useful for humankind. Microbial organisms, for example, are critically important in
regulating biogeochemical processes at the planetary scale (Falkowski 2012), yet
our knowledge of their biodiversity remains very limited (Sunagawa et al. 2015).
Less well researched taxa may display different spatial patterns of biodiversity
from those with which we are more familiar. We are unable, unfortunately, to over-
come this limitation, and can only work with the empirical information that we
have available at this point in time; future discoveries and empirical compilations
can be used to test, revise, or overturn the ideas in this book. In addition, our
work maintains a consistent focus on species richness, and treats species evenness,
functional diversity, species turnover, and community composition only in passing.
This is most certainly not for a lack of interest but due to the inherent limitations
involved in covering a broad range of taxa and patterns in a single book.
We also focus deliberately on large scales, for the pragmatic reason that our
knowledge at large spatial grains (hundreds to thousands of km) tends to be more
complete, on average, than at finer grains (Mora et al. 2008). The idea is to capture
the first-order latitudinal and longitudinal patterns of species richness, its peaks
and troughs, rather than its detailed regional variation, which might be structured
by different driving forces. We realize that this approach may disappoint some,
who would like to see a more detailed representation of localized marine and
terrestrial biodiversity patterns, as well as a detailed explanation of smaller scale
variation, but this would necessitate a very different focus for this volume. We
fully acknowledge that we present only generalities and that potentially important
exceptions and scale-related differences exist, and we direct the reader toward
more regional studies wherever possible.
 CHAPTER TWO

Observed Patterns of Global Biodiversity

As a first step in our exploration of global biodiversity patterns, we attempt a

synthetic review of observed patterns of species richness across four major envi-
ronmental realms (coastal, pelagic, deep sea, and land), while their ecological
drivers and environmental correlates are discussed subsequently in chapter 3. Our
synthesis is aided by an unprecedented growth in spatial ecology over the last two
decades, leading to new insights into the geographical patterns of biodiversity.
This growth has been spurred in part by new tools for collecting, storing, and
analyzing data (for example, remote sensing Geographic Information Systems
[GIS]), and voluminous new biodiversity databases (for example, the Ocean Bio-
geographic Information System [OBIS] and the Global Biodiversity Information
Facility [GBIF]), but also by conceptual advances in macroecology (Brown 1995)
and biogeography (Beaugrand 2014). This growth in spatial ecology parallels ear-
lier, but largely unconnected, developments in geology (Ruddiman 1969; Stehli
et al. 1969; Stehli and Wells 1971) and paleobiology (Balsam and Flessa 1978)—
fields that are equally concerned with large-scale biogeography, albeit from a
different perspective. Despite these advances, there has been little exchange or
synthesis between terrestrial and marine studies of global biodiversity, and across
paleontological and recent data, with the relevant literature remaining somewhat
separated by disciplinary boundaries (but see Stehli et al. 1969; Rohde 1992; Gas-
ton 2000; Webb 2012).
Our aim in this chapter is to summarize and synthesize known biodiversity
patterns and analyze them for congruency over space and time. To do so, we
focus on studies with patterns derived directly from empirical data, rather than
those that spatially extrapolate based on environmental relationships or assumed
niches. We treat such modeling studies only in passing. Our rationale is that spa-
tially modeled patterns are generally based either on niche models with assumed
environmental drivers or on spatial prediction where gaps in sample data are filled
and interpolated based on environmental determinants. This is relevant because
one key goal of this book is to develop theory and models to better understand the
underlying drivers of global biodiversity patterns from first principles. Assess-
ments of these relationships can be performed only at locations with empirical
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 11

data; to do otherwise would lead to circularity in reasoning (environment is used

to predict richness, which is then correlated with environmental determinants). We
do, however, sometimes include maps that have been spatially extrapolated, some
of which use environmental covariates. This is for visualization purposes only:
any analysis we conduct in this or the following chapters is based exclusively on
the raw observational data with spatially extrapolated locations excluded.
Generally, we limit our discussion to macroecological patterns at continental
to global scales (thousands of km), as patterns and drivers of species richness on
smaller scales are often idiosyncratic and likely more reflective of local processes
(Belmaker and Jetz 2011). Scale-dependence in the relationship between species
richness and the environment has been identified multiple times (Storch et al.
2007), and the factors that control local community structure and biodiversity
are treated in some detail elsewhere (Tilman 1982; Hubbell 2001; Storch et al.
2007). In this volume, we have consistently standardized the available data on an
equal-area 880 × 880 km grid, which was found to capture global patterns well
and reach a good compromise between data availability and information content
(Tittensor et al 2010), as well as reflecting the true state of knowledge in a conser-
vative manner (Mora et al. 2008). It also reflects our intent to model the processes
driving large-scale (as opposed to fine-scale) patterns of biodiversity. While spe-
cies richness information for some taxa, particularly on land, is available at finer
resolutions, we chose to make all patterns comparable and consistently scaled. In
addition to spatial patterns on the equal-area grid, we also report the latitudinal
gradient in species richness for each species group, which reflects average rich-
ness across all nonzero cells in each latitudinal band. The interested reader can
follow up on the relevant citations to view patterns at the original resolution. We
generally do not imply that our findings can always be replicated at finer scales,
and we will discuss questions about processes across scale where appropriate.
Given the questions that we ask in this volume, we are unavoidably bound to
focus on taxonomic groups for which well-sampled global diversity patterns are
available. Typically, these are recognizable species of low to moderate richness
that often fossilize well, such as foraminifera, bivalves, or vertebrates. Spatial
richness information for these groups may be reported at various levels of taxo-
nomic resolution, from families to phyla. We generally retain the original taxo-
nomic level, but present a sensitivity analysis in section 2.6, where we examine
the effect of taxonomic resolution on documented patterns of species richness.
We further recognize that a large fraction of the planet’s biodiversity remains
beyond our analytic reach, particularly most invertebrates and microorganisms,
though the advent of high-throughput DNA methods is beginning to alleviate
this (with the caveat that the species concept breaks down at the level of bacteria
and viruses).
12 CHAPTER 2

Throughout this chapter, we also retain our focus on the simplest measure of
biodiversity—namely, species richness. Other aspects such as species turnover,
functional diversity, evenness, and genetic diversity are acknowledged as clearly
important, but are not sufficiently well known at the scales that we examine to
enable a major synthesis across taxonomic groups on land and in the sea. We sepa-
rate coastal, pelagic, deep-sea, and terrestrial richness patterns, since these major
realms are sufficiently discrete as to necessitate independent treatment (Gaston
2000; Tittensor et al. 2010; Woolley et al. 2016), and can provide informative
contrasts, shedding insight on generalities and differences. Within these broad
habitats, we separate by major taxonomic groups, discussing and comparing pat-
terns for plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates.

2.1. MARINE COASTAL BIODIVERSITY

Coastal habitats, here defined as the shallow waters stretching from the intertidal
zone to the edge of the continental shelf (0–200 m depth), represent the most
accessible marine environments for humans and hence the best known. As a tran-
sition zone between land and sea, they are strongly influenced by a combination
of terrestrial and marine processes. Land runoff and rivers increase the availabil-
ity of nutrients, and on average result in a much higher (10- to 100-fold) net pri-
mary productivity (NPP) compared with most open-ocean environments. Coastal
NPP frequently ranges in the order of 500 to 2500 g C m−2 a−1, which is similar to
productive grasslands and forests (Lieth and Whittaker 2012). Also similar to the
land, we find high habitat diversity and structure here, often created or enhanced
by foundation species such as corals, macroalgae, seagrasses, or mangroves.
Many coastal environments show sharp physical gradients both vertically and
horizontally in temperature, salinity, productivity, and depth that enhance the
heterogeneity provided by biogenic habitats. These sharp environmental gradi-
ents and complex habitats can affect both ecological and evolutionary processes
that in turn structure biodiversity, resulting in complex local gradients and het-
erogeneity. Aside from a dynamic physical environment, coastal habitats also
experience significant impacts from a growing human population that has chosen
to settle preferentially near the world’s seashores. The effects of exploitation,
pollution, and habitat conversion are all concentrated in coastal environments,
particularly in the northern hemisphere (Halpern et al. 2008), and over time have
profoundly altered patterns of biological diversity, habitat structure, and produc-
tivity (Lotze et al. 2006). In summary, the most outstanding features of coastal
environments when compared to the pelagic ocean and the deep sea, and akin to
those on land, are complex habitat structure, high nutrient input and productivity,
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 13

and growing human impacts, all of which influence the distribution of coastal
biodiversity.

2.1.1. Coastal Invertebrates

Large-scale patterns of coastal biodiversity were first described for bivalves (Mol-
lusca; Class: Bivalvia), initially at a regional scale (Thorson 1952, 1957), and then
globally in the foundational studies by Stehli and Sanders (Stehli et al. 1967; San-
ders 1968). Bivalves are particularly useful specimens, as they are found in all
coastal habitats, are easily sampled, and are reasonably taxonomically tractable
(~10,000 known extant species). Moreover, this group covers much of the geo-
logical history of metazoans, having emerged during the Cambrian explosion of
animal diversity about 540 Ma ago. Bivalves fossilize well, which sheds light on
their evolutionary history, and helps to interpret the emergence of biogeographical
patterns over time. It is worthwhile to read these classic studies closely, as they
reveal luminous insights into some of the first-order patterns, and likely drivers,
of marine biodiversity. By fitting diversity contours around samples of bivalve
diversity from just 36 locations (fig. 2.1A), Stehli and coauthors first identified
two prominent centers of diversity (later called hotspots): one in the tropical Indo-
Pacific centered on the Indonesian archipelago, and a secondary one in the tropical
Eastern Pacific off the northern coast of Central America (Stehli et al. 1967). These
species-rich features were almost perfectly centered on the equator, and were also
seen at the genus and family level. Other primary features of the overall patterns
were (1) steep latitudinal gradients with maximum diversity in the tropics, (2) less
steep longitudinal gradients away from the Indonesian and Central American
hotspots, and (3) low diversity in the Arctic and Southern Oceans (fig. 2.1).
Progressive updates and the inclusion of new data have largely confirmed these
earlier results (Crame 2000; Valentine and Jablonski 2015), with the exception
that richness appears to peak slightly north of the equator, but still in tropical
waters (fig. 2.1B). These results prefigure the canonical pattern of biodiversity
later identified for a variety of other coastal marine taxa (Tittensor et al. 2010).
This consistency may hint at some generalities in spatial biodiversity patterns
that can be readily gleaned from incomplete and limited data at a coarse spatial
grain (see fig. 2.1). Another interesting observation from this early work relates
to the fact that steeper latitudinal gradients were seen in more recently evolved
bivalve taxa; this may suggest a tropical origination for most bivalves and a long
dispersal period (106 to 108 years) by which newly formed species groups, or
clades, reached the poles via adaptive radiation (Crame 2000; Jablonski et al.
2006; Jablonski et al. 2013).
14 CHAPTER 2

A
48
54

50 46
36
38 76

57
100
93
90
200
158
158 180
100 206 238
300
176 135
400
131 200 415
357 152
157 500
213 451
259 1037
388
502
500 254
400 524
500
319
300 338 400 471
328
300 279
178
200

86
100

1579

1189

798

408

18

Figure 2.1. Diversity of recent bivalves. The first global map of marine biodiversity was pub-
lished in 1967 for bivalves ((A) sampled richness of marine bivalves, after data in Stehli et al.
1967). Based on a limited number of samples from 36 locales, Stehli and colleagues synthesized
a first-order global diversity pattern in coastal and continental shelf ecosystems. Remarkably,
the general patterns have not changed significantly, although data availability has improved con-
siderably since then ((B) total richness of marine bivalves, after data in Valentine and Jablonski
2015). Likewise, the pattern appears consistent when changing taxonomic resolution; near iden-
tical gradients were seen at the genus and family level (Stehli et al. 1967). Finally, it has emerged
that very similar patterns are seen across most known coastal species groups, implying marked
generality within and across taxa (figs. 2.2–2.4).
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 15

Apart from their groundbreaking work on bivalve species richness, Stehli and
colleagues also analyzed the richness of reef-building corals (Stehli and Wells
1971), which form the most species-rich habitats in the coastal realm. Coral reefs
are biogenic coastal habitats created by stony corals (Cnidaria; Order Scleractinia)
that first evolved in the Triassic, about 240 Ma ago. Coral reefs are often likened
to rainforests due to their astounding local diversity, although their spatial extent
is much smaller, at about 260,000 to 600,000 km2 worldwide, approximately 5%
of total rainforest area, and only 0.2% of ocean surface area. Yet these reefs have
among the highest diversity per unit area of any known habitat, much of it remain-
ing undescribed (Bouchet et al. 2002; Bouchet 2006). As in rainforests, the largest
number of species is not found among the structural species themselves (reef-
building corals contain ~800 known species) but in the diverse fauna that inhabits
these complex habitats. Birds and insects in a rainforest find an equivalent in the
fishes and invertebrates on a coral reef.
In a similar manner to the bivalves, the diversity pattern for reef-building corals
is centered on a global biodiversity hotspot in the tropical Indo-Pacific (fig. 2.2).
Species richness declines with increasing distance from this center, the so-called
coral triangle between the Philippines, Indonesia, and Australia that supports most
known species of reef-building corals. A secondary hotspot in the Caribbean har-
bors only ~50 or so species of hard corals. Even in the earliest works on the topic,
it was already noted that the coral triangle and Caribbean hotspots appear to have
emerged independently of one another, as faunal overlap is very small (Stehli and
Wells 1971). Moreover, the authors remarked that both hotspots were associated
with the warmest sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the Indo-Pacific and
Atlantic, respectively; in both instances, these occur in the western part of the
basin, and somewhat north of the equator (Stehli and Wells 1971). The authors
argued that water temperature may play a leading role in enabling high richness, as
opposed to solar radiation, which peaks at the equator. The role of habitat area was
also discussed, as both regions harbor large archipelagos with long coastlines, and
complex spatial structure, but the relative importance of this was not resolved ana-
lytically. Furthermore, the authors noted that the age of surveyed genera increased
with increasing distance from the centers, and young genera were predominantly
found in both the Caribbean and western Pacific centers of diversity. This supported
the hypothesis that these centers of high diversity were also centers of evolutionary
innovation. Interestingly, the mean age of coral genera increases much faster with
latitude than with longitude (Stehli and Wells 1971), implying slower evolutionary
speeds at higher latitudes (and at lower temperatures), and maybe a slower spread
of newly evolved genera across latitude when compared to longitudinal expansion.
We will return to these environmental drivers in chapter 3.
 Corals
584

438

Latitude
292

147

1
0 162 324
Mean richness
Shelf ophiuroids
137

110

Latitude
84

57

30
47 80 114
Mean richness
Cone snails
205

154
Latitude

103

52

1
0 36 72
Mean richness
Non−squid cephalopds
35

26
Latitude

18

10

1
2 7 12
Mean richness
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 17

Mean normalized richness

0.94

0.70

Latitude
0.47

0.24

0.01 0.1 0.2 0.3

Mean richness

Figure 2.2. Coastal invertebrates. Shown are global species richness patterns and corresponding
latitudinal gradients for corals, ophiuroids (brittle stars), cone snails, and coastal cephalopods in
coastal and continental shelf waters <200 m depth. Data from Tittensor et al. (2010); IUCN (2016);
Woolley et al. (2016). Note that the cephalopod pattern includes only commercial species. The
bottom panel displays mean normalized richness, in which richness values for each taxon were
scaled from zero to one and then averaged to standardize patterns irrespective of differences in
total richness between taxa; normalized richness also includes the bivalves data from fig. 2.1B.

As corals provide habitat for a large number of associated mobile organisms,

such as fish and invertebrates, it is interesting to investigate whether their diversity
patterns match up with those of corals. Expert-derived maps of coral, reef fish,
lobster, and gastropod diversity were compiled by Roberts et al. (2002). They all
showed very similar spatial patterns (pairwise Spearman’s rank correlations ranged
from 0.78 to 0.89), again with a clear center of diversity in the coral triangle. Areas
in the southern Philippines and central Indonesia were in the top 10% richest loca-
tions for all four taxa, and diversity decreased with increasing distance from this
region. The secondary hotspot in the Caribbean was also visible across all taxa,
although not quite as pronounced as in the corals. Did these diversity patterns of
reef-associated fauna arise independently, through similar historical and environ-
mental forcing? Or, alternatively, do corals act as foundation species that promote
further diversification in associated groups independently of the environmental
regime? Of course, these two explanations are not mutually exclusive. In a recent
paper, it was hypothesized that coevolutionary relationships in which “diversity
begets diversity” may potentially be an important factor in amplifying the effects
of primary environmental drivers, such as temperature, on diversity (Brown 2014).
We concur that while such coevolutionary relationships may enhance existing bio-
diversity gradients, they cannot generate them in the first place (Rohde 1992).
These general patterns observed for bivalves and corals hold surprisingly well
across a number of other shallow-water invertebrate taxa, with few exceptions
(Fischer 1960; Roy and Witman 2009; Tittensor et al. 2010), and suggest the
presence of some very general structuring process or processes for shallow-water
18 CHAPTER 2

coastal diversity. Brittle stars (Echinodermata; Class: Ophiuroidea), cone snails

(Mollusca; Family: Conidae), and coastal cephalopods (Mollusca; Class: Cepha-
lopoda), for example, belong to different phyla with divergent evolutionary his-
tories, ecological roles, and capacities for dispersal, yet their global diversity
patterns peak around the same area in the tropical Indo-Pacific as corals and
bivalves (though with some latitudinal variation in the peak, and sometimes a
small decrease at the equator), and show similar overall gradients (see fig. 2.2).
Of course, significant residual variability does exist, possibly due to those differ-
ent evolutionary histories—for example, cone snails are relatively less diverse
in the Atlantic, and cephalopods appear to show lower richness in the southern
hemisphere, yet the general features of the coastal biodiversity pattern seem con-
served across all marine invertebrate groups examined (see fig. 2.2). Somewhat
surprisingly, this generality also extends to coastal marine plants (fig. 2.3) and
vertebrates (see fig. 2.4, later).

2.1.2. Coastal Plants

Seagrasses (Plantae; Families: Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae,

Cymodoceaceae) and mangroves (Plantae; Families: Acanthaceae, Combreta-
ceae, Arecaceae, Rhizophoraceae, Lythraceae) are two unusual groups of flower-
ing plants (angiosperms) that have adapted to life in the coastal oceans. They can
colonize soft sediments, while corals settle only on hard substrates, and hence
these marine plants represent important habitat-forming foundation species on
surfaces where corals cannot grow. While mangroves have a similar tropical and
subtropical distribution to shallow-water corals, seagrasses are also present in
temperate environments. As noted 40 years ago (McCoy and Heck 1975), these
three groups, although taxonomically unrelated to each other, show surprising
similarity in their geographical diversity patterns, with clear peaks in the western
tropical Pacific for mangroves and a similar, but more subtropical, pattern for
seagrasses (see fig. 2.3). Similarly to corals (and bivalves), a secondary diversity
hotspot is found in the Caribbean for both groups, and the correlation between
these global patterns is high (Tittensor et al. 2010). The observed strong overlap
in species richness has been hypothesized to arise from an ecological, rather than
phylogenetic, relationship between them (McCoy and Heck 1975). It is thought
that corals initially colonize hard surfaces and provide habitat for sediment-trap-
ping filamentous and calcareous algae. The accumulating sediment is colonized by
seagrasses, which further enhance sedimentation and build up substrate that can
then be colonized by mangroves (McCoy and Heck 1975). Indeed, in many coral
atolls, these groups are found in close proximity, and mangroves, seagrasses, and
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 19

Mangroves

17

13

Latitude
9

1
0 4 7
Mean richness
Seagrasses

18

Latitude
14

10

1
0 4 8
Mean richness
Mean normalized richness
0.89

0.67
Latitude

0.46

0.24

0.03
0.0 0.2 0.4
Mean richness

Figure 2.3. Coastal plants. Shown are the global species richness patterns and correspond-
ing latitudinal gradients for the two groups of flowering plants that colonize shallow marine
waters—namely, seagrasses and mangroves. Mean normalized richness pattern averaged across
these groups is shown at the bottom. After data from Tittensor et al. (2010).

corals are sometimes used consecutively by the same reef fish species as larval,
juvenile, and adult habitat, respectively (Mumby et al. 2004). Yet this potential
ecological relationship and successional sequence does not explain why spatial
patterns of species richness (as opposed to presence or biomass) are so strongly
overlapping, and again “diversity begets diversity” cannot be the whole expla-
nation. Possibly these species groups may relate in a similar way to the envi-
ronmental factors that shape the habitat in which they co-occur. These include
the extent and complexity of coastal habitats found in the Indonesian-Australian
20 CHAPTER 2

and Caribbean archipelagos and the fact that these regions experience the highest
average sea surface temperatures in their respective ocean basins. These factors
will be analyzed and discussed in detail in chapter 3.
In temperate coastal environments, most shallow corals and mangroves can-
not survive due to their limited tolerance of cold water (McCoy and Heck 1975;
Hutchings and Saenger 1987), though see Cairns (2007) for a discussion of cold-
water corals. Instead, macroalgae (on rocky shores) and seagrasses (on soft sedi-
ments) provide shallow temperate biogenic habitats. Reflecting this pattern of
distribution, seagrass species richness is skewed more poleward when compared
to mangroves (see fig. 2.3) or corals (see fig. 2.2). In contrast to seagrasses and
mangroves, which are less speciose, we do not presently have a complete pic-
ture of macroalgae species richness patterns on a global scale; this is partly due
to higher richness, problematic species identification, and fluid taxonomy at the
species level. Genus richness, however, has been assessed, and peaks at progres-
sively higher latitudes for the three main clades: green algae tend to center in
the tropics (Archaeplastida; Division: Chlorophyta), red algae (Archaeplastida;
Division: Rhodophyta) at intermediate latitudes, and brown algae (Ochrophyta;
Class: Phaeophyceae) at temperate latitudes, such as off South Australia, Europe,
and Japan (Kerswell 2006; Keith et al. 2014). At the species level, the Bryopsi-
dales, a speciose order of mostly turf-forming green algae, has been analyzed in
more detail; like other Chlorophyta, this group shows highest species diversity
in the tropics, and specifically in the tropical Indo-Pacific. A secondary hotspot
is found in the Caribbean, but with much lower diversity in the Atlantic overall
(Kerswell 2006). As such, the distribution of species richness does closely follow
that of corals and mangroves. The reason might be that Bryopsidales tend to be
largely reef-associated, whereas many other macroalgae thrive on rocky surfaces
not occupied by reef-forming corals, and hence tend to be distributed in a more
poleward manner (Kerswell 2006; Keith et al. 2014). In summary, macroalgae
seem to show a variety of richness patterns, ranging from tropical distributions
similar to corals, to temperate distributions similar to seagrasses (see fig. 2.3).

2.1.3. Coastal Vertebrates

Expanding the scope from largely sessile invertebrates and plants to more mobile
vertebrates (Chordata; Subphylum: Vertebrata) provokes the question of whether
observed diversity patterns may blur or weaken due to increased capacity for
migration and dispersal and the lack of hard boundaries in a continuous fluid
marine habitat. Vertebrates have evolved as mobile consumers, with bony fishes
representing the most speciose taxon, containing half of all known vertebrate
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 21

species. The modern bony fishes (Class: Osteichthyes) probably evolved in the
late Silurian, about 416 Ma ago. They inhabit surface to abyssal depths and open-
ocean, coastal and estuarine, as well as freshwater habitats. About 16,000 to
17,000 species have been described in the oceans (Mora et al. 2008; Eschmeyer
et al. 2010). According to an analysis of species discovery curves, this comprises
an estimated 79% of total marine fish richness (Mora et al. 2008), suggesting
that fish diversity is much more completely known than most other marine taxa
(Mora et al. 2011).
Somewhat surprisingly, given their contrasting dispersal ability and evolution-
ary history, coastal bony fishes again yield a similar diversity pattern as corals,
mangroves, and seagrasses, with a pronounced diversity peak in the tropical Indo-
Pacific, although with small bimodal peaks north and south of the equator (fig.
2.4). However, latitudinal and longitudinal gradients of species richness appear
less steep in fish, possibly relating to enhanced dispersal, and to the fact that
coastal fishes cover a wider latitudinal range than either corals or mangroves.
Secondary hotspots for coastal fish diversity occur in the western Indian Ocean,
the Caribbean, and the eastern tropical Pacific (see fig. 2.4). These general pat-
terns are seen across a large number of regional to global studies looking at fish
diversity (see review by MacPherson et al. 2009). Note that the Eastern Tropical
Pacific and Caribbean hotspots have a shared evolutionary history (prior to the
closure of the Isthmus of Panama 3 Ma ago), and still show large overlaps in spe-
cies composition; about 35% of Eastern Pacific fish genera are shared with, and
only with, the Caribbean (Rosenblatt 1967).
There is an interesting contrast, however, between coastal bony fishes and
coastal sharks (Class: Chondrichthyes; Superorder: Selachimorpha; see fig. 2.4),
which evolved in the Silurian (440 Ma ago). The majority of the 508 or so known
shark species are associated with coastal habitats at least for part of their life
cycle (Lucifora et al. 2011), but these coastal sharks reach their highest diversity
at somewhat higher latitudes than coastal teleost fishes: distinct peaks of shark
species richness are found at around 20 degrees latitude North or South in the
Western Pacific and Eastern Indian Ocean (see fig. 2.4). As such, their longitudi-
nal diversity pattern is similar to other coastal species, but the latitudinal pattern
is spread out farther toward the subtropics. This might be related either to the
larger average size of sharks compared with bony fishes, which may translate
into enhanced dispersal and larger ranges, or the longer evolutionary age, which
allows more time for dispersal and adaptation to cooler climates (MacPherson et
al. 2009). Indeed, several species of lamnid sharks, such as white (Carcharodon
carcharias), porbeagle (Lamna nasus), and salmon sharks (Lamna ditropis), have
evolved partial endothermy, which allows for a more poleward distribution, at
least for part of the year (Block et al. 2011).
 Coastal fishes
2555

1919

Latitude
1284

648

13
35 453 869
Mean richness
Non−oceanic sharks

104

78

Latitude
52

27

1
0 16 31
Mean richness
Pinnipeds

10

8
Latitude

1
1 3 6
Mean richness
Mean normalized richness

0.67

0.50
Latitude

0.33

0.17

0.00 0.12 0.16 0.21

Mean richness

Figure 2.4. Coastal vertebrates. Shown are the global richness patterns and corresponding lati-
tudinal gradients for coastal bony fish, sharks, and pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walrus). Mean
normalized richness pattern averaged across these groups is shown at the bottom. After data
from Tittensor et al. (2010).
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 23

Marine mammals (Class: Mammalia), of course, have perfected endothermy,

and hence possess a large competitive advantage in cold-water environments
by maintaining high metabolic rates and burst speeds. As such, it may not be
a surprise to find that pinnipeds (Suborder: Pinnipedia—seals, walrus, and sea
lions; 33 extant species) show a decidedly more poleward distribution in spe-
cies richness (Tittensor et al. 2010). This recently evolved group of fin-footed
marine mammals (origination ~30 Ma ago) has diversified mostly in temperate
to polar habitats. Molecular evidence supports a monophyletic ancestry in the
New World—specifically, the Northern Pacific Coast of North America (Arnason
et al. 2006). As cold-adapted specialists, the pinnipeds have subsequently spread
to Arctic and Antarctic waters, but are mostly absent from the tropics (except in
Central and South America, where coastal upwelling cools surface waters, and in
the endemic Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Hawaiian monk seals; Tribe Mona-
chi). Peak species richness is observed in subarctic and Antarctic environments,
where pinnipeds can be dominant predators (see fig. 2.4). As such, the pinnipeds
are similar in their richness patterns to other cold-adapted taxa—for example, the
Antarctic icefishes (Class: Osteichthyes; Suborder: Notothenioidei) and penguins
(Class: Aves; Order: Sphenisciformes). These taxa likely originated in cold-water
habitats, unlike most other groups, and then secondarily spread to warmer envi-
ronments from there. Thus, while patterns for their parent taxa (marine mammals,
fishes, and birds) all have tropical centers of diversity, these cold-adapted sub-
groups have a different diversity pattern likely due to their unique adaptations and
a center of origin at higher latitudes.

2.1.4. Synthesis

In summary, the coastal realm is, in terms of marine environments, the closest to
us spatially, and also offers the closest comparison to the land, as habitat structure
and nutrient supply are more similar to terrestrial analogues than other marine
environments. Empirically, we observe substantial overlap in the distribution of
diversity among different species groups, including invertebrates, plants, and ver-
tebrates. A majority of these groups show maximum diversity in the Indonesian-
Australian (Indo-Pacific) and Caribbean (Atlantic) archipelagos, respectively.
Latitudinal peaks in richness are generally tropical (though not necessarily equa-
torial) or subtropical, except for cold-water adapted subgroups. These generaliza-
tions are supported when averaging normalized diversity across groups (see figs.
2.2 to 2.4). For all groups examined here, total richness in the Atlantic is lower on
average than in the Indo-Pacific, possibly reflecting the younger geological age of
the Atlantic, which formed only 130 Ma ago. The large cluster of species richness
24 CHAPTER 2

in the central Indo-Pacific is striking and has no equivalent in the western Indian
Ocean or eastern Pacific, for example. This pronounced longitudinal gradient is
also markedly different from pelagic, deep-sea, and terrestrial taxa, which are
discussed in the next sections.

2.2. MARINE PELAGIC BIODIVERSITY

The pelagic realm, here defined as the open waters that extend beyond the conti-
nental shelf, is a defining feature of our planet, yet few people ever get the chance
to truly explore it. Pelagic waters encompass about two-thirds of the planet’s sur-
face and are characterized by great depth ranges (up to ~11,000 m). As such, this
represents by far the largest volume of any habitat on Earth, yet our knowledge
lags far behind what we know about biodiversity in coastal waters. In the pelagic
ocean, most data pertain to the euphotic zone—that is, the top 200 m layer of the
water column that receives sufficient sunlight for photosynthesis. Deeper pelagic
waters, particularly those beyond 2000 m depth, are much less well studied, and
are poorly understood in terms of their biodiversity. Even the largest known deep-
water pelagics, such as giant squid (Architeuthis sp.) have only recently been
documented for the first time in their native habitat (Roper and Shea 2013).
For this reason, we largely focus on the euphotic (sunlit) pelagic zone here (top
200 m), with some discussion of mesopelagic taxa (200–2000 m). Deep-water
taxa (>2000 m depth) will be discussed in the next section.
The pelagic environment experiences relatively little direct influence from the
land and the sea floor, and consequently receives low input of macronutrients. The
availability of limiting nutrients—particularly, nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron—
is generally dependent on the physical structure of the water column and can be
enhanced by local upwelling of nutrient-rich deep water—for example, in the
equatorial upwelling regions—or around sharp frontal zones (Moore et al. 2013).
Biological productivity is often low (typically in the order of 100 g C m−2 a−1),
and some oceanic regions like the large oceanic gyres have been described as
marine deserts, largely due to severe nutrient limitation (Polovina et al. 2008).
The absence of biogenic habitats is another defining feature, with the interest-
ing exception of pelagic macroalgae (Sargassum sp.) floating in large mats in
the Sargasso Sea (tropical Atlantic). Human influences on the pelagic ocean are
certainly lower when compared to coastal regions, but still significant through the
effects of fishing, pollution, shipping, and climate change (Halpern et al. 2008).
Major groups of pelagic organisms include both planktonic (passively drifting)
organisms and actively swimming nekton. Primary production is performed by
single-celled phytoplankton, ranging from submicrometer cyanobacteria to larger
diatoms and dinoflagellates, with the community composition largely determined
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 25

by the nutrient regime. Likewise, the zooplankton are taxonomically diverse,

ranging from single-celled protists to gelatinous “jellyfish” that may grow to over
1 m in diameter. Abundant crustaceans, such as the smaller copepods or larger
euphausiids, are important food resources for higher trophic levels. Active swim-
mers consist of fishes, squids, cetaceans, and sea turtles. Pelagic seabirds such as
shearwaters and albatrosses are also of interest, as they forage in the surface layer
of pelagic waters, and spend most of their lives out above the open ocean, often
returning to land only to nest.

2.2.1. Pelagic Invertebrates and Plankton

Interest in pelagic diversity patterns focused first on the Foraminifera, a class of

shell-forming protozoans that deposit abundant microscopic fossils in sediments
around the world. About 40 extant morphospecies are pelagic. Their microfossils
were analyzed first by paleo-oceanographers, who typically used them to infer
past environmental conditions from known climatic tolerances, isotope compo-
sition, and other features (Stehli et al. 1969; Berger and Parker 1970). It was
noted in an early study of the North Atlantic that patterns of diversity for pelagic
foraminifera were distinctly different from the “typical” pole-to-equator diversity
gradient seen in coastal taxa (Ruddiman 1969). A global synthesis of available
sediment core data later corroborated that the richness of planktonic foraminifera
generally peaked at about 30 degrees latitude North or South, with lowest richness
in high-latitude waters, and intermediate values in the tropics (Rutherford et al.
1999, and fig. 2.5). This pattern challenged the then commonly held view that spe-
cies richness at a global scale tended to decline uniformly from the tropics to the
poles. It further contrasted with the canonical coastal diversity pattern discussed
in section 2.1, as there is no obvious longitudinal pattern to the foraminifera.
Diversity in this group peaks along broad mid-latitude bands in all oceans, rather
than in a distinct Indo-Pacific hotspot (Rutherford et al. 1999).
This different diversity pattern for foraminifera seems to hold for zooplankton
groups more generally. Euphausiidae (krill), Pteropoda (pelagic gastropods), and
Chaetognatha (arrow worms) caught in North Pacific plankton tows appear to
share a similar nontropical distribution of species richness with latitude (Angel
1993, 1997). In the Atlantic, data combined from a variety of studies (Macpherson
2002) show either peaks at intermediate latitudes for a number of gelatinous zoo-
plankton taxa (Appendicularia, Hydromedusae, Salpidae) or, alternatively, high
diversity from mid- to low latitudes (Siphonophora, Chaetognatha). In stark con-
trast to coastal taxa, none of the groups examined showed a distinct tropical peak
in diversity (Macpherson 2002).
 Foraminifera

30

Latitude
23

16

10

3
6 14 21
Mean richness
Euphausiids

39

Latitude
30

20

10

1
5 17 28
Mean richness
S quids

22
Latitude
17

12

1
5 9 13
Mean richness
Mean normalized richness

0.88
Latitude

0.67

0.46

0.25

0.05
0.1 0.4 0.6
Mean richness

Figure 2.5. Pelagic invertebrates. Shown are the global species richness patterns and corre-
sponding latitudinal gradients for pelagic zooplankton (Foraminifera and Euphausiidae), and
invertebrate predators (squid). Mean normalized richness pattern averaged across these groups
is shown at the bottom. After data from Tittensor et al. (2010). Note that the pattern for squid
includes only commercial species.
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 27

A global distribution pattern for macrozooplankton species richness is at pres-

ent available only for krill (Arthropoda; Order: Euphausiidae) (see fig. 2.5; Brin-
ton 2000; Tittensor et al. 2010). Their pattern is similar to the foraminifera, with
clear mid-latitudinal bands of high diversity that reach partly or wholly across
ocean basins, and with an asymmetric pattern that showed highest richness in
the southern hemisphere. The spatial correlation between the Foraminifera and
Euphausiidea is high, despite significant variation in size, life history, and mobility
(r = 0.73, P < 0.0001). Another key group is the copepods (Arthropoda; Subclass:
Copepoda), which are a numerically dominant macrozooplankton group in many
regions. Here, spatially comprehensive information is available from Continuous
Plankton Recorder surveys in the Atlantic, but less so elsewhere (Beaugrand et
al. 2002; Rombouts et al. 2009). There appears to be a subtropical richness peak
of copepod diversity at about 20 to 30 degrees North in the North Atlantic, but
no clear gradient in the South Atlantic (Rombouts et al. 2009). Note, however,
that the spatial coverage of copepod data was quite limited and did not extend to
higher latitudes in the South Atlantic.
Somewhat surprisingly, given their importance as the ocean’s main primary
producer, there is not yet a comprehensive empirical database of global phyto-
plankton diversity. A global modeling study, however, predicted that diversity
was likely to peak at around 40 degrees latitude North and South, specifically in
areas associated with western boundary currents and other transition zones (Bar-
ton et al. 2010). Similarly to zooplankton, phytoplankton diversity was predicted
to be lowest at high latitudes and intermediate at the equator (Barton et al. 2010).
The study used a biogeochemical model that included prognostic equations for
the growth of 78 different phytoplankton types. Available empirical data support
some of these patterns. For example, the diversity of coccolithophores (Class:
Prymnesiophyceae) in the Pacific peaks at 30 degrees North (Honjo and Okada
1974), and the diversity of diatoms (Class: Bacillariophyta) peaks between 10 to
30 degrees North or South, depending on the size fraction examined (Malviya
et al. 2016). More species-specific sampling is needed to comprehensively test
model predictions (Barton et al. 2010).
Marine bacteria are a diverse group of autotrophic, heterotrophic, and mixotro-
phic organisms that are often considered part of the phytoplankton. Although not
comprehensively sampled at a global scale, there is evidence from several indepen-
dent studies for a latitudinal gradient in the diversity of marine bacteria (Pommier
et al. 2007; Fuhrman et al. 2008; Amend et al. 2013; Sul et al. 2013b; Sunagawa
et al. 2015). These studies challenge the commonly held view that pelagic bacte-
ria, due to their small size and high dispersal rates, may show unique (or maybe
random) patterns of diversity across large scales (Pommier et al. 2007). Interest-
ingly, bacteria appear to have similar macroecological properties as multicellular
28 CHAPTER 2

organisms (Amend et al. 2013), and most authors described a mid-latitudinal peak
in diversity (Fuhrman et al. 2008; Sul et al. 2013a; Sunagawa et al. 2015) simi-
lar to other pelagic taxa (Tittensor et al. 2010). For example, in a comprehen-
sive metagenomics study that collected standardized microbial samples across all
oceans except the Arctic, it was found that diversity of operational taxonomic units
(OTUs) peaked at intermediate latitudes around 30 to 40 degrees North or South
(Sunagawa et al. 2015). A geographically more limited study suggested a peak at
20 degrees North along North and Central American coastlines (Raes et al. 2011).
Yet another data set suggested that microbial richness peaks seasonally at high
latitudes in winter (Ladau et al. 2013). Clearly, these results are still in flux, and
probably influenced in part by different sampling techniques (a common challenge
for global biodiversity studies), yet all suggest a global biodiversity pattern that
is more similar to other pelagic species and less similar to coastal or land species.

2.2.2. Pelagic Vertebrates and Nekton

In contrast to passively drifting and often microscopic plankton, discussed earlier,

the larger nekton comprises both invertebrate and vertebrate taxa characterized by
greater mobility. Pelagic cephalopods include about 300 species of squids (Mol-
lusca; Class: Cephalopoda). Like the coastal cephalopods, spatial data for this inver-
tebrate nektonic group are available only for commercial species, about 25% of
total known richness (Tittensor et al. 2010). This might explain the highly unusual
skew in peak species richness toward the northern hemisphere (see fig. 2.5), where
most squid fisheries take place. Yet the general latitudinal pattern of peak richness
at intermediate latitude appears probable in the southern hemisphere, and shows
similarity to both the Euphausiidae and oceanic sharks (figs. 2.5 and 2.6).
As for vertebrate nekton, this comprises bony fish, sharks, rays, mammals,
and seabirds. Analyses of pelagic fish diversity over biogeographic scales show
patterns that quite closely resembled those seen for much smaller and taxonomi-
cally very distant pelagic organisms such as the foraminifera (Worm et al. 2003;
Worm et al. 2005; Tittensor et al. 2010). Tuna and billfish (Class: Osteichthyes;
Families: Scombridae, Istiophoridae, Xiphiidae) in particular are well studied due
to their commercial importance, with fisheries operating worldwide for these spe-
cies. Whether analyzing gridded fisheries data (Worm et al. 2005; Tittensor et al.
2010) or overlaying expert-derived range maps (see fig. 2.6), similar patterns of
diversity emerge, which display a drawn-out low to mid-latitudinal peak of diver-
sity (Worm et al. 2005), with somewhat higher average richness in the southern
hemisphere (see fig. 2.6).
Pelagic sharks (Class: Chondrichthyes; Superorder: Selachimorpha; see fig.
2.6), as well as dolphins and whales (Class: Mammalia; Order: Cetacea; see fig.
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 29

2.6) again show similar patterns of mid- to high-latitude diversity, peaking around
30 to 40 degrees latitude North or South (Schipper et al. 2008; Tittensor et al. 2010;
Kaschner et al. 2011; Lucifora et al. 2011), with sharks being clearly bimodal and
cetaceans showing an asymmetric peak in the southern hemisphere. The pattern
for sharks tends to be skewed toward the coast, whereas cetaceans appear more
widely distributed throughout the oceans, and generally occur at higher latitudes
than sharks. Yet it is remarkable how the most species-rich cells for both groups
cluster around California, Argentina, South Africa, Japan, and Australia (see fig.
2.6), suggesting common environmental or evolutionary drivers.
Pelagic birds (Order: Procellariiformes) include the albatrosses, shearwaters,
and petrels, which are uniquely adapted wide-ranging seabirds that visit the land
only to nest. They show an interesting pattern of high-latitude richness, again with
a distinct unimodal peak in the southern hemisphere, at around 40 degrees South
(see fig. 2.6; Davies et al. 2010). The most species rich cells are found south of
Australia. Davies et al. (2010) explain this pattern through the reliance of these
seabirds on high and continuous wind speeds allowing long-distance travel to
patchy food sources in the open ocean. Such winds are particularly found in the
circumpolar waters of the Southern Ocean, where no land masses restrict the flow
of air. It is in that region that pelagic seabird richness is highest. It is also notewor-
thy that, like the pinnipeds and cetaceans, seabirds are endotherms, which pro-
vides them with a unique competitive advantage in cold-water environments, and
may in part explain their higher-than-average latitudinal distribution pattern. We
further note that endothermy comes at a cost of much higher metabolic rates and
calorific requirements, which may make these species seek out high-productivity
regions that are typically found in higher-latitude oceans.

2.2.3. Synthesis

The combined patterns of species richness for pelagic invertebrates (see fig. 2.5)
and vertebrates (see fig. 2.6) differ significantly from the patterns seen in coastal
species, as well as those on land. Species richness tends to be more uniformly
distributed latitudinally and longitudinally. Biodiversity hotspots are rarely found
near the equator, and are typically broader and less peaked than in coastal taxa.
Areas of highest richness tend to be located at intermediate or high latitudes,
most commonly between 20 to 40 degrees North or South (figs. 2.5 and 2.6), with
about half of the species groups being particularly diverse in the southern hemi-
sphere (euphausiids, tunas and billfish, cetaceans, and seabirds). It is conceivable
that the much larger pelagic ocean area in the southern hemisphere has promoted
radiation of pelagic taxa there. Despite these hemispheric differences, there is rea-
sonably strong overlap among spatial biodiversity patterns in the pelagic realm,
 Tunas and billfishes

11

Latitude
6

1
1 5 8
Mean richness
Oceanic sharks

15

12

Latitude
8

1
0 4 7
Mean richness
Cetaceans

42
Latitude

32

22

11

1
12 22 33
Mean richness
Seabirds

50

38
Latitude

26

14

2
11 22 33
Mean richness
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 31

Mean normalized richness

0.88

0.66

Latitude
0.44

0.23

0.01
0.2 0.4 0.6
Mean richness

Figure 2.6. Pelagic vertebrates. Shown are the global species richness patterns and corre-
sponding latitudinal gradients for tunas and billfishes, pelagic sharks, cetaceans (whales and
dolphins), and seabirds (Procellariiformes). Mean normalized richness pattern averaged across
these groups is shown at the bottom. After data from Davies et al. (2010); Tittensor et al. (2010);
Lucifora et al. (2011).

from plankton to top predators, suggesting some common processes acting on

organisms with very different modes of life, mobility, and dispersal. These envi-
ronments are clearly structured by different processes compared to coastal and
terrestrial environments, and the resultant patterns are distinct. Uniquely, dis-
persal limitation is probably relaxed in the open ocean, due to the inherent con-
nectivity and fluidity of the environment and the high mobility of most pelagic
organisms. Additionally, structured biogenic habitats are largely absent. Unlike
in coastal seas, we observe consistent bands of high diversity coinciding with
frontal systems that characterize the poleward boundaries of subtropical gyres,
and western boundary currents such as the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic and Kuro-
shio in the Pacific. These transition zones are known as important habitat features
that include both cold- and warm-water specialists (Block et al. 2011). Frontal
systems are also known to enhance local primary production, and can attract large
numbers of seabirds, marine mammals, oceanic fish, and plankton (Haney 1986;
Olson et al. 1994; Etnoyer et al. 2004). Thus, these unique oceanographic habitat
features may play a role in explaining the distinctive patterns of diversity seen
across pelagic species groups.

2.3. DEEP-SEA BIODIVERSITY

The deep sea includes seafloor-associated (benthic) as well as open-water pelagic

habitats beyond the continental shelf and slope and the shallow surface ocean
(>2000 m deep). These habitats encompass the majority of the oceans’ seafloor
32 CHAPTER 2

and volume, yet scientists have surveyed only a small fraction of them, due to
their size and inaccessibility. The deep sea features large, seemingly monotonous
plains of fine sediment dotted by intriguing anomalies like seamounts, hydro-
thermal vents, and cold seeps, many of which have not even been discovered or
put on a map. Primary productivity is close to zero, due to the perennial darkness
of the deep sea, where only some chemosynthetic organisms are able to derive
energy from reducing minerals such as sulfides. Most organisms are wholly
dependent on a sparse and patchy rain of detritus that slowly sinks from the sunlit
surface waters to the deeper reaches of the ocean, the so-called export productiv-
ity (or “marine snow”) that is not retained within the surface layers. As much of
this matter is consumed on its way down, total carbon input tends to be very low,
and often occurs in short and variable pulses, linked, for example to episodic
plankton blooms or events such as whale-falls (Rex and Etter 2010). Another
unique feature is the uniformly low temperature found in the deep sea, which
typically ranges between ~2 and 4°C, with the exception of the Mediterranean
deep basin. Due to both low temperature and carbon input, standing biomass and
secondary production also tend to be very low, the latter often in the order of
1 g C m−2 a−1. Exceptions are the unique chemosynthetic organisms and associ-
ated fauna that colonize deep-sea hydrothermal vents and seeps, many of which
are extremophiles (Rex and Etter 2010). Such habitats form productive “oases”
that can sustain a high biomass of a specially adapted and unique fauna. Overall,
however, the low temperature and the variable and sporadic availability of food
are likely to be key organizing factors.
At the time of the Challenger expedition in the late nineteenth century,
the deep sea was presumed lifeless due to the crushing pressure, frigid cold,
absence of light, and seeming lack of productivity. Since then, this view has
been overturned by the discovery of large numbers of morphologically bizarre
animals and microorganisms in these remote habitats. Initially, an early extrap-
olation of species numbers derived from nine stations taken off the US East
Coast suggested there could be many millions of undiscovered species in the
deep sea (Grassle and Maciolek 1992). Although likely an overestimate (May
1992; Mora et al. 2011), that study highlighted the extreme undersampling of
these habitats, and raised significant public interest in the deep sea. Since then,
modest progress has been made in resolving the enigmatic patterns of deep-sea
diversity. Reasonably comprehensive spatial patterns are so far available for
only a few abundant and taxonomically tractable groups, and most of the pat-
terns still rely on few samples, making it difficult to generalize (Rex and Etter
2010). Moreover, with the exception of a recent global study on brittle stars
(Woolley et al. 2016), virtually all previous large-scale work has focused on the
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 33

Atlantic Ocean and has frequently examined only latitudinal gradients rather
than global spatial patterns.

2.3.1. Global Patterns

The first fully global study of deep-sea spatial richness patterns focused on brit-
tle stars (Echinodermata; Class: Ophiuroidea), which are one of the numerically
dominant and most widely distributed macrofaunal taxa in the deep sea. The study
used a new database comprising 165,000 species distribution records (Woolley
et al. 2016). It found that deep-sea (2000–6500 m) species richness patterns fun-
damentally differed from those in continental shelf (0–200 m) and slope (200–
2000 m) waters. While ophiuroid richness on the continental shelf and slope still
matched the coastal patterns described earlier (see fig. 2.2), deep-water ophiuroid
diversity peaked at higher latitudes—specifically, the highly productive waters
of the northern North Atlantic, around Japan and New Zealand, and the South
American and South African upwelling regions (fig. 2.7).
Specifically, as seen in fig. 2.2, shallow-water ophiuroid richness peaked in the
tropics (0 to 20 degrees latitude North and South, 20–200 m; Woolley et al. 2016).
A strong latitudinal biodiversity gradient exists at these depths with reduced rich-
ness at higher latitudes (>45 degrees South and >55 degrees North). However,
at mid-slope to abyssal depths (200–4500 m), diversity maxima gradually shift
toward temperate latitudes (30 to 40 degrees South and 40 to 50 degrees North;
Woolley et al. 2016), a unique global pattern that is broadly supported by regional
analyses, discussed later. Southern ocean peaks in diversity are as pronounced as

Abyssal ophiuroids

39
Latitude

30

21

13

4
13 19 26
Mean richness

Figure 2.7. Deep-sea ophiuroids. Shown are the global species richness patterns and corre-
sponding latitudinal gradients for ophiuroids (brittle stars) in waters >2000 m depth and cor-
responding latitudinal gradients for this species group. After data from Woolley et al. (2016).
34 CHAPTER 2

northern hemisphere ones, but less numerous, resulting in lower average richness
across a latitudinal band (see fig. 2.7). The fact that this taxon shows a very differ-
ent global richness pattern in coastal and shelf seas suggests that there are unique
processes structuring biodiversity in the deep sea, likely related to the patterns
in the availability of energy provided by the thin rain of potential food particles
descending from surface waters (Tittensor et al. 2011; McClain et al. 2012; Wool-
ley et al. 2016). However, we caution that the general undersampling of the deep
ocean and the fact that true global spatial patterns have been described only for a
single taxon render our knowledge of the deep sea far more tenuous than for other
major habitats; an exciting opportunity remains to further test models and theories
as new data become available.

2.3.2. Regional Studies

Because of the scarcity of global richness data for deep-sea taxa, we briefly dis-
cuss relevant regional studies in addition. Latitudinal patterns in deep-sea benthic
fauna (Mollusca; Classes: Gastropoda, Bivalvia) were first reported from Atlantic
Ocean samples collected between 500 and 4000 m depth (Rex et al. 1993). A
monotonic equator-to-poles latitudinal gradient was observed in the North Atlan-
tic for some taxa, particularly after accounting for different sampling depths.
However, this was not as clear in the South Atlantic, where highest diversity is
commonly observed at high latitudes (Rex et al. 1993; Brey et al. 1994; Brandt
et al. 2007). Another taxon, the sea lice (Arthropoda; Class: Isopoda), showed
high diversity at both tropical and temperate latitudes in the North Atlantic, and at
temperate latitudes in the South Atlantic (Rex et al. 1993). North Atlantic patterns
were also influenced by anomalously low diversity data from the Norwegian Sea
that probably reflect the regional effects of glaciation more than generalizable
gradients of diversity (Rex and Etter 2010). No oceanwide study of these taxa has
been published for the Pacific or Indian Ocean.
Small-bodied meiofauna have also been studied along regional gradients.
Deep-sea benthic nematodes (Phylum: Nematoda) showed no clear patterns
when plotted against latitude in the Atlantic (Lambshead et al. 2000; Rex et al.
2001), but a negative relationship appeared between 0 and 23 degrees latitude in
the Pacific, possibly reflecting the positive effects of enrichment by equatorial
upwelling (Lambshead et al. 2002). Likewise, benthic foraminifera (2000–4000 m
depth) from the Atlantic showed a broad decline in species richness toward the
poles (Culver and Buzas 2000). Peak diversity, however was observed at about 25
degrees South and 45 degrees North, possibly reflecting increased productivity at
these stations. In summary, regional studies on other taxa are somewhat variable
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 35

but partly correspond with the global results on ophiuroids, notwithstanding pro-
nounced uncertainty considering limited sampling.

2.3.3. Synthesis

The vast environment of the deep sea is the most removed from the land, and
has yielded the least scientific data of the four major environmental realms dis-
cussed in this book. Yet it covers 60% of the Earth’s surface and appears to fea-
ture distinct patterns of biodiversity. Although most of the deep sea is perennially
dark, cold, and food-limited, there are unique environments of the deep ocean—
including whale-falls, seeps, and vents—that are sites of high and often unique
biodiversity (Rex and Etter 2010). A global-scale study on brittle stars, supported
by some regional data for other invertebrate and protozoan taxa, suggests peak
diversity at higher latitudes. These zones of relatively high diversity in the abyss
appear associated with areas of high surface productivity and carbon export, as
well as proximity to coastlines (Woolley et al. 2016). We conclude that the light-
less and cold deep sea appears to harbor unique patterns of diversity that we are
only beginning to unveil.

2.4. TERRESTRIAL BIODIVERSITY

As far as we know, life in the ocean diversified for >2 billion years before the
land was first colonized by plant-like “Ediacaran” life forms 635–542 Ma ago
(Retallack 2013). The lack of an aqueous medium is the most distinguishing
feature of the land, and has a number of important consequences for all life
forms attempting to thrive there. The main obstacle, undoubtedly, is the risk
of desiccation, which requires a series of unique adaptations. These include
protection derived from thicker cell walls and specialized cuticular structures.
Thicker cell walls also play a role in the evolution of body support that needs to
be strengthened when not suspended in water. Furthermore, while algae simply
absorb nutrients from the surrounding environment, a land plant must absorb
both water and nutrients from the soil and transport it to its limbs. After plants
began to use rigid cell walls to grow taller, a system of tubular vessels evolved
to transport water and nutrients. As plants spread farther and diversified, they
also began forming complex habitat structures above and below ground. These
structures transformed the land surface from a largely two-dimensional to a
three-dimensional habitat with many opportunities for coevolution among
plants and animals. Diversification by coevolution, as well as the presence of
36 CHAPTER 2

complex structured habitats that favor reproductive isolation and speciation,

might help to explain why the land over its shorter evolutionary history has
produced an estimated 6.5 million species of extant eukaryotes, compared with
only 2.2 million species in the ocean (Mora et al. 2011). Another possibility is
that of higher evolutionary rates due to higher surface temperatures and higher
levels of mutagenic UV radiation on land.
Another important difference between the ocean and the land is that nutri-
ents are more available in most terrestrial habitats. For example, phosphorus
and iron are released by weathering of rocks on land and reach the ocean only
via river transport, runoff, and dust deposition. Hence, these nutrients tend to
be more ubiquitous and less likely to be limiting biological productivity in ter-
restrial ecosystems, particularly in comparison with the open ocean and deep
sea. Another contrast is that there is a vastly larger standing stock of biomass on
land (~500–1000 Pg C) compared to the oceans, which feature ~2 Pg C stand-
ing biomass. This means that total nutrient utilization is much higher terrestri-
ally, while in the ocean it is much lower, as most nutrients reside in inorganic
form below the thermocline. For these reasons, rates of biological production are
generally quite high on land, except in areas where low precipitation or extreme
cold limit the availability of moisture. These hot or cold deserts often have pro-
ductivity values comparable to the open ocean or deep sea, typically less than
100 g C m−2 a−1, while communities located in warm and moist environments
often exceed 1000 g C m−2 a−1 (Whittaker 1975; Lieth and Whittaker 2012).
Despite its smaller area, in total the land produces around half of the global net
primary production (Field et al. 1998). In summary, the land is uniquely limited
by water availability, but perhaps less strongly influenced by energy, nutrient, or
food limitation than most marine environments, particularly those far from land
and at great depth.
Due to the inherent bias of being a terrestrial species, our knowledge of spe-
cies richness patterns on land is much more detailed than in the marine realms.
Particularly for higher plants and most terrestrial vertebrates, there is now com-
prehensive information at a global scale (for example, Grenyer et al. 2006; Schip-
per et al. 2008; Jetz et al. 2009; Jetz et al. 2012a,b; IUCN 2017). Notably missing
are most invertebrates, particularly insects for which no global pattern has been
assembled, but see Eggleton (2000), who shows that termite diversity tends to
peak in the wet tropics, along with other known groups. In contrast, the diversity
of galling herbivorous insects appears to peak at 25 to 38 degrees North or South
(Price et al. 1998). The absence of a more comprehensive analysis of insect diver-
sity patterns is undoubtedly due to the massive richness of these species, render-
ing most of the globe severely undersampled.
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 37

Vascular plants

6229

4773

Latitude
3316

1860

404
819 2209 3598
Mean richness

Figure 2.8. Land plants. Shown are the global species richness patterns and latitudinal gradients
for vascular plants. After data from Kier et al. (2005); Kreft and Jetz (2007).

2.4.1. Land Plants

Comprehensive information has been compiled for vascular land plants (Tra-
cheophyta) at a global scale (Kier et al. 2005). Generally, and with few exceptions,
plants on land reach their highest diversity in the wet tropics (fig. 2.8), particularly
in Southwest Asia and South America. The highest observed plant species richness
is found in the Borneo lowlands (10,000 species), followed by several regions
located in Central and South America with ~8000 species each (Kier et al. 2005).
Diversity declines monotonically from the equator to the poles on all continents
(fig. 2.8), with the exception of an extraordinary diversity of plants in a few mid-
latitude hotspots such as the Mediterranean Basin and the South African Cape Flo-
ristic Region (Kreft and Jetz 2007). Dry and cold regions, such as the Gobi Desert
or Greenland, show low plant diversity of <500 species per region.
Below-ground diversity on land, particularly of soil and arbuscular mycorrhizal
fungi has recently been studied at some detail (Tedersoo et al. 2014; Davison et al.
2015). Broadly, these groups appear to show similar latitudinal patterns as plants,
but weaker gradients toward the poles (Tedersoo et al. 2014) and much stronger
overlap of species composition between continents, pointing toward their apparent
ease of dispersal via miniscule spores rather than seeds (Davison et al. 2015).

2.4.2. Land Vertebrates

Land vertebrates are likely more comprehensively sampled than any other group
either on land or in the sea. This detailed knowledge, and the strong overlap that
 Amphibians

300

Latitude
225

150

76

1
0 71 142
Mean richness
Reptiles

200

150

Latitude
100

51

1
0 33 67
Mean richness
Birds
1664

1249
Latitude

834

420

5
18 277 536
Mean richness
Mammals

350

263
Latitude

176

88

1
2 85 167
Mean richness
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 39

Mean normalized richness

0.78

0.59

Latitude
0.39

0.20

0.00
0.00 0.13 0.26
Mean richness

Figure 2.9. Land vertebrates. Shown are the global species richness patterns and corresponding
latitudinal gradients for amphibians, reptiles, birds (excluding Procellariiformes, fig. 2.6), and
land mammals. Mean normalized richness pattern averaged across these groups is shown at the
bottom. After data from IUCN (2016). Note that all groups have >90% species coverage, except
reptilians, which have about 50% coverage.

is observed between species groups, has likely contributed to the common percep-
tion of a uniform latitudinal pattern. Amphibians (Class: Amphibia), for example,
show a pattern of global diversity that is exceedingly similar to plants, with major
hotspots in tropical South America and Southeast Asia and rapidly declining
diversity toward higher latitudes (fig. 2.9). Of course, plants and amphibians are
both ectotherms and are prone to the effects of freezing and desiccation. Hence,
it is maybe unsurprising that they both thrive in similarly warm and wet climates.
Among the vertebrates, amphibians are likely the most susceptible to dry condi-
tions, and uniquely among the land species groups their richness drops to zero in
some of the world’s driest places. Reptiles (Class: Reptilia; excluding sea turtles,
sea snakes, and marine iguanas) are similar to plants and amphibians in their
ectothermy, but more readily able to colonize dry places, and even deserts. Yet
their diversity pattern also centers on the wet tropics, particularly Southeast Asia,
but with some subtropical hotspots in Central America and Madagascar (fig. 2.9).
Their latitudinal pattern peaks slightly north of the equator, reflecting the regional
hotspots in Asia and Central America.
Terrestrial birds and mammals are endothermic and hence regulate their inter-
nal temperature. At the same time, they can be very mobile, in contrast to, say,
plants and amphibians, and some species engage in long-distance migration.
Despite these unique traits, the global richness patterns of birds and mammals
are very similar to those of other vertebrates and plants (see fig. 2.9), with major
peaks in the wet tropics of South America, Africa, and Asia. One major difference
is the much higher diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa for birds, and particularly for
mammals, when compared to plants and amphibians. It is interesting that a major
40 CHAPTER 2

contrast between endotherm and ectotherm diversity patterns is seen not on land,
but in the sea. Specifically, land mammals and land birds still peak in the tropics
(see fig. 2.9), whereas marine mammals and birds show their highest diversity at
higher latitudes (see figs. 2.4 and 2.6).

2.4.3. Freshwater Species

Some habitats on land are moist year-round and support unique freshwater spe-
cies, including plants and algae, invertebrates, fish, amphibians, birds, and mam-
mals. Perhaps unsurprisingly, amphibians, birds, and mammals show similar
geographic patterns of species richness in freshwater as they do on land, with
richness patterns peaking close to the equator on all continents (Tisseuil et al.
2013). But the same is true for lake and river fishes, which may be more surpris-
ing, because one would suspect the pattern for freshwater fishes to be closer to
that of their marine counterparts. Fish thus provide an interesting case study,
with contrasting gradients from terrestrially influenced closed habitats (lakes)
to those that are fully marine (open ocean). The similarities between freshwater
fish diversity patterns and those of other terrestrial taxa may suggest common
evolutionary and ecological drivers across land and freshwater habitats. Estua-
rine fish are partly influenced by the land, partly by the ocean. Again, perhaps
unsurprisingly, their gradients in global richness appear somewhat intermediate
between freshwater and coastal marine fish, but with additional variation intro-
duced by the individual characteristics of each estuary (Vasconcelos et al. 2015).
Fish diversity in coastal (see fig. 2.4) and pelagic habitats (see fig. 2.6) is again
quite different from freshwater and estuarine fish, each conforming more closely
to patterns seen in other, taxonomically unrelated, groups that share their habitat.
This exemplifies that patterns of diversity appear much more strongly driven by
the features of particular habitats (land, coast, pelagic, and deep sea) than by
taxonomic affiliation.

2.4.4. Synthesis

Spatial patterns of species richness on land appear strikingly similar across plants
and four different vertebrate groups (see figs. 2.8 and 2.9). This similarity occurs
largely irrespective of mobility, endothermy, or trophic position (Jetz et al. 2009),
and likely extends to invertebrate taxa such as insects (Eggleton 2000). Spatial
correlation between most land groups is therefore high, pointing toward common
environmental or evolutionary drivers. This point is reinforced by the fact that
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 41

patterns of freshwater richness tend to follow those on land, at least at the broad
scales examined here. The monotonic latitudinal gradient in diversity from the
tropics to the poles is also clearest on land, but as we saw earlier, tends to break
down progressively from coastal to pelagic to deep-sea environments, an impor-
tant point that we will return to in chapter 3. One important question in paleo-
ecology is whether these gradients are specific to our particular epoch, or whether
they are found throughout the history of life on Earth. The next section will briefly
highlight the evidence available to answer that question.

2.5. CHANGES IN BIODIVERSITY PATTERNS THROUGH TIME

Like all aspects of nature, large-scale patterns of species richness are certainly
not static through time. Considerable changes in species richness may be forced
by dynamic changes in climate, geological activity, plate tectonics, ocean cir-
culation, and habitat features (Renema et al. 2008). Hotspots of benthic forami-
niferan (Foraminifera living in sediments) diversity, for example, have shifted
progressively over the last 50 million years from southern Europe to Southeast
Asia, likely in response to tectonic changes that altered the availability of coastal
shallow-water habitats on a continental scale (fig. 2.10). During the Eocene, the
number of fossilized foraminiferan genera peaked in southwest Europe, northwest
Africa, and along the eastern shore of the Arabian Peninsula. By the end of the
Eocene, peak diversity had shifted to the Arabian Sea, and by the end of the Mio-
cene Epoch this had shifted again toward Southeast Asia (Renema et al. 2008).
This large change in the distribution of peak species richness has been discussed
primarily as a consequence of coastal habitat loss largely due to regional uplift
during the Arabia-Eurasia collision, likely resulting in faunal depletion and the
demise of the Arabian hotspot. Fossil and molecular evidence for mollusks sup-
ports a similar pattern of “hopping hotspots” through time (Renema et al. 2008).
This, and related work on corals (Leprieur et al. 2016), highlights how changes in
environmental conditions and geological forces can rearrange large-scale diver-
sity patterns over very long timescales, and emphasizes the importance of habitat
availability for maintaining high regional species richness.
The observed rearrangement in benthic foraminiferan diversity over geological
time entailed a shift in peak diversity from intermediate latitudes (Mediterranean)
to tropical regions as the global climate cooled (note that benthic foraminifera
are coastal species and as such more closely aligned with patterns in fig. 2.2 than
with the pelagic foraminifera in fig. 2.5). Recently, it has been suggested that such
latitudinal changes may be a more general pattern throughout the Earth’s history
(Mannion et al. 2014): tropical peaks in diversity tend to occur in cold “icehouse”
 Late middle Eocene

Early Miocene

Recent

C
1–4 5–8 9–12 13–16 >16

Figure 2.10. Changes in biodiversity hotspots through time. Shown is the generic richness of
large benthic foraminifera in samples from (A) the late Middle Eocene (42 to 39 Ma); (B) the
Early Miocene (23 to 16 Ma); and (C) recent. Solid lines delimit the changing nature of regions
that support peak diversity from the Tethyan Sea (now Mediterranean), to the Arabian Sea, to
the Indonesian-Australian Archipelago (IAA). Redrawn after data from Renema et al. (2008).
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 43

climates, including the Neogene (23 Ma to present), whereas mid- to high-latitude

peaks are observed both on land (for example, for dinosaurs; Mannion et al. 2012)
and in the ocean (for example, for corals; Kiessling et al. 2012) during geologi-
cally extensive “greenhouse climates,” which may exceed temperature maxima
for many of these species (Sun et al. 2012). If confirmed, this would reveal global
temperature as a major driving variable for the distribution of diversity and the
shape of the latitudinal gradient. In addition, temperature-related changes in sea-
sonality, as well as plate tectonics and mass extinction events, may further modify
these patterns (Mannion et al. 2014). It should be noted that these interpretations
of the fossil record rely heavily on methods used to correct for sampling biases,
and are based on relatively few studies covering the “greenhouse” periods of
Earth’s history. Yet the evidence is mounting that tropical peaks of diversity may
not have always been the norm through Earth’s turbulent history and that near-
lethal tropical temperatures have driven many species to higher latitudes during
warmer geological periods; this may have occurred as recently as the last inter-
glacial maximum ~125,000 years ago (Kiessling et al. 2012). In any case, these
results do imply dynamic patterns of species richness through time. The question
remains as to whether such dynamic changes are predictable based on what is
known about the underlying drivers of diversity.
It is instructive in this regard to contrast the changes in benthic or terrestrial spe-
cies richness with those of pelagic organisms. Pelagic foraminiferan microfossils
are enormously abundant in deep-sea sediments, and their fossil record is probably
the most complete of any marine taxon. Hence, they are particularly well under-
stood in a paleo-oceanographic context. Studies spanning the last 3 Ma have shown
that the latitudinal gradient in diversity shifted among cold and warm periods, yet
the underlying relationship between diversity and temperature remained stable
(Yasuhara et al. 2012). While peak diversity tended more toward the tropics in the
last glacial maximum (18,000 years ago), it stretched out to higher latitudes during
the last interglacial period (120,000 years ago). Similarly, the study of fossil diatom
assemblages revealed a surprising consistency in community structure, and very
gradual evolutionary change over the last 1.5 Ma (Cermeño and Falkowski 2009).
It was shown that this apparent stability is caused by the ability of marine microbes
to spatially track changes in environmental conditions, thanks to their high capacity
for dispersal (Cermeño et al. 2010). As a result of relaxed dispersal limitation, the
current biogeography of pelagic organisms is expected to be more closely reflective
of current environmental conditions, and less shaped by past events—possibly in
contrast to taxa living in coastal or terrestrial environments (Cermeño et al. 2010).
Dispersal-limited sessile organisms, such as bivalves, corals, or land plants,
may require more time to adapt to large-scale changes in environmental con-
ditions, and thus may generally show a stronger historical signature of past
44 CHAPTER 2

ecological and evolutionary factors that shaped their diversity patterns. Indeed, a
spatial effect that partly captures such historic differences was significant for all
land plants (Kreft and Jetz 2007), and both past and present environmental condi-
tions have been invoked to explain contemporary patterns in terrestrial vertebrate
diversity (Jetz and Fine 2012). Furthermore, in a comprehensive statistical analy-
sis of marine richness patterns it appeared that most coastal taxa, but not a single
pelagic taxon, showed a statistically significant relationship to historical differ-
ences between ocean basins (Tittensor et al. 2010). This supports the idea that
dispersal constraints preserve some evolutionary footprint in sessile, or relatively
slow-moving, taxa on land and in the coastal ocean.
In this context, there is considerable debate in the literature about whether pres-
ent diversity hotspots for land and coastal taxa arise as centers of species origina-
tion (“cradles”) or centers of species accumulation (“museums” of biodiversity;
Jablonski et al. 2006). The present consensus appears to converge toward the
realization that both might be true—that is, high species origination rates lead to
accumulation of novel taxa in the tropics, which are largely retained there but can
slowly spread to higher latitudes. This combined hypothesis has been termed the
“out-of-the-tropics” model (Jablonski et al. 2006), and is well-supported by the
bivalve fossil record in particular (Roy and Witman 2009). This model of species
evolution assumes both higher evolutionary rates as well as lower extinction rates
in the tropics (Jablonski et al. 2006; Brown 2014).
In summary, we conclude that spatial diversity patterns are not necessarily
stable through time, but are influenced by historical changes in climate and habi-
tat availability, among other factors. Such an evolutionary imprint is likely to be
more visible in dispersal-limited taxa, particularly sessile coastal and land spe-
cies, than in more mobile pelagic species. Clearly, it appears that the latitudinal
gradient that is so often discussed in the literature is not driven by latitude per se,
but by environmental factors or drivers that covary with latitude, and that these
processes may vary among different habitats and throughout different periods in
Earth’s history. These spatial and temporal contrasts will be used to shed more
light on hypothesized environmental drivers in chapter 3.

2.6. ROBUSTNESS OF DOCUMENTED BIODIVERSITY PATTERNS

The global patterns of biodiversity discussed in this section (table 2.1, later) have
been derived from data collected at various levels of taxonomic resolution and
using a variety of sampling methods. Here, we examine how sensitive docu-
mented diversity patterns are to changes in these two parameters. We also briefly
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 45

discuss how our chosen metric of biodiversity (total species richness) relates to
other metrics, which may or may not yield similar patterns at a global scale.

2.6.1. Robustness to Taxonomic Resolution

Throughout this chapter, we compiled comprehensive global patterns at the taxo-

nomic scale that they were reported on originally, ranging from the family to the
phylum level (see table 2.1). What are the effects of aggregating or disaggregating
taxa on global patterns? Surprisingly, this question appears to not have been sys-
tematically explored in the literature. We investigated it for the land vertebrates,
the only subphylum where we have comprehensive range information for all spe-
cies (fig. 2.11). It emerges that monotonic declines in species richness from the
equator to the poles are seen for the Subphylum Vertebrata, as well as for the Class
Mammalia (and other classes such as Aves, Amphibia; see fig. 2.9). The Order
Carnivora (fig. 2.11) still shows a clear gradient, but this becomes a lot more vari-
able as one disaggregates to finer taxonomic resolution. At the family level, the
Ursidae (bears) and Felidae (cats) both show idiosyncratic patterns that are dis-
tinct from other vertebrates or mammals (fig. 2.11), and are likely shaped by their
evolutionary history and unique adaptations. Bears show their greatest richness
in the temperate northern hemisphere, whereas cats peak in the subtropics in both
hemispheres. We conclude that at least for the vertebrates, latitudinal gradients
are stable from the class level and up, and start to break down at lower levels in
the taxonomic hierarchy. One possible explanation for this pattern according to
the out-of-the-tropics model discussed earlier (Jablonski et al. 2006) is that most
phyla and classes, and possibly orders, may have originated in warm climates,
and later spread to higher latitudes, with new families, genera, and species origi-
nating there, giving the possibility of differing latitudinal distributions for such
taxa. Generally, we urge the reader to bear taxonomic resolution in mind when
interpreting patterns of diversity with latitude.

2.6.2. Robustness to Sampling Methodology

Possibly, some of the variation seen between groups and habitats could be driven
by differences in sampling and approaches to producing data, rather than environ-
mental or evolutionary drivers. Broadly, there are three fundamentally different
methods with slightly different limitations and subsequent inference: (1) Bio-
diversity patterns may be constructed by overlaying individual species ranges.
 Vertebrates

2715

2037

Latitude
1359

681

3
17 304 591
Mean richness
Mammals

426

320

Latitude
214

107

1
2 85 167
Mean richness
Carnivores

50

38
Latitude

26

13

1
1 14 27
Mean richness
Bears

3
Latitude

1
0 1 2
Mean richness
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 47

Cats

13

10

Latitude
7

1
0.0 3.6 7.1
Mean richness

Figure 2.11. Sensitivity of vertebrate diversity patterns to changes in taxonomic resolution.

Shown are subsets of the subphylum Vertebrata—specifically, the Class Mammalia, which con-
tains the Order Carnivora, which in turn contains the families Ursidae (bears) and Felidae (cats),
among others. It is evident how the clear latitudinal gradient for the vertebrates becomes more
idiosyncratic when splitting data into progressively smaller taxonomic units. Each step down the
taxonomic hierarchy reduces the number of species by about one order of magnitude.

These ranges are typically based on observations of species presence and some
degree of interpolation between sampling stations, often informed by expert opin-
ion, to estimate the total extent of occurrence. This method is commonly used for
paleontological data, but also to map the range of total presence in extant species.
It provides a cumulative view of biodiversity, and can overestimate actual ranges
(as there are likely to be gaps within bounding polygons), and hence local biodi-
versity. (2) A second approach is to construct sample-based biodiversity patterns
based on actual biodiversity surveys where the occurrences of all species in the
community are recorded together, and then spatially interpolated by geostatistical
methods such as kriging or relating to environmental parameters. This method is
likely to underestimate biodiversity if sampling is incomplete or accumulation
curves uncorrected (though they can be and sometimes are extrapolated toward
asymptotes using various methods). This approach is also unlikely to fully rep-
resent rare species, and does not provide species identities at interpolated sites.
(3) A third approach is to model individual species ranges using environmental
(and possibly other) predictors—that is, to use habitat or niche models, and then
overlay these species ranges to reconstruct aggregate biodiversity patterns. This
method may overestimate range sizes, and hence biodiversity, if other factors
(such as biotic interactions or historical disturbances) cause marked differences
between realized and fundamental niches and hence restrict actual species ranges
within a possible environmental envelope. Potentially, it may also underestimate
range sizes if the niche is not adequately sampled and characterized.
48 CHAPTER 2

Coastal fishes are one group for which all of these approaches have been imple-
mented at a global scale. Reassuringly, the resulting patterns are very similar,
suggesting that the basic features of large-scale biodiversity patterns are captured
independently of sampling method (fig. 2.12). Whether modeling global occur-
rence records (Tittensor et al. 2010) or compiling transect-based samples (Edgar et
al. 2014), expert-derived range maps (Roberts et al. 2002), or habitat models (Selig
et al. 2014), all observed patterns centered around a primary diversity hotspot in
the western tropical Pacific, with richness decreasing latitudinally and to a lesser
degree longitudinally from there. Likewise, fish richness in the Atlantic centered
on the Caribbean, irrespective of sampling method (fig. 2.12). This suggests some
degree of robustness to differences in sampling methods and data processing for
derived measures of species richness, at least at the coarse scales we choose to
examine here. However, how does species richness relate to other measures of
diversity, and is it a reasonable proxy for functional diversity, evenness, or phylo-
genetic diversity? We explore this question briefly in the following section.

2.6.3. Relationship to Other Diversity Metrics

Although in this book we maintain a deliberate focus on large-scale patterns of

species richness, it is interesting to review briefly what is known about other
measures of global-scale diversity, and how they relate to species richness.
Of much recent interest is functional richness, which captures the number and
sometimes also the relative abundance of unique functional groups or “guilds”
in an area. This measure avoids the “ecological redundancy” that may be pres-
ent in speciose but functionally poor communities with large numbers of similar
species—although note that functional redundancy can still be a useful property
in a dynamic environment (Elmqvist et al. 2003). However, functional groups can
be constructed and assigned in many different ways, possibly leading to different
patterns. Regardless of these complexities, it appears that gradients in species
richness broadly translate into similar gradients of functional richness (Micheli
and Halpern 2005; Berke et al. 2014). A detailed analysis of >5000 coastal bivalve
taxa functionally categorized species according to their feeding mode, relation-
ship with the substratum, mechanism of attachment, mobility, and body size
(Berke et al. 2014). Interestingly, only 39 out of 197 possible trait combinations
were realized in nature. These 39 observed functional groups were distributed
nonrandomly along the world’s coastlines, with low-latitude hotspots in the tropi-
cal Indo-Pacific and Eastern Pacific-Caribbean, respectively, as seen for the spe-
cies richness of mollusks (see fig. 2.1) and coastal species more broadly (see
figs. 2.2 to 2.4). The authors found a saturating relationship between functional
 A
575

433

292

150

8
B
3856

2895

1934

974

13
C
2555

1919

1284

648

13
D
55

42

29

16

Figure 2.12. Sensitivity of fish diversity patterns to different sampling methods. Shown are
patterns of species richness based on (A) expert-derived range maps for reef fishes (after data in
Roberts et al. 2002), (B) habitat-model derived range maps for all fishes (after data from Selig et
al. 2014, updated October 2017 using www.aquamaps.org), (C) extrapolated occurrence records
for coastal fishes (after data from Tittensor et al. 2010), and (D) transect sampling of reef fishes
(mean richness per transect) by divers (after data from Edgar et al. 2014). Data sources and
methods for estimating species richness were completely independent, yet show very consistent
patterns at the global scale. Data have been restricted to coastal regions where necessary.
50 CHAPTER 2

richness and genus richness that has also been described for land taxa such as
mammals (Safi et al. 2011). Likewise, the pattern of functional richness in coastal
fishes closely resembles the overall pattern of species richness at global (Stuart-
Smith et al. 2013) and regional scales (Micheli and Halpern 2005). These results
suggest a direct although nonlinear link between the number of species and func-
tions in an ecosystem.
In contrast to functional richness, bivalve functional evenness displays a
reverse pattern, peaking at higher latitudes (Berke et al. 2014). Similarly, species
evenness of reef fishes tended to be higher at higher latitudes, and lowest in the
tropics (Stuart-Smith et al. 2013). At least for bivalves, which have a detailed
fossil record available, this contrasting pattern of richness and evenness was
explained by uneven origination rates of different functional groups in the tropics,
and the movement of a small, random subset to higher latitudes (Jablonski et al.
2006). Simulation models showed that such processes could lead to higher even-
ness at high latitudes, indirectly supporting the out-of-the-tropics model for the
analyzed bivalve communities (Berke et al. 2014). Data were broadly consistent
with the hypothesis that high-latitude fauna is to a first approximation an attenu-
ated sample of the global species pool.
Finally, there has been considerable and growing interest in patterns of phylo-
genetic richness, which describes the number of unique evolutionary lineages in
a species group. This metric reflects the recognition that species are not indepen-
dent entities, but rather their functional and ecological similarities are shaped by
patterns of common ancestry (Harvey and Pagel 1991); it also has conservation
implications in terms of preserving evolutionary distinctness. The idea is that it
is not necessarily the most species-rich taxa that harbor the greatest diversity of
lineages, particularly if one or a few groups have radiated profusely but with mini-
mal evolutionary novelty. As with functional richness, there is a problem with
lumping or splitting lineages, and no simple “standard” measure is available at
this point. Still it appears that at large scales, phylogenetic richness does follow
the pattern of species richness surprisingly well, for example, in mammals (Safi et
al. 2011). Taken together, these results suggest some support for the use of species
richness as a surrogate of both functional and evolutionary complexity for some
taxa, though it may not be reflective of other measures such as evenness.

2.7. SYNTHESIS

Our comparative analysis of global patterns in species richness yielded some

interesting generalizations. Averaging across all known species groups on land
and in the sea, tropical peaks in species richness were as common as subtropical
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 51

peaks (n = 16 each; see table 2.1 and fig. 2.13), whereas species groups cresting
in temperate (n = 6) or polar latitudes (n = 2) were more exceptional. Thus the
oft-cited unimodal pattern of biodiversity appears frequently, particularly on land,
but there is also evidence that supports a newly emerging paradigm of asym-
metric unimodal or bimodal peaks, often in the subtropics, and particularly in the
marine realm (Chaudhary et al. 2016). We will return to this difference in marine
and terrestrial gradients in the next chapter, on drivers. Longitudinally, a clear
global maximum in the eastern hemisphere (mostly in South Asia) was seen in
10 groups, whereas global richness peaked in the western hemisphere (Americas)
in only 2 taxa. Most groups (n = 20), however, showed maxima in species rich-
ness in both hemispheres (see table 2.1). These broad patterns across habitats
were robust to differences in taxonomic resolution across species group: when all
taxa below the class level were excluded, the overall latitudinal richness pattern
remained similar (fig. 2.13).
The present synthesis (see table 2.1 and fig. 2.13), confirms earlier studies of
contemporary and fossil-derived patterns of species richness in the sea, indicat-
ing flatter latitudinal gradients and bimodal latitudinal richness patterns, espe-
cially for pelagic taxa (Tittensor et al. 2010; Powell et al. 2012; Chaudhary et
al. 2016). Yet this is the first globally comprehensive comparison of diversity
patterns on land and in all three major marine realms. While diversity patterns
on land (including freshwater habitats) tended to converge on one broad uni-
modal pattern with a strong tropical peak, marine biodiversity patterns were dis-
similar from the land and from each other—coastal, pelagic, and deep-sea taxa
showed a progressively greater tendency for peak diversity at higher latitudes
(see fig. 2.13), and also displayed dissimilar longitudinal patterns (see table 2.1).
As the examples of fishes, mammals, and birds indicate, processes affecting
diversity tend to vary more by realm (land, coastal, pelagic, or deep sea) and less
by taxonomic group—that is, diversity patterns are more similar between differ-
ent taxa in the same environmental realm than within a single taxon that occurs
across different realms.
Total known eukaryotic species richness for just those taxa sampled and pre-
sented in table 2.1 is likely highest on land (~325,000), intermediate in the coastal
ocean (~22,000 species plus ~1000 macroalgal genera), and lowest in the pelagic
realm (~500 species)—though this of course does not reflect total richness across
these taxa, as it is biased toward species we sample well, and also ignores the
raft of taxa for which global patterns remain undescribed. Species richness in the
deep sea is too poorly sampled (a single taxon) to directly compare at a global
scale. This contrast in absolute richness has not been explained comprehensively,
but probably has to do with the presence of structured habitats on land and in
coastal regions. Such features pose constraints on dispersal and favor speciation
 52 CHAPTER 2

Table 2.1. Synthesis of Global Biodiversity Patterns

Latitudinal Longitudinal
Habitat Species group Taxonomy Species peak peak Source

Coastal Stony corals Order: 794 Tropical East Asia Tittensor et

Scleractinia al. 2010
Coastal Brittle stars Class: 126 Tropical East Asia Woolley et
Ophiuroidea al. 2016
Coastal Bivalves Class: Bivalvia ~10,000 Tropical East Asia Valentine
and
Jablonski
2015
Coastal Cone snails Family: Conidae 632 Tropical East Asia IUCN
2016
Coastal Cephalopods* Class: 122 Subtropical East Asia Tittensor et
Cephalopoda al. 2010
Coastal Mangroves Division: 32 Tropical East Asia Tittensor et
Tracheophyta (5 al. 2010
Families)
Coastal Seagrasses Order: 60 Subtropical East Asia Tittensor et
Alismatales (4 al. 2010
Families)
Coastal Macroalgae Division: 116 Tropical Various Keith et al.
Chlorophyta (genus) 2014
Coastal Macroalgae Division: 682 Subtropical Various Keith et al.
Rhodophyta (genus) 2014
Coastal Macroalgae Class: 252 Temperate Various Keith et al.
Phaeophyceae (genus) 2014
Coastal Fish Class: 9713 Tropical East Asia Tittensor et
Osteichthyes al. 2010
Coastal Sharks Superorder: 480 Subtropical East Asia Tittensor et
Selachimorpha al. 2010
Coastal Pinnipeds Suborder: 36 Polar Various Tittensor et
Pinnipedia al. 2010
Pelagic Foraminifera Class: 88 Subtropical Various Rutherford
Foraminifera et al. 1999
Pelagic Copepods* Subclass: NA Subtropical NA Rombouts
Copepoda et al. 2009
Pelagic Euphausiids Order: 100 Subtropical Various Tittensor et
Euphausiacea al. 2010
Pelagic Squids* Order: Teuthida 85 Temperate Various Tittensor et
al. 2010
Pelagic Tuna and billfish Suborder: 12 Tropical- Various Tittensor et
Scombroidei (3 subtropical al. 2010
Families)
Pelagic Sharks Superorder: 27 Subtropical East Asia Tittensor et
Selachimorpha al. 2010
Pelagic Cetaceans Infraorder: 81 Temperate Various Tittensor et
Cetacea al. 2010
Pelagic Seabirds Family: 110 Temperate- Various Davies et
Procellariiformes polar al. 2010
Pelagic Bacterioplankton* Phyla (various) 562 (OTU) Subtropical NA Pommier
et al. 2007
 O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 53

Latitudinal Longitudinal
Habitat Species group Taxonomy Species peak peak Source

Pelagic Bacterioplankton* Phyla (various) >1000 Subtropical NA Fuhrman et

(OTU) al. 2008
Pelagic Microbial Phyla (various) 35,000 Subtropical- NA Sunagawa
plankton* (OTU) temperate et al. 2015
Deep sea Brittle stars Class: 31 Temperate Various Woolley et
Ophiuroidea al. 2016
Land Vascular plants Division: >200,000 Tropical Various Kreft and
Tracheophyta Jetz 2007
Land Soil fungi* Phyla (various) 94,255 Tropical South Tedersoo
(OTU) America, et al. 2014
Asia
Land Amphibians Class: Amphibia 6475 Tropical South Grenyer et
America al. 2006
Land Reptiles* Class: Reptilea 3753 Subtropical Central IUCN
America, 2016
Africa, Asia
Land Birds Class: Aves 10,423 Tropical South Grenyer et
America, al. 2006;
Asia IUCN
2016
Land Mammals Class: 5266 Tropical South Schipper
Mammalia America, et al. 2008;
Africa, Asia IUCN
2016
Freshwater Fish Class: 8870 Tropical- Americas, Tisseuil et
Osteichthyes subtropical Africa, Asia al. 2013
Freshwater Amphibians Class: Amphibia 3263 Tropical- Americas, Tisseuil et
subtropical Africa, Asia al. 2013
Freshwater Birds Class: Aves 699 Tropical South Tisseuil et
America, al. 2013
Africa, Asia
Freshwater Mammals Class: 119 Tropical South Tisseuil et
Mammalia America, al. 2013
Africa, Asia
Freshwater Crayfish Superfamily: 462 Subtropical North Tisseuil et
Astacoidea America al. 2013
Latitudinal Longitudinal
peak peak

Tropical 16 Western 2
Hemisphere
Subtropical 16 Eastern 10
Hemisphere
Temperate 6 Both 20
Polar 2

Note: Shown are the approximate climatic zones where species richness peaks for different species
groups. Most groups have comprehensive global coverage; those with more limited global sampling or
limited species coverage are marked with an asterisk (*). Most studies reported richness of species, except
for macroalgae (richness of genera), and bacterioplankton and soil fungi (richness of operational taxonomic
units, OTU). Latitudinal and longitudinal patterns of peak richness are summarized at the bottom; see also
fig. 2.13 for a graphical summary.
54 CHAPTER 2

20
15 All habitats

10
5
0

10
Land

10
Number of taxa

Coastal

10
Pelagic

2
Deep sea

0
Tropical Subtropical Temperate Polar
Latitude

Figure 2.13. Synthesis of latitudinal biodiversity patterns. Shown are the approximate loca-
tions of latitudinal peaks in species richness in all habitats combined, and separated. Solid line:
all taxa with global data; dashed line: all taxa below Class level removed. Data from table 2.1.

by isolation, seen for example around mountain chains on land and in the coastal
maze of the Indonesian-Australian Archipelago (Bellwood et al. 2012). Land
and coastal habitats also tend to be the most productive, with significant nutrient
sources and frequent vertical mixing. Productivity drops off with increasing dis-
tance from shore and increasing water depth, and is lowest in the deep sea, which
receives only a fraction of the surface productivity from sunlit pelagic waters. At
O B S E RV E D PAT T E R N S 55

the same time, the impacts that people have on marine biodiversity tend to attenu-
ate with increasing distance from land (Halpern et al. 2008) and increasing depth
(Pauly et al. 2003)—though an increasing human footprint is now visible even in
the deep sea (Ramirez-Llodra et al. 2011; Levin and Le Bris 2015; Jamieson et
al. 2017).
Some species move between habitats during their life history, but most are
primarily associated with one of the four major realms discussed here, render-
ing the unique patterns of richness found within each realm largely independent.
Moreover, as we will see in the next chapter, the environmental predictors and
potential drivers of diversity are often spatially distinct between major environ-
mental realms. As such, the contrasting biodiversity patterns among land, coastal,
pelagic, and deep-sea habitats offer a powerful contrast and rich testing ground for
ideas about the fundamental structuring forces of diversity at global scales, and
how they may play out over evolutionary and ecological time. We will examine
empirical evidence for those possible structuring forces in detail in chapter 3, and
then develop a general theory of the processes that may connect diverging pat-
terns and drivers in chapter 4.
 CHAPTER THREE

Drivers and Predictors

of Global Biodiversity

Whereas we discussed global patterns of biodiversity in the preceding chapter, we

now turn our attention to the driving factors that may cause these patterns to exist.
As the distribution of diversity is highly nonrandom, and often similar across
disparate taxa (chapter 2), there has been extensive speculation about underlying
drivers and mechanisms that may influence species richness. Most of this discus-
sion has taken place with respect to the strong latitudinal gradients of diversity
found in terrestrial systems. Many (some would say too many) hypotheses have
been proposed to explain these gradients, and there is little general consensus on
their relative merit (Fischer 1960; Pianka 1966; Rohde 1992; Brown 2014). Most
authors tend to agree, however, that a consistent pattern that emerges across taxa,
such as the inverse relationship between latitude and richness on land, requires a
general mechanism, or group of mechanisms, that operates independently of the
particular habitat or species group examined (Rohde 1992; Gotelli et al. 2009).
In the following, we attempt to gain better understanding by examining hypoth-
esized drivers (factors that may mechanistically explain changes in diversity)
and relating them to predictors (environmental variables that can be empirically
measured and correlated with observed diversity patterns, then related back to
drivers). It is our conjecture that a comparative global analysis of environmental
predictors across land and sea could shed light on some of the underlying drivers
and mechanisms that may operate within and across realms.
A fundamental challenge for such an analysis lies in the fact that many envi-
ronmental predictors covary with latitude, such as annual mean temperature, tem-
perature range, solar radiation, seasonal climatic variability, soil moisture, and
the intensity of historical disturbance caused by ice ages, among others. Hence
the more traditional approach of analyzing a simple, linear gradient of species
richness over latitude may not be suitable to resolve conflicting hypotheses as to
which drivers are causing these gradients. A comprehensive global spatial analysis
is more promising, because it includes longitudinal as well as latitudinal variation
in these predictors across different continents (or ocean basins) and thus provides
DRIVERS AND PREDICTORS 57

significantly more contrast to separate their relative influence (Kreft and Jetz
2007; Tittensor et al. 2010; Jetz and Fine 2012). Such an analysis has the potential
to be particularly powerful when analyzing multiple terrestrial and marine taxa, as
they can show contrasting patterns of diversity (see chapter 2), and feature differ-
ent environmental gradients and drivers, hopefully shedding light on underlying
unifying principles. The goal of this chapter is to confront published hypotheses
about putative drivers of diversity with comprehensive empirical information on
the environmental predictors of diversity on land and in the oceans. Ultimately,
we hope to identify common drivers and mechanisms that could form the basis for
a synthetic theory of global biodiversity patterns.

3.1. HYPOTHESIZED DRIVERS OF DIVERSITY

Many hypotheses have been formulated to identify drivers and describe associ-
ated mechanisms that may influence large-scale patterns of species richness (table
3.1). Conceptually, these hypotheses fall into three broad categories: (1) those
concerned with environmental factors that are thought to promote diversity (such
as solar radiation, thermal energy, productivity, and environmental stability);
(2) those concerned with factors that may limit diversity (such as environmental
stress or disturbance); and (3) those that focus on size and quality of the habi-
tat, within which observed diversity patterns emerge (table 3.1). It is remarkable,
however, that as yet there is no body of theory that combines these three dimen-
sions of environmental variation to explain, in a testable framework, biodiversity
patterns at the planetary scale.
We note here that hypothesized drivers from the three preceding categories
can operate to promote or limit diversity via the same mechanism—for exam-
ple, increased energy availability and increased habitat area can both result in a
larger community, which, all else being equal, can increase total diversity (the
more individuals hypothesis; Wright 1983; Hurlburt and Jetz 2010). This hypoth-
esized relationship between a higher number of individuals and greater diversity
can itself operate through multiple pathways, such as increased sampling of the
regional species pool, or reduced extinction rates due to larger population sizes.
In this chapter, we focus primarily on the hypothesized drivers of diversity and
their relationship to environmental correlates, but we discuss potential mecha-
nisms wherever possible, to explore them in more detail in our model simula-
tions in chapter 4. Note also that one might separate out potential drivers, as they
may scale differently even if they operate through the same mechanism (Hurlburt
and Jetz 2010). We explore such scaling relationships when fitting our models to
observed data in chapter 5.
58 CHAPTER 3

Table 3.1. Hypothesized Drivers and Predictors of Diversity

Hypothesized Hypothesized Environmental

driver mechanism Scale predictor Source
Drivers promoting diversity
Solar energy More individuals Ecological Solar Currie 1991
can coexist. insolation
Thermal energy Higher community Evolutionary Surface Brown et al.
turnover and temperature 2004
speciation rate.
Productivity More individuals Ecological Net primary Wright 1983
can coexist. production
Environmental Lower extinction Evolutionary NA Sanders
stability rate. 1968
Evolutionary time More niches get Evolutionary Years Fischer 1960
filled over time.
Drivers limiting diversity
Environmental Fewer species can Ecological Various Thiery 1982
stress adapt to stressful
condition.
Disturbance Higher extinction Evolutionary Various Fischer 1960
rate.
Seasonality Unstable Ecological Variation in Taylor and
environment limits net primary Taylor 1977
specialist niches. production
Drivers relating to habitat
Habitat size More individuals Ecological Area Connor and
can coexist. McCoy 1979
Habitat complexity More niches are Ecological Various Pianka 1966
available.
Habitat shape Species richness Ecological NA Colwell &
peaks in Lees 2000
mid-domain.
Note: Only major hypotheses that are thought to apply across taxa and are considered in multiple
publications are listed (source publications serve as examples). Mechanisms and predictors refer to the
most common interpretation; alternative mechanism and predictors are possible.

Finally, we note that we do not attempt a complete survey of all mechanisms

associated with each driver. For example, Evans et al. (2005) list nine potential
mechanisms that may generate positive relationships between ambient energy
availability and species richness. We focus on those mechanisms that have
received the broadest support within the literature, and note that other factors may
DRIVERS AND PREDICTORS 59

well play a role. A comprehensive test of all alternative mechanisms within our
analytical framework will be possible, but will not be attempted here.

3.1.1. Drivers Promoting Diversity

Life on Earth requires external energy input from the sun, as well as a set of
essential resources such as carbon, water, and nutrients. A number of authors have
proposed that large-scale patterns of species diversity and the latitudinal gradient
on land, in particular, may be generated and maintained by greater energy avail-
ability toward the equator. The concept of biologically available energy promot-
ing diversity, whether such energy is in the form of photosynthetically active solar
radiation (PAR), thermal energy, or chemical energy (Gibbs free energy in the
tissues of organisms), has been formalized in the species-energy theory (Wright
1983; Clarke and Gaston 2006). Hypothesized mechanisms by which energy
may affect diversity fall into two broad classes: (1) Increased energy availability
leads to greater diversification due to increased metabolic rates, faster commu-
nity turnover, and/or more rapid evolutionary processes; this is the evolutionary-
speed hypothesis (Stehli et al. 1969; Rohde 1992; Allen et al. 2002). (2) Increased
energy availability may support higher biological productivity and sustain more
individuals per unit area, which allows more species to coexist; this is the more-
individuals hypothesis (Hutchinson 1959; Wright 1983; Clarke and Gaston 2006).
Note that these mechanisms are of course nonexclusive; they could both operate
simultaneously, the former on evolutionary and the latter on ecological times-
cales (see table 3.1). Here, we examine the three forms of energy that may pro-
mote diversity—solar, thermal, and chemical—followed by an examination of the
influence of environmental stability over time in promoting diversity.

Solar Energy
There is marked latitudinal variation in the seasonality and intensity of solar
energy input, the latter due to the shallower angle of incidence and greater scatter-
ing in the longer atmosphere path length toward higher latitudes. When averaged
over the year, the difference between received solar energy (in W m−2 a−1) at the
tropics and poles is about fourfold (Öpik and Rolfe 2005). Where PAR, water,
and sources of nutrients are abundant, plant productivity may be elevated, which
channels more available energy to higher trophic levels.
Conversely, lower levels of PAR might lead to lower plant diversity because,
all else being equal, fewer individuals can coexist on a given amount of incom-
ing energy; this is the more-individuals hypothesis described earlier (Hutchinson
1959; Wright 1983; Evans et al. 2005). However, only a small fraction of the
60 CHAPTER 3

incident PAR, typically less than 1%, is used by photosynthetic organisms (Öpik
and Rolfe 2005); thus, incident PAR itself may not typically be a strong limiting
factor that drives diversity gradients. Furthermore, such differences in PAR can-
not explain the altitudinal diversity gradient. As is well established on land, diver-
sity decreases for most species groups with increasing altitude (Gaston 2000),
and microevolutionary rates appear lower at higher altitudes (Bleiweiss 1998;
Gillman et al. 2009). Yet solar energy input is constant, or even increasing due to
shorter atmospheric pathlength, with increasing altitude. Finally, a direct effect of
solar irradiance on species richness is not compatible with the extratropical rich-
ness peaks commonly seen in pelagic organisms (see chapter 2). A mechanism
by which solar energy could affect diversity indirectly, however, is through its
effects on (1) surface temperature or (2) productivity. These mechanisms will be
discussed in the two following sections.

Surface Temperature
Elevated solar energy input into tropical environments not only affects PAR but
also elevates average surface temperature compared to temperate or polar areas.
On first glance, it appears obvious for most taxa that more species prefer warm
conditions to cold ones; hence temperature tolerances could explain gradients of
biodiversity for many species groups along both latitudinal and altitudinal clines
(Boyce et al. 2008; Sunday et al. 2011; Beaugrand et al. 2013). Yet, like other
explanations based on the concept of perceived environmental harshness and tol-
erance, this is ultimately circular reasoning, as “thinking of the tropics as benign
and the polar region as harsh is only a habit of thought; it results from the fact
that life is more abundant in the tropics” (Pielou 1979; see also the discussion in
section 3.1.2). More specifically, it raises the key question of why more species
evolved in warmer environments in the first place, and the mechanisms underly-
ing this relationship.
A number of hypotheses have been proposed that link higher temperature to
a faster speed of evolution (the aforementioned evolutionary-speed hypothesis),
hence providing an evolutionary mechanism linking (thermal) energy to diversity
(Clarke and Gaston 2006). Prominent among these hypotheses is the metabolic
theory of ecology (Brown et al. 2004), which posits that the metabolic rate is
the fundamental biological rate that governs many macroecological patterns in
nature. The theory is based on empirically observed relationships between body
size, temperature, and metabolic rate across all organisms. Specifically, small-
bodied organisms tend to have higher mass-specific metabolic rates than larger-
bodied ones. This relationship is empirically described by Kleiber’s law,

B = B0 M3/4,
DRIVERS AND PREDICTORS 61

where B is the whole organism metabolic rate (in watts or another unit of power),
M is organism mass (in kg), and Bo is a mass-independent normalization constant.
The constant exponent of 0.75 (3/4) is thought to be explained by fractal scaling
of resource distribution networks (West et al. 1997).
Furthermore, organisms that operate at higher temperature (either through
endothermy or by living in warm environments) have higher metabolic rates than
those at colder temperatures. This fundamental temperature dependence of bio-
logical reactions is described by the Arrhenius function,
I = ae−E/kT,
where I is a physiological rate, a is an intercept, E is the activation energy in
electron volts (typically around 0.6–0.7 eV for respiration), k is the Boltzmann
constant (8.62 × 10−5 eV K−1), and T is the internal temperature of the organism
in degrees Kelvin (K). Note, however, that the assumed log-linear temperature
dependence holds up only to a species-specific maximum temperature, above
which metabolic rates decline quickly due to the denaturation of proteins at high
temperature (Corkrey et al. 2014). Kleiber’s law and the Arrhenius function were
unified into a metabolic theory of ecology (Gillooly et al. 2001), which modeled
metabolic rates as a function of both body size and temperature, following
B = B0M3/4e−E/kT.
The main implication is that metabolic rate, as influenced by body size and tem-
perature, provides the fundamental constraint by which ecological processes are
governed. If this holds true, many ecological patterns from the level of the indi-
vidual up to ecosystems might be explained, at least in part, by the relationship
between metabolic rate, body size, and temperature.
The theory is supported by the finding that underlying physiological mecha-
nisms are very general. Recently, it was shown that the same metabolic temperature
dependence function applies to prokaryotes as well as unicellular and multicellu-
lar eukaryotes, from extreme-cold-water-adapted to hyperthermophilic forms (−2
to 120°C) (Corkrey et al. 2014). Apparently, the fundamental kinetics remain the
same across the whole range of known thermal adaptations and can actually be
used to predict protein thermodynamics directly from growth rate data. This means
that all known life forms, which evolved at different times over at least 3 bil-
lion years, can be at least broadly described by the same temperature-dependence
model, implying a single, highly conserved reaction that may well trace back to
the last common ancestor of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The generality of such
molecular mechanisms supports, at least in principle, the metabolic theory (Cor-
krey et al. 2014), and may in part explain why temperature effects on many ecolog-
ical patterns and processes including biodiversity are as reproducible as they are.
62 CHAPTER 3

In light of such generality, the domain of metabolic theory has been gradu-
ally extended beyond the original focus on organismal biology. Most relevant in
the context of this book is the metabolic theory of biodiversity (Allen and Gil-
looly 2006), which is an extension of the metabolic theory of ecology. It assumes
that both the number of generations per unit time (community turnover) and the
number of DNA mutations increase with increasing metabolic rate, and thus with
temperature. It further assumes that the rate of speciation is proportional to muta-
tion rate. Combining these assumptions leads to the prediction that speciation
rate, and (by inference) species richness, increase exponentially with temperature
(Allen et al. 2006).
Assumptions and predictions generated by the metabolic theory of biodiver-
sity have been tested empirically, with varying results. On the one hand, there is
some good evidence that the “molecular clock” of nucleotide substitution and
DNA evolution (Gillooly et al. 2005), as well as rates of genetic divergence and
speciation over geological time (Allen et al. 2006), are positively related to tem-
perature (fig. 3.1A). There is also some detailed experimental evidence that shows
increased mutation rates at higher temperature (Muller 1928; Lindgren 1972),
particularly when ambient temperature approaches the upper tolerance limit of a
species, inducing physiological stress (Matsuba et al. 2013). Temperature stress
may directly interfere with DNA repair mechanisms, which are more error-prone
when individuals are in poor condition (Agrawal and Wang 2008). Alternatively,
the metabolic-rate hypothesis posits that most mutations are caused by genetic
damage from free radicals produced as by-products of metabolism; therefore,
mutation rate should be related to mass-specific metabolic rate and hence body
temperature (Martin and Palumbi 1993).
Species richness, on the other hand, does not always display the straightfor-
ward relationship with temperature predicted by metabolic theory (Algar et al.
2007; Hawkins et al. 2007). It has been hypothesized that other factors, like water
availability (Hawkins et al. 2003), may confound or override the influence of
temperature on species richness. Note, however, that this specific factor would not
apply to the marine environment. Generally speaking, while increased mutation
rate under elevated temperature has been demonstrated many times, the link to
speciation and macroevolutionary rates has not been established experimentally,
and the mechanisms remain unclear.
Empirically, however, the fossil record provides compelling correlative evi-
dence that such a link may exist. Long before the metabolic theory of biodiversity
was proposed, a relationship between temperature and speciation rate had already
been inferred from the marine fossil record, particularly for mollusks and corals,
where evolutionary rates for warm-water fauna seemed to exceed those of cos-
mopolitan or cold-water species, leading to the typical equator-to-poles richness
gradient over latitude. This gradient was seen in fossil marine assemblages at least
 0
A
y = –0.67x + 22.96
–1
R2 = 0.34, P= 0.003
(% substitutions nucleotide -1 Ma-1 g1/4)

–2
ln(rate of evolution)

–3

–4

–5

–6

–7
39 39.5 40 40.5 41
Ocean temperature (1/kt)

4
B
3

2
Residuals (sd)

–1

–2

–3
–500 –400 –300 –200 –100 0
Time (Ma)

Figure 3.1. Environmental drivers of diversity over deep time. Shown are (A) effects of inverse
ocean temperature on the rate of evolution in foraminifera; (B) corresponding patterns of tem-
perature variability (black circles) and marine invertebrate species origination rates (white
circles) over the last 500 Ma. Gray circles denote the five major mass extinctions. The residu-
als plotted are mean-standardized after detrending. Redrawn after data in Allen et al. (2006);
Mayhew et al. (2012).
64 CHAPTER 3

270 Ma ago, and persists into the present for many well-studied groups (Stehli et
al. 1969). The authors hypothesized that there might be thermodynamic effects
on reaction and mutation rates, or, alternatively, a direct effect of incoming solar
energy on evolutionary rates. Further supporting this assertion was the observa-
tion that the age of coral genera was negatively correlated with water temperature
in both the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean, such that genera that recently evolved
were most abundant in the warmest regions of these two oceans (Stehli and Wells
1971). Later, detailed analyses of the fossil record across marine and terrestrial
taxa yielded contrasting results and much discussion regarding the effects of tem-
perature on diversity (Mayhew et al. 2007). This controversy was resolved by
applying new methods that correct for temporal sampling bias in the global fossil
record (Mayhew et al. 2012). The corrected data show a clear positive associa-
tion between temperature and the rate of evolution over time, and also a positive
relationship between temperature and origination rates for marine taxa (see fig.
3.1B). Likewise, on land a latitudinal difference in the rates of molecular evolu-
tion (faster in the tropics) has been described in a range of organisms using sister
species comparisons of plants, frogs, and mammals (Dowle et al. 2013).
Note, however, that such predictable relationships are not always found in
endotherms, since their internal temperature and metabolic rate is largely decou-
pled from external temperature. Indeed, the rate of molecular evolution of land
birds (Bromham and Cardillo 2003) did not show a latitudinal gradient. A compre-
hensive study of sister taxa of land mammals, however, gave strong evidence of
microevolutionary rates being elevated both at low latitudes and at low altitudes,
indicating some effect (direct or indirect) of environmental temperature on the
speed of evolution (Gillman et al. 2009). Results could not be attributed to other
factors thought to influence rates of microevolution, such as body mass or genetic
drift. Instead, the results indicated that the tempo of microevolution among mam-
mals is either responding directly to the thermal environment or indirectly via a
mechanism such as the “Red Queen” effect of increased evolution driven by rap-
idly evolving disease agents (Gillman et al. 2009). Similar results were obtained
when contrasting low-altitude and high-altitude hummingbird taxa that exist along
a smaller-scale temperature gradient (Bleiweiss 1998). In summary, it appears that
the evidence for temperature effects on evolutionary rates is strong, but not uni-
versal, especially when considering both ectothermic and endothermic organisms.

Productivity
All else being equal, greater energy availability will lead to greater production
of organic matter over time (g C m−2 a−1), and support a greater density of indi-
viduals in both plants and animals that feed on them. This productivity hypothesis
can act through multiple mechanisms that link increased abundance to increased
DRIVERS AND PREDICTORS 65

diversity—for example, through the aforementioned more-individuals hypothesis

(Wright 1983)—with the net result that more species coexist in more productive
areas. This idea was originally proposed by Hutchinson (1959) and further devel-
oped by others (Connell and Orias 1964; Huston 1979; Wright 1983; Rosenzweig
and Abramsky 1993). It is related to the classic idea of island biogeography that
larger areas support larger populations, which in turn reduces the extinction rate
of such populations, leading to higher equilibrium richness, all else being equal
(MacArthur and Wilson 1967). Wright (1983) argued that larger populations
could also be supported by higher productivity per unit area, mirroring the effect
of increased area. Supporting this assertion, habitats of high local productivity,
such as rainforests and coral reefs, can indeed show both high individual density
and diversity of associated species, and the theory can explain 70–80% of the
variation in bird and angiosperm richness on islands worldwide (Wright 1983).
Some high-productivity habitats, however, such as marine upwelling areas, often
show high density of individuals in combination with low species richness. In
this particular case, it would appear there is a better fit with ambient temperature,
which is high in speciose coral reefs, but low in species-poor upwelling areas,
but this is only one out of many possibilities to explain such patterns. Several
authors have attempted to reconcile such conflicting observations by assuming a
nonlinear unimodal relationship between productivity and diversity; this is based
on theory and experiments that suggest highly productive species outcompete
others at the upper end of a productivity gradient (Grime 1973; Huston 1979;
Kassen et al. 2000; Kondoh 2001; Worm et al. 2002). Most of these results have
been tested on a small, local scale, however, and when richness of plants or ani-
mals in habitats of different productivity regimes is analyzed, it is rare that a
general relationship is found (Mittelbach et al. 2001; Adler et al. 2011). This may
well point to the importance of other confounding factors, which can be resolved
only by multivariate analyses. It appears that the effects of productivity by them-
selves may have limited predictive power, but maybe they need to be considered
together with the effects of temperature and area to explain observed gradients in
species richness (Jetz and Fine 2012; Valentine and Jablonski 2015). Fortunately,
we now have excellent global data sets for these environmental predictors both in
the ocean and on land (Field et al. 1998; Hansen et al. 2010), such that their effects
can be disentangled. We will examine the relative empirical support for these and
other environmental predictors in section 3.4, later.

Environmental Stability and Evolutionary Time

A hypothesis unrelated to energy that considers factors promoting diversity is the
stability-time hypothesis, which states that environments that have been stable
over long periods of time may evolve greater diversity than those that have not
66 CHAPTER 3

(Sanders 1968). Strictly speaking, Sanders assumed two mechanisms—specifi-

cally, lower extinction in more stable environments, and larger numbers of spe-
cies accumulating over longer time horizons (see table 3.1). In the following, we
examine these possible mechanisms.
In contrast to productivity and temperature, the effects of environmental sta-
bility and evolutionary time are more challenging to quantify, in part because
stability is a multifaceted concept that has no absolute scale (Grimm and Wis-
sel 1997). The stability-time hypothesis originally was proposed to explain the
surprisingly high richness seen in some deep-sea communities (Sanders 1968).
Briefly, it assumed that old, unperturbed environments like the deep sea would
tend to accumulate more species because competitive interactions over time lead
to an increasing specialization and narrower niches across the community (Sand-
ers 1968; Grassle and Sanders 1973). Experimental work looking at the effects
of environmental stability and time, however, has often come to opposite results,
demonstrating a loss of diversity in undisturbed environments over time due to
competitive exclusion (Sousa 1979; Paine 1984; Sommer and Worm 2002). Oth-
ers have pointed out that the original data supporting the stability-time hypothesis
were flawed, and observed richness gradients from estuaries to the deep sea can be
more easily explained by the difference in total area between these environments
(Abele and Walters 1979). As such, stability and time may not generally need to
be invoked. On the other hand, it would be hard to argue that evolutionary time
has no effect, especially on a macroscale, such as seen for entire ocean basins. For
example, the much younger geological age of the Atlantic may well contribute
to its lower diversity across taxa, compared to the much older Pacific (Stehli and
Wells 1971). Furthermore, global diversity is clearly increasing over time across
the entire geological record; thus, there is clearly a temporal dimension that leads
to high diversity. Yet the geological record is also punctuated with mass extinc-
tion events that set diversity back, on regional or even global scales (Raup and
Sepkoski 1982; Alroy et al. 2008). Such environmental perturbations will be the
focus of the next section.

3.1.2. Drivers Limiting Diversity

A second class of hypotheses emphasizes the factors that may limit the prolif-
eration of species in challenging environmental regimes—for example, at high
latitudes or high altitudes. These include the effects of chronic, seasonal, or epi-
sodic environmental stress or disturbance (see table 3.1). Environmental stress
is defined as “an action, agent, or condition that impairs the structure or func-
tion of a biological system” (Cairns Jr. 2013). Typically, this relates to harsh
DRIVERS AND PREDICTORS 67

environmental conditions that can cause an adverse physiological or ecological

response. Examples would be changes in temperature, oxygen concentrations, or
pH that come close to the tolerance limits of the individual, population, or com-
munity in question. While stress can be chronic and ongoing, disturbances are
defined as “any discrete event in time that disrupts population, community, or
ecosystem structure” (Pickett and White 1985)—for example, in the wake of a
fire, flood, or storm. The intensity of stress and disturbances can vary geographi-
cally, and over time—for example, through changes in storm frequency over the
seasons, or recurring ice ages over millennia—and this can leave an imprint on
community composition and diversity. Likewise, pronounced seasonality at high
latitudes may limit diversity, as it requires adaptation to a wider range of poten-
tially stressful environmental conditions.

Environmental Stress
With respect to environmental stress, there is little doubt that stressful condi-
tions limit the survival of organisms not adapted to these conditions, and hence
may impact both community abundance and diversity (Thiery 1982). Few
environmental stressors, however, vary consistently by latitude, and dominant
stressors vary between land and ocean. Desiccation or water stress, for example,
is a major issue on land, but not in the oceans, except for some intertidal envi-
ronments (Baker 1910). Oxygen depletion, by contrast, strongly affects the dis-
tribution and diversity of some marine taxa (Brill 1994; Worm et al. 2005), but
is not an issue in most terrestrial habitats. As such, most hypotheses that invoke
environmental stress are specific to a particular species group and do not easily
scale across taxa and habitats. One universal factor that scales with latitude in
the oceans and on land, however, is temperature. Several published hypotheses
on the geographical patterns in species diversity emphasize temperature stress
(Rohde 1992; Beaugrand et al. 2013; Beaugrand 2014), and the fact that species
are limited in their distribution by their widely varying tolerance to suboptimal
temperature. These tolerances represent the lower, upper, and optimum temper-
atures at which species can metabolize, grow, and reproduce. Such physiologi-
cal limits tend to be fairly stable, a phenomenon that has been described as niche
conservatism (Wiens and Graham 2005). Experimental evidence for thermal
niche conservatism comes from a strain of the bacterium Escherichia coli that
was maintained over 2000 generations (Bennett and Lenski 1993). Selection
for low, medium, and high temperature produced changes in the physiological
temperature optimum, but no change at all in the upper and lower limit of the
temperature niche. This suggests that within their temperature niches, at least
some organisms are able to adapt to fluctuations or directed changes in tem-
perature, but that this does not affect their absolute thermal niche. However,
68 CHAPTER 3

the same authors observed slight (1–2 degree) changes in niche width when
selection pressures operated at the lower thermal range boundary (Mongold et
al. 1996). Likewise, the paleontological record also suggests that clades that
originated in the tropics can evolve tolerance to cooler temperatures; however,
substantial time lags (~5 Ma) between the origins of tropical clades and their
expansion into the temperate zone suggest that this process occurs rather slowly,
if at all (Jablonski et al. 2013).
From this arises a question about the physiological mechanisms that underlie
the observed conservatism of thermal niches. Or as Hutchinson (1959) famously
asked: If one species can adapt to colder environments, why don’t they all do it?
(Note that this question applies to other stressors as well.) In a book devoted to
the topic, Johnston and Bennett (1996) summarize the evidence for temperature
adaptation in animals from a physiological and evolutionary perspective. Adap-
tation to low temperature emerges as a multifaceted problem, involving a large
number of specialized mechanisms at the molecular (for example, changes to key
proteins and enzymes), cellular (changes to cytoskeleton and membranes), and
physiological (changes to circulatory system) levels. This may suggest that the
basic metabolic “machinery” of life evolved at warm temperatures and that colo-
nization of cold environments (that is, high latitudes, high altitudes, and the deep
sea) involves a suite of “evolutionary fixes” that make life at low temperature pos-
sible. There also seem to be strong trade-offs involved, resulting in narrower tem-
perature niches in polar species than in warm-adapted ones. An example are the
Antarctic cod icefishes (Nothotheniidae), which feature many specialized adapta-
tions to survive subzero temperatures, but cannot survive at ambient temperatures
greater than 6 to 8°C.
The absolute width of thermal niches may also be related to the variability
experienced in a given environment. This is Rapoport’s rule, which states that
species at higher latitudes should have larger latitudinal ranges (Taylor and Gaines
1999), because seasonal temperature variability is larger at higher latitudes, and
thus species need to be tolerant of a range of conditions, or perform seasonal
migrations, both of which could result in larger ranges. This is particularly true
on land, where absolute fluctuations are much higher than in the sea, particularly
near the poles.
Given these findings about the importance of temperature niches, it may not
be surprising that the latitudinal range limits of many species can be predicted
well from their temperature tolerances (Boyce et al. 2008; Sunday et al. 2012),
and observed temperature changes tend to go in lockstep with changing species
ranges at seasonal (Whitehead et al. 2008) as well as interannual scales (Pinsky
et al. 2013). There appear to be some interesting contrasts between terrestrial
and marine species, however: Sunday et al. (2011) found that upper and lower
DRIVERS AND PREDICTORS 69

thermal limits both decreased with increasing latitude in marine species—that

is, total niche breadth was constant, on average. On land, however, the upper
limit remained similar, while lower limits decreased, possibly related to higher
seasonal variability in high-latitude terrestrial environments. They also showed
that marine organisms tended to occupy their thermal niches more fully, such that
their fundamental niche equaled the realized niche. As a result, both upper and
lower latitudinal boundaries were found to shift predictably with climate change
in marine species (Sunday et al. 2012). On land, in contrast, the warm end of the
range was often not filled, and hence the lower limit of the latitudinal range did
not shift as predictably, often resulting in a time lag in the response of the trailing
range edge to climate warming (Sunday et al. 2012).
These observations suggest strong thermal control on species ranges in recent
times, complementing similar findings from the past. For example, warming dur-
ing the last interglacial, about 125,000 years ago, appears to have displaced the
ranges of reef-building coral species to higher latitudes (Kiessling et al. 2012).
Hence, the spatial association of surface temperature, species ranges, and, by
inference, diversity patterns seems to hold over time and space, though potentially
varies in its strength (for example, Yasuhara et al. 2012).
Some models attempt to explain patterns of diversity exclusively based on
observed present-day temperature tolerances—this may be termed the ther-
mal niche hypothesis (Beaugrand et al. 2013). When assembling a wide range
of randomly generated stenothermic and eurythermic “pseudospecies” along a
global gradient, and accounting for insufficiently filled niches toward the poles
(thought to result from repeated glaciations), Beaugrand and coworkers (2013)
reconstructed the latitudinal diversity gradient for foraminifera and copepods
with >80% accuracy. Note, however that the chosen model represented one of 79
tested configurations that were used to fit to the data. Also, both of these groups
are pelagic and planktonic, and differ markedly in their latitudinal pattern from
known coastal, terrestrial, and deep-sea species groups (see chapter 2), suggest-
ing that thermal niches may not offer a general explanation for observed diversity
patterns. Nevertheless, such results suggest that thermal niches can help us under-
stand some of the factors that limit species distributions, and hence diversity, as
reviewed extensively by Beaugrand (2014).

Disturbance
Disturbances are, by definition, discrete and episodic events that disrupt commu-
nities and influence diversity in many ways. Large disturbances, such as ice ages,
could have shaped geographic patterns of diversity by driving up extinction rates
at high latitudes and resetting the evolutionary trajectory (Fischer 1960). There is
good evidence that the ice ages have had a lasting effect on communities at higher
70 CHAPTER 3

latitudes, particularly on land (Comes and Kadereit 1998). However, it is not clear
that the legacy is one of reduced species richness; indeed, these disturbances can
lead to reproductive isolation of populations, genetic divergence, and speciation
(Hewitt 1996). Moreover, few studies have found general support for elevated
extinction rates at high latitudes, and there is a general sense that differences in
extinction rates alone cannot sufficiently explain observed geographic gradients
in species richness (Hawkins et al. 2006; Jablonski et al. 2006; Dowle et al. 2013).
Only marginally related to the question of global gradients in biodiversity, the
intermediate disturbance hypothesis does not consider speciation and extinction
as much as ecological interactions within a community. It predicts high diversity
under “intermediate” rates of disturbance, where competitive exclusion by domi-
nant species is prevented. While Connell (1978) used this hypothesis to explain
high richness in coral reefs and rainforests, later tests of the hypothesis found
that it has reasonable predictive power in rocky shore and plankton communi-
ties, albeit at a local scale (Sousa 1979; Petraitis et al. 1989; Floeder and Sommer
2000). Like many hypotheses that focus on species interactions, the intermedi-
ate disturbance hypothesis is more concerned with mechanisms that explain the
maintenance of species diversity in a particular community, rather than the gen-
eration of diversity gradients at global scales on land or in the sea.

Seasonality
One of the obvious differences between tropical and temperate environments is
the pronounced seasonality found in the latter, which necessities specialized adap-
tations such as hibernation, migration, and larger thermal niches. Larger variation
in environmental conditions may cause mortality and possibly local extinction—
for example, during harsh winters—thus limiting diversity (seasonality hypoth-
esis; Fischer 1960). Another aspect is food supply, which is much more seasonal
and episodic at high latitudes, requiring a shift from specialist to generalist feed-
ing strategies. Taylor and Taylor (1977) observed such a shift in feeding patterns
among predatory gastropods in the North Atlantic, concomitant with a large
decrease in diversity. This decrease was most marked around 40 degrees North
latitude, a point at which primary production changes from a less seasonal to a
strongly seasonal regime (Taylor and Taylor 1977). Later authors, however, did
not find a consistent correlation with seasonality across species groups (Currie
1991), and a similar breakpoint in diversity around 40 degrees latitude is not gen-
erally seen in the maps in chapter 2. Like environmental stress and disturbance,
it appears that seasonality may explain aspects of individual patterns in diversity,
but might not present the level of generality across taxa that is evident in the
global patterns documented in chapter 2.
DRIVERS AND PREDICTORS 71

3.1.3. The Effects of Habitat Area and Quality

Finally, it is intuitive that the size and quality of the available habitat area may
play a role in setting at least an upper limit on the number of species that can
coexist there (Connor and McCoy 1979). Larger areas can support larger popula-
tions, all else being equal, similarly to areas of higher productivity, potentially
leading to increased diversity through mechanisms such as reduced extinction
rates or sampling from the regional species pool (the more-individuals hypoth-
esis). Larger areas also often feature a greater diversity of habitat types, poten-
tially providing a greater variety of niches for species to inhabit. Finally, the
physical complexity and shape of a habitat (for example, a range of elevations,
or structural complexity of a forest versus a grassland), and the trophic complex-
ity of associated food webs, may further elevate observed richness of species
occupying those habitats.

Habitat Area
The simple observation that larger areas typically yield greater species counts
is formalized in the species-area relationship (SAR)—without doubt one of the
most general ecological laws (Preston 1962; MacArthur and Wilson 1967; Con-
nor and McCoy 1979; Hubbell 2001; Drakare et al. 2006). The SAR captures the
relationship between the area of a habitat (A), and the number of species (S) found
within that habitat. Empirically, the relationship is most often fitted by a power
function of the form
S = cAz.
Here, z denotes the linear slope of the relationship in log-log space, and c the
intercept. A meta-analysis of 794 SARs confirmed the relationship’s generality,
but also found that its parameters can vary systematically with latitude and body
size (steeper slopes in the tropics and for large organisms), habitat, as well as
sampling scale and design (Drakare et al. 2006).
How can this pattern be explained mechanistically? MacArthur and Wilson
explored the SAR from first principles in their theory of island biogeography
(MacArthur and Wilson 1967), modeling the balance of immigration and extinc-
tion on islands of different size and isolation. Larger islands support larger popu-
lations on average, which are predicted to result in lower extinction rates, and
hence more species will coexist on a larger island, all else being equal. Building
on MacArthur and Wilson’s work, the neutral theory of biodiversity and bioge-
ography generalizes to communities not located on islands by constructing a neu-
tral metacommunity with constant per capita rates of dispersal (immigration and
72 CHAPTER 3

emigration), speciation, and extinction (Hubbell 2001). The model also yields
a species-area relationship that closely follows empirically observed patterns.
Hence, there is both a solid theoretical as well as an empirical foundation for the
effects of increasing habitat area on species richness. Note that the SAR and the
productivity hypothesis share at least one common mechanism—specifically, that
both larger areas and more productive ones will support larger populations that
are less likely to go locally extinct (see table 3.1). Hence, Wright (1983) treated
the effects of productivity and area on species richness as additive. In his empiri-
cal analysis, the best predictor for bird species richness on islands was total island
area multiplied by the rate of primary productivity per unit area. More recent work
on birds, however has suggested more complex scaling relationships, in which
both area and productivity scale with richness, but to different degrees in different
regions (Hurlburt and Jetz 2010).

Habitat Complexity
Another aspect of the environment that may affect diversity is the number of dif-
ferent habitat types, which also tends to increase with sampling area, and corre-
lates well with species richness. Both effects (larger populations and more habitat
types) may contribute to the observed rise in species richness with habitat area
described by the SAR, but these mechanisms are not explicitly captured by the
theory of island biogeography or the neutral theory of biodiversity. Their rela-
tive importance can be analyzed by quantifying the effects of surface area, the
number of habitats types (for example, different vegetation types), and the struc-
tural complexity of the habitats (for example, elevational range). Some aspects
of habitat complexity are physical (for example, topographic complexity) while
others are biological (for example, structural complexity of biogenic habitats such
as forests and reefs). There is a clear sense that more complex habitats allow for
a greater range of species to coexist, owing to a larger variety of environmen-
tal conditions and food sources. Likewise, trophic complexity may beget greater
diversity by allowing for more niches, such as specialized predators, parasites,
and the like. Some aspects of trophic complexity may also act to maintain high
diversity, such as the action of a keystone predator maintaining diversity of prey
items by preventing competitive exclusion; this is the predation hypothesis (Paine
1966). These two aspects, increasing specialization and trophic complexity, point
at potential mechanisms by which “diversity may beget diversity” (Brown 2014).
Such mechanisms help to explain the extraordinary diversity found in some com-
plex habitats, but cannot explain the emergence of a geographic gradient in the
first place, as they do not identify the causal mechanisms behind initial diversifi-
cation (Rohde 1992).
DRIVERS AND PREDICTORS 73

Habitat Domain
The spatial domain within which habitat and species assemble geographically
may influence the spatial pattern of diversity. A much-discussed example is the
mid-domain hypothesis. This is different from the previously discussed theo-
ries in that no environmental driver is assumed to operate here, but purely an
interaction of geometry and species ranges. The mid-domain hypothesis is a
null-model that assumes random placement of species ranges across a habitat
area, or domain. This will result in maximum richness near the center of that
spatial domain, such as a continent or an ocean basin. The argument is that the
observed maximum richness in the central Indo-Pacific, for example, could be
predicted by such a null-model (Colwell and Lees 2000). Empirical support for
this hypothesis has been quite weak at biogeographic scales, however (Hawkins
and Diniz-Filho 2002; Zapata et al. 2005; Currie and Kerr 2008), indicative of
nonrandom placement of species ranges. Yet this hypothesis has invigorated an
interest in null-models in ecology to be confronted with available data. Recently,
Beaugrand et al. (2013) extended the null-expectation of a spatial mid-domain
effect to niche space, assuming random placement of temperature niches within
the bounded range of observed sea surface temperatures in the global ocean.
As discussed earlier, this randomly generated pattern fit reasonably well to the
observed richness gradients in pelagic zooplankton, but required some additional
modifications due to the assumed effects of ice ages reducing richness at high
latitudes (Beaugrand et al. 2013). We will return to null-models of species rich-
ness in chapter 4.

3.2. SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SCALE

When considering the drivers and environmental predictors of biodiversity, one

needs to think carefully about processes operating across multiple spatial and tem-
poral scales. For example, species richness patterns are known to correlate with
different predictors at different spatial scales (Jetz and Rahbek 2002; Belmaker
and Jetz 2011; and fig. 3.2). Notably, net primary productivity tends to be a domi-
nant environmental predictor at smaller scales, possibly by increasing the number
of individuals that can coexist. At larger scales (≥1000 km), however, temperature
was found to be the strongest predictor of species richness in amphibians, birds,
and mammals on land (fig. 3.2). At the same time, the predictive power of these
correlates, and the total variance that was explained, increased sharply at larger
scales, likely because the pattern is more reflective of larger-scale processes, and
less sensitive to local conditions, and environmental noise.
 0.9
0.8 A Mammals
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0

0.9
0.8 B Birds

0.7
0.6 Total
Temp
0.5 NPP
R2

0.4 ElRange
HabVar
0.3 Area
0.2
0.1
0

0.9
0.8 C Amphibians

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Local 100 200 400 1000 2000
Spatial scale
DRIVERS AND PREDICTORS 75

Such results reflect an important reason why we are focusing our discussion
on large spatial scales and the general ecological and evolutionary mechanisms
operating at those scales. As discussed in the previous chapter, this is also why we
map all data to the same coarse grid, avoiding the scale dependence and reduced
explanatory power mentioned earlier, and also minimizing uncertainty and spuri-
ous overprecision associated with some spatial data. Local diversity patterns are
likely shaped by an alternative set of mechanisms (see fig. 3.2), including but not
limited to local species interactions, environmental constraints, and even human
impacts on local habitat structure and biodiversity (Sommer and Worm 2002).
These factors may determine which species from the regional species pool will be
able to colonize, reproduce, and maintain a viable population at a local site. While
these are clearly important questions—for example, in the context of local-scale
management in the face of environmental change—we are primarily concerned
with the factors that have determined the size and distribution of the regional spe-
cies pool in the first place.
We also have to be aware of different processes operating at different temporal
scales. First, there is the geological timescale (10–100 Ma). At this scale, major
tectonic events are changing the face of the planet, affecting the size and geog-
raphy of ocean basins and continental margins. The fossil record suggests that
hotspots of marine biodiversity wax and wane in the wake of such major tectonic
events: they persist for some time (tens of Ma), and then fade as new geological
events reshape these habitats (Bellwood et al. 2012). These are the previously
discussed “hopping hotspots” (Renema et al. 2008), which provide a dynamic
deep-time perspective on the spatial organization of marine biodiversity (see fig.
2.10). Second, there is the evolutionary timescale (0.01–10 Ma). At this scale,
macroevolutionary processes play out within a particular geological setting. For
example, repeated changes in sea level can bring about isolation of islands, atolls,
and semi-enclosed seas, thereby creating spatial barriers that lead to speciation
(the so-called species pump; Bellwood et al. 2012). Third, at the ecological tim-
escale (<0.01 Ma), shorter term climatic and biological processes may prevail,

Figure 3.2. Analyzing environmental predictors of vertebrate species richness across scales.
Spatial scale represents the approximate diameter (km) of the spatial units that were used to ana-
lyze global relationships between hypothesized environmental correlates and species richness.
While the effects of annual net primary productivity (NPP) dominate at smaller scales, tempera-
ture (Temp) becomes the dominant environmental predictor at larger scales. Total predictive
power and variance explained (Total R2) also increased at larger spatial scale. Elevation range
(ElRange), habitat variety (HabVar), and area (Area) are less important, particularly at the larger
spatial scales. Redrawn after data in Belmaker and Jetz (2011).
76 CHAPTER 3

which play out in response to recent environmental and biotic conditions—for

example, conditions encountered during the current Holocene interglacial. At this
scale, dispersal, competition, succession, and other ecological processes likely
influence large-scale biodiversity patterns. Finally, the present time (<0.001 Ma)
is increasingly shaped by human forces, and has been deemed to represent its own
geological epoch, the Anthropocene (Waters et al. 2016). At this moment in geo-
logical history, anthropogenic drivers are becoming ever more important, includ-
ing the effects of exploitation, land use and climate change, ocean acidification
and habitat destruction (Palumbi 2001; Halpern et al. 2008). These processes are
already reshaping marine and terrestrial biodiversity patterns (Pimm et al. 1995;
Pinsky et al. 2013; Dirzo et al. 2014; McCauley et al. 2015).
It is important to note that an empirical analysis of present-day patterns and
their environmental correlates will primarily shed light on processes operating at
recent timescales, operating under currently realized environmental conditions.
Where possible, and where appropriate evidence exists, we will attempt to also
discuss changes in the magnitude of major drivers, and their effects on shaping
species richness patterns over time. Through our model development in chapter
4, we will then aim to integrate processes that operate at both evolutionary and
ecological timescales.

3.3. EMPIRICAL PREDICTORS OF DIVERSITY

Typically, the relative importance of hypothesized drivers of diversity is evaluated

via statistical analyses that examine covariation in the spatial patterns of diversity
and various present-day environmental predictors, such as temperature, produc-
tivity, habitat area, among others (Gaston 2000; Kreft and Jetz 2007; Tittensor et
al. 2010; Woolley et al. 2016). While such analyses can not prove causation, and
can be complicated by statistical problems such as colinearity and spatial auto-
correlation (Dormann et al. 2007), they nevertheless provide important empirical
grounding. Tables 3.2 to 3.5 and fig. 3.3 present published evidence identify-
ing primary and secondary environmental predictors for the species richness of
well-studied taxonomic groups with global sampling coverage. Here, we discuss
these organized by the major habitats that we originally described in chapter 2.
We consider only those studies that tested and compared multiple hypotheses,
and that used suitable analysis methods that corrected for spatial autocorrelation
such as spatial linear models or simultaneous autoregressive models. For species
groups where several publications were available, we selected the one with the
most comprehensive data set, to avoid pseudo-replication of studies using differ-
ent versions of the same data.
 Table 3.2. Environmental Predictors of Species Richness in the Coastal Realm

Variable Fishes Sharks Pinnipeds Bivalves Corals Snails Cephalopods Seagrasses Mangroves
SST 10.7*** 7.1*** −10.0*** 7.3*** 7.7*** 8.6*** 7.1*** 4.4*** 9.3***
SST slope 2.4* 4.3**
Coastline length 7.9*** 13.0*** 4.5*** 5.7*** 3.1** 4.1* 6.5*** 4.3** 2.0*
Primary productivity 3.6** 5.5*** −2.2**
SST range −2.5* −3.2** 3.7**
Oxygen stress
Indian Ocean 3.7** 3.8** 7.0*** −1.8* 2.6*
Pacific Ocean 4.5*** 3.5** 6.9*** −2.8** 2.0*

Pseudo R 2 0.71 0.75 0.88 0.97 0.73 0.78 0.89 0.75 0.85
Note: Shown are results of minimal-adequate spatial linear model for environmental correlates (SST = sea surface temperature). Numbers are z-values; asterisks
represent significance levels at P < 0.05 (*), 0.01 (**), or 0.00001 (***). Ocean column z-values represent contrast against Atlantic Ocean. Species groups and
scale of analysis correspond to patterns shown in figs. 2.2 and 2.3, with the exception of ophiuroids, which can be found in table 3.2. Individual drivers are shown
in fig. 3.4.
Source: After data in Tittensor et al. (2010), Valentine and Jablonski 2015, and IUCN 2016.
 Table 3.3. Environmental Predictors of Species Richness in the Pelagic Realm

Variable Tuna/billfish Sharks Seabirds Cetaceans Foraminifera Euphausiids Squids

SST 7.0*** 11.8*** 31.4*** 6.6*** 16.6*** 6.6*** 4.0**
SST slope 3.1** — — — 3.3** 3.9** 2.7**
Coastline length — 5.8*** — — −2.8** — —
Primary productivity — — 54.5*** 12.1*** — 3.4** —
SST range −3.6** — — — — −7.8*** —
Oxygen stress — — — — −2.3* — —

Pseudo R 2 0.76 0.81 0.67 0.89 0.79 0.85 0.88

Note: Shown are results of minimal-adequate spatial linear model for environmental correlates. Numbers are z-values; asterisks represent significance levels
at P < 0.05 (*), 0.01 (**), or 0.00001 (***). Ocean column z-values represent contrast against Atlantic Ocean. Species groups and scale of analysis correspond
to patterns shown in figs. 2.4 and 2.5. For seabirds only; note that additional effects for wind energy and distance to the coast were also described for that taxon.
Source: After data in Tittensor et al. (2010) and Davies et al. (2010).
DRIVERS AND PREDICTORS 79

Table 3.4. Changes in Environmental Predictors with Depth

Variable Depth and habitat

20–200 m 200–2000 m 2000–6500 m
Shelf Slope Deep sea
Annual mean temperature 11.49*** 3.61*** —
(Annual mean temperature)2 — −2.71** —
Annual mean oxygen −2.17* — —
Seasonal variation in NPP 3.54** — 1.61**
(Seasonal variation in NPP)2 −2.48* — —
Particulate organic carbon flux −4.43* −3.06* 3.09**
(Particulate organic carbon flux)2 2.13* — −2.46*
Distance to continental margin — — 0.45*
(Distance to continental margin)2 — — —
Oxygen stress (OMZ)2 1.71* — —
Pseudo-R 2 0.35 0.37 0.21
Note: Shown are results from spatial linear models for brittle star (Ophiuroidea) species richness
across three depth habitats. Both linear and quadratic effects (in brackets) were included. Only sig-
nificant terms (z-values) are given; asterisks represent significance levels at P < 0.05 (*), 0.01 (**), or
0.001 (***). Distance to continental margin is applicable only for deep-sea species.
Source: After data in Woolley et al. (2016).

Table 3.5. Environmental Predictors of Vascular Plant Species Richness on Land

Variable Coefficient z-value

Area 0.118 11.5***
PET 0.747 12.4***
Wet days 0.542 12.3***
Habitat complexity 0.01 11.3***
Vegetation structure 0.022 4.5***
Floristic kingdom
Nearctic 0.081 1.7
Australis 0.162 2.2*
Capensis 0.281 4.1***
Paleotropic 0.062 1.5
Palaearctic 0.023 0.5
Pseudo R 2 0.702 —
Note: Shown are results from spatial linear models across 1032 geographic regions world-
wide. Asterisks represent significance levels at P < 0.05 (*) or 0.001 (***). PET (potential
evapotranspiration) is a combined measure of temperature, solar insolation, and day length.
Habitat complexity is a compound variable that captured altitudinal range and number of
habitat types. Vegetation structure describes the three-dimensional complexity of vegetation.
Source: After data in Kreft and Jetz (2007).
 A
Sea surface temperature
°C
29

22

14

−1

B
Sea surface temperature slope
°C / 100km

2.5

1.9

1.3

C Coastline length
km

30000

22501

15002

7503

D
Net primary productivity
gC/ m2 / year

500

380

259

139

19

Figure 3.3. Present-day environmental predictors of species richness in: the surface ocean
(A–D), the deep-ocean (E–F) and on land (G–I). These predictors empirically represent the best
correlates of species richness overall, see also tables 3.2 to 3.4 and chapter 5. A–D after data
in Tittensor et al. (2010); E–F after data in Woolley et al. (2016); G–I after data in Kreft & Jetz
(2007) and Climatic Research Unit Global Climate Dataset (http://www.ipcc-data.org/observ
/clim/cru_climatologies.html).
 E
Annual mean seafloor temperature
°C

10.0

7.3

4.5

1.8

F
Seafloor particulate organic carbon flux
g C / m2 / year

5.0

3.8

2.6

1.4

G
Temperature
°C
28

16

−8

−20

H
Wet days
/ month

27

20

13

I Figure 3.3. (Continued)

Net primary productivity
gC / m2 / year
1493

1120

747

374

1
 20

13

7
82 CHAPTER 3
0

I
Net primary productivity
gC / m2 / year
1493

1120

747

374

Figure 3.3. (Continued)

3.3.1. Empirical Predictors of Species Richness in the Oceans

Environmental predictors that are commonly analyzed in the oceans are displayed
in fig. 3.4 at the same resolution as the species richness data in chapter 2. These
relate to the hypotheses mentioned earlier as follows: Sea surface temperature
(SST) and net primary productivity (NPP) relate to the effects of thermal energy
(evolutionary-speed hypothesis and thermal-niche hypothesis) and productiv-
ity (more-individuals hypothesis). Productivity in the deep sea, however, is not
directly fueled by NPP, but by export production raining down from surface
waters, and measured as particulate organic carbon (POC) flux (Tittensor et al.
2011; McClain et al. 2012; Woolley et al. 2016), thus replacing NPP as a predic-
tor of species richness (more-inidviduals hypothesis). Moreover, a major stress
factor unique to the ocean is low oxygen concentration (<2 mL L−1), found regu-
larly in upwelling areas, and expanding elsewhere (stress hypothesis; Stramma
et al. 2010). The length of coastline (km) relates to the area of coastal habitat
(habitat-area hypothesis; Tittensor et al. 2010). The steepness of the SST gradient
approximates the availability of thermal fronts, a critical habitat feature in pelagic
waters (habitat-area and habitat complexity hypotheses; Olson et al. 1994). The
standard deviation in SST and seasonal variability in NPP can both be used to test
the seasonality hypothesis.
When analyzing statistical relationships between these predictors and richness
of coastal and pelagic species groups, the spatial pattern of species richness was
most strongly and consistently related to sea surface temperature (see tables 3.2
and 3.3), and the univariate relationship between temperature and species richness
was either near-linear (in most coastal taxa) or saturating (in most pelagic taxa;
see fig. 3.4). This finding corresponds to patterns of coastal species richness peak-
ing equatorially or in the tropics (see figs. 2.1 to 2.4) and pelagic species peaking
in the subtropics (see figs. 2.5 and 2.6), respectively.
 DRIVERS AND PREDICTORS 83

Cetaceans Pinnipeds
10
40

8
Species richness

30
6
20
4
10
2
0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25

Oceanic Sharks Non−oceanic sharks

14 100

12 80
Species richness

10
60
8
6 40

4 20
2
0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
SST SST

Figure 3.4. Univariate relationship of species richness and sea surface temperature in coastal
and pelagic taxa. Note distinct relationships for endotherms (pinnipeds, cetaceans, and sea-
birds). Each point is a cell in the global equal-area grid. Trends indicated by smoothed fit from
generalized additive model with basis dimension 3. Gray shading indicates 95% confidence
limits. Updated and expanded; after data in Tittensor et al. (2010), Davies et al. (2010), and
Valentine and Jablonski (2015).

Of secondary importance, but still generally influential, were the effects of

habitat area and complexity. The length of coastline was an important and consis-
tent predictor of species richness in many coastal taxa (see table 3.2), with more
habitat area allowing for greater species richness (note that longer coastlines often
also entail greater complexity such as found in the world’s large archipelagos,
specifically the Indonesian-Australian Archipelago and the Caribbean). Notably,
the Arctic Archipelago, despite its massive coastline, supports few species, per-
haps indicating the primacy of the effects of temperature over habitat area and
complexity.
 84 CHAPTER 3

Coastal fishes Tunas and billfishes

2500 10

8
Species richness

1500 6

4
500
2
0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Squids Non−squid cephalopods

20
30
Species richness

15
20
10

10
5
5
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

SST SST

Figure 3.4. (Continued)

Likewise, in pelagic taxa, the second most influential predictor of diversity was
sea surface temperature (SST) slope, which indicates the steepness of oceano-
graphic fronts and transition zones that are commonly used by pelagic organisms
as feeding habitats and migratory routes (Haney 1986; Olson et al. 1994; Polovina
et al. 2001; Ferraroli et al. 2004). Steep frontal areas add habitat complexity, com-
mingle individuals through advection, and aggregate species across diverse taxa.
As such, these pelagic habitat features may act similarly to the more solid coastline
habitats for near-shore organisms, or topographic complexity for terrestrial taxa.
It is interesting that the primacy of temperature as a positive predictor of diver-
sity was not seen as clearly for endothermic groups such as pinnipeds, cetaceans,
and seabirds (see tables 3.2 and 3.3). These endothermic species groups may be
partly decoupled from the constraining effects of ambient temperature in terms
of their distribution but also their evolutionary speed: no significant difference
 DRIVERS AND PREDICTORS 85

Corals Mangroves

500 15
Species richness

300 10

5
100

15 20 25 15 20 25

Seagrasses Foraminifera
30

15 25
Species richness

20
10
15

5 10

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 5 10 15 20 25 30

SST SST

Figure 3.4. (Continued)

was seen in diversification rates of birds across a global latitudinal gradient (Jetz
et al. 2012b). Yet this partial independence from ambient temperature comes at
a cost of high metabolic demands, which require high ambient productivity to
satisfy (Lavigne et al. 1986). Hence, many endothermic species may converge
around areas of high productivity, irrespective of water temperature. Indeed, pro-
ductivity is a strong predictor for marine mammal species richness, which tends
to peak in high-latitude convergence zones or low-latitude upwelling areas, both
of which are cool and nutrient-rich (Schipper et al. 2008); similar patterns are seen
in seabirds (Davies et al. 2010). Where sufficient productivity is available to sup-
port high-energy lifestyles in cooler waters, the enhanced metabolic rate found in
endotherms may provide competitive advantages over ectothermic species.
The second group that was not primarily predicted by ambient temperature was
deep-sea species (see table 3.4). While the richness of shelf and slope ophiuroids
 86 CHAPTER 3

Euphausiids Cone snails

40 200

30 150
Species richness

20 100

10 50

0 0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 10 15 20 25 30

Seabirds Bivalves
50 1500

40
Species richness

1000
30

20
500

10

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
SST SST

Figure 3.4. (Continued)

was still strongly and positively related to ambient temperature, deep-sea richness
was much more strongly related to patterns in export production, and the sea-
sonality in NPP, which drives large pulses of export production during seasonal
blooms (see table 3.4; Woolley et al. 2016). Similarly, for gastropods, bivalves,
and nematodes analyzed in the Atlantic Ocean, export productivity from surface
waters was consistently the best predictor of species richness (Lambshead et al.
2000; Lambshead et al. 2002; Tittensor et al. 2011). This likely relates to the fact
that, except for some isolated basins such as the Mediterranean, temperature is
near-uniformly cold across the deep sea, typically ranging between 2 and 4°C.
Thus, metabolic rates will not vary dramatically in these habitats and are more
likely to respond to local changes in food supply than temperature. Hence, while
thermal energy (proxied by temperature) clearly emerged as a primary environ-
mental predictor for most groups, productivity was also important for species
DRIVERS AND PREDICTORS 87

that experience little temperature variation, either because they are endothermic
(near-constant warm body temperature) or live in the deep sea (near-constant cold
body temperature).
When considering such statistical associations between present-day environ-
mental variables and diversity, there is of course always the question of causation.
A static pattern provides weaker evidence for causal relationships than a dynamic
pattern, especially as the modern-day environment may not reflect past influences.
Paleo-ecological studies can be useful in this regard, as the association between
the environment and diversity can be tracked across changing conditions. Taxa
that form abundant microfossils are particularly well-suited for this work, because
they can be retrieved from sediment cores across all oceans in large numbers, pro-
viding a comprehensive image of global diversity patterns through time (Yasuhara
et al. 2015).
Foraminifera, for example, form small exoskeletons that fossilize well and are
readily identified to species. As for most other marine groups, the present richness
pattern of pelagic foraminifera correlates closely with sea surface temperature,
which explained 90% of the observed variation in foraminiferan richness (Ruth-
erford et al. 1999). Other variables, such as chlorophyll a concentration, salinity,
nitrate, or mean solar irradiation, were much less powerful predictors of richness
for this taxon. Subsequent analysis of temporal changes in diversity patterns for
pelagic foraminifera supported the overriding influence of temperature variation
as a driving force (Yasuhara et al. 2012). While the strength of latitudinal gradi-
ents adjusted dynamically to changes in average water temperature across gla-
cial and interglacial cycles over the last 3 million years, the diversity-temperature
relationship remained remarkably constant (Yasuhara et al. 2012). This suggests a
causal relationship that is driving biogeographic responses to variation in climate
at long timescales. Interestingly, a similar adjustment is often observed at much
shorter timescales, corresponding to seasonal and interannual variation in water
temperature (Whitehead et al. 2008; Pinsky et al. 2013), again suggesting a causal
relationship that tracks temperature variation over space and time.
Of course, such a relationship may not apply equally to each taxonomic
group, or at all spatial scales. While species richness of most coastal inverte-
brates shows a strong relationship to temperature at a global scale (Tittensor et
al. 2010; Valentine and Jablonski 2015), for example, Fernandez et al. (2009)
found reverse latitudinal gradients (and relationships to SST) among benthic
invertebrates with different life histories along the coast of Chile. Species with
planktonic larvae showed a strong positive relationship with temperature, but
those with direct development showed the opposite pattern. This effect of life
history held true both in crustaceans and mollusks (Fernandez et al. 2009). The
authors hypothesized that such a pattern might be explained by the effect of
88 CHAPTER 3

temperature on length of planktonic life (longer in colder climates) and on brood-

ing costs (higher in warmer climates). Direct development may be an advanta-
geous strategy in colder climates; hence, the greater diversification of species
with this developmental mode. Thus, species with unusual life histories or adap-
tations may deviate from the more common pattern of a strong positive rela-
tionship to temperature. This is very obvious for cold-water specialists such as
pinnipeds, penguins, and Antarctic icefishes, which naturally show their greatest
abundance and richness in cold climates, and only secondarily diversify into
warmer waters. Thus, the observed richness of these cold-adapted taxa correlates
negatively with ambient temperature (see pinnipeds in table 3.2). Note, however,
that at higher levels of taxonomic aggregation (classes, phyla, and kingdoms),
a generally positive relationship with temperature reemerges. This suggests that
while, in this example, mammals, birds, and fishes show peak richness at lower
latitudes and warm ambient temperatures, some subgroups (pinnipeds, penguins,
and icefishes) specialize in cold (or otherwise extreme) climates, and develop
their greatest diversity there.

3.3.2. Empirical Predictors of Species Richness on Land

In contrast to the marine environment, terrestrial habitats are uniquely limited by

the availability of ambient water. It took hundreds of millions of years for macro-
scopic marine life forms to evolve specific adaptations (such as seeds, eggs, and
thick cuticulas) that enabled them to colonize the land. Hence, it is not surprising
that standing biomass and production, as well as species richness on land relate to
the availability of water, as well as the availability of energy.
In a comprehensive geospatial analysis, it was found that environmental fac-
tors related to temperature, moisture, habitat area, and complexity predicted
plant diversity at a global scale (Kreft and Jetz 2007) (see table 3.5). Potential
evapotranspiration (PET) gave a better prediction than temperature or net pri-
mary productivity. PET is a compound measure of ambient energy input and is
calculated from average temperature, total insolation, and day length. The num-
ber of wet days emerged as an important secondary predictor at the global scale
(see table 3.5). Habitat area and complexity (topographic complexity and habitat
types) were also important, and there were some important differences among
biogeographic provinces, likely related to historical factors (see table 3.5). Nota-
bly, these results do not support a primary role of productivity, which was often
assumed to drive species richness on land (for example, Huston 1994). Thus, the
richness of plants is primarily driven by environmental factors relating to energy,
moisture, and habitat, at least at larger scales.
DRIVERS AND PREDICTORS 89

This finding may apply more broadly to terrestrial taxa. A comprehensive liter-
ature review concluded that measures of ambient thermal energy, water, or water-
energy balance explained spatial variation in richness better than other climatic
and nonclimatic variables in 82 of 85 cases (Hawkins et al. 2003). Even when
considered in isolation, water and energy variables explained on average over
60% of the variation in the richness of a wide range of plant and animal groups
(Hawkins et al. 2003). As discussed earlier, however, this strong link to climatic
variables is most prominent at large scales, particularly for mammals and birds,
for which diversity is more likely to relate to local productivity at smaller spatial
scales (Belmaker and Jetz 2011). This suggests that temperature is more important
in driving regional, but less so local, richness in these taxa (Belmaker and Jetz
2011; see fig. 3.2).
The strong convergence between the richness patterns of vertebrate consumers
and plants could be causal as well, such that plant richness is driven by climatic
variables, but animal richness relates to the number of plant species (that is, diver-
sity begets more diversity; Brown 2014). While there is good evidence for such
a direct effect at small scales (in individual habitats), it has been shown that at
large scale vertebrates and plants are both driven by climatic variables, rather than
causally related to each other (Jetz et al. 2009).
While much of the terrestrial research has focused on vertebrates and plants,
newer studies include less conspicuous taxa such as microorganisms and fungi.
A study of soil samples from North and South America concluded that micro-
bial diversity was mostly related to soil pH, with maximum diversity at neutral
pH (7 to 8), and declining diversity at higher or lower pH (Fierer and Jackson
2006). Fungi are another poorly known group, despite the fact that they may be
one of the most species-rich taxa on land. When analyzing the diversity of soil
fungi across all continents, it appeared that species richness was strongly linked
to moisture and soil chemistry, particularly the availability of calcium (Tedersoo
et al. 2014). In contrast to animal taxa, richness of all fungi and functional groups
was unrelated to plant diversity, with the exception of ectomycorrhizal root sym-
bionts. This suggests that plant-soil feedbacks do not influence the diversity of
soil fungi at the global scale (Tedersoo et al. 2014).
Freshwater taxa offer another interesting contrast because their habitats are
embedded in the terrestrial sphere but are not moisture-limited. Across freshwater
vertebrates (mammals, birds, amphibians, and fish) and crayfish, ambient energy
(temperature and solar radiation) consistently explained a majority of variation
in total species richness and endemism (Tisseuil et al. 2013). Habitat area and
historical factors related to dispersal explained much of the remaining varia-
tion. The modeled response to changes in ambient energy was stronger than for
other factors and near-linear (Tisseuil et al. 2013). This shows that the diversity
90 CHAPTER 3

of freshwater taxa appears to be driven by similar factors as land taxa, with the
exception of moisture.
In conclusion, it appears that the diversity of life on land is primarily related
to the availability of ambient energy, measured as temperature or PET, in com-
bination with sufficient moisture, habitat area, and complexity. Thus, there is a
fundamental similarity between primary correlates of diversity on land and in the
sea, considering similar primacy of ambient energy and habitat as leading predic-
tors of species richness. Beyond this, there is the unique dependence on ambient
moisture that characterizes life on land, where water is often limiting, and the
greater oxygen constraints in the ocean. Of course, these factors have all changed
over time—for example, between glacial and interglacial cycles. Analyzing both
historic and present-day conditions, it was shown that a combination of current
temperature and historically integrated habitat area and productivity explained
up to 87% of observed variation in terrestrial vertebrate richness (Jetz and Fine
2012). Similar conclusions were reached for marine species, particularly the well-
studied mollusks (Valentine and Jablonski 2015), and for vascular plant richness
on islands, which carries a large signal of historical climate and area changes,
especially for endemic species (Weigelt et al. 2016).

3.4. SYNTHESIS

Three major classes of hypotheses seek to explain species richness patterns on our
planet. These relate to (1) factors that may promote high diversity by increasing
speciation rates or the density of individuals and coexisting species; (2) factors
that may limit diversity by increasing extinction rates, or by limiting individual
density or niche space; and (3) factors that describe the role played by habitat area
and complexity. Of these, theories relating diversity to environmental gradients
in temperature, productivity, and habitat area have over time developed the most
explicit mechanistic foundations.
Empirically, we also find that these three environmental predictors gather the
most support across realms and species groups (table 3.6). When we combined
the available information on primary and secondary environmental predictors
analyzed at global or near-global scales (see table 3.6), some interesting patterns
emerged. Across all 36 studied species groups discussed here, ambient tempera-
ture (or PET, which is closely related to temperature) was by far the most con-
sistent primary predictor of species richness (72% of studies), whereas habitat
area (6%) and productivity (14%) were less commonly identified as primary pre-
dictors. Habitat area emerged as the most important secondary predictor in 39%
of cases, with temperature (14%) and productivity (14%) gathering less support.
 Table 3.6. Environmental Predictors of Species Richness

Secondary
Habitat Species group Primary predictor predictor Source
Coastal Stony corals Temperature Habitat area Tittensor et al. 2010
Coastal Brittle stars Temperature Productivity Woolley et al. 2016
Coastal Bivalves Temperature Productivity Valentine and Jablonski 2015
Coastal Cone snails Temperature Habitat area This volume, table 3.1
Coastal Cephalopods Temperature Habitat area Tittensor et al. 2010
Coastal Benthic Temperature Chlorophyll (−) Macpherson 2002
macrofauna
Coastal Seagrasses Temperature Habitat area Tittensor et al. 2010
Coastal Mangroves Temperature Habitat area Tittensor et al. 2010
Coastal Macroalgae Temperature Nutrients Keith et al. 2014
Coastal Fish Temperature Habitat area Tittensor et al. 2010
Coastal Sharks Habitat area Temperature Tittensor et al. 2010
Coastal Pinnipeds Temperature (−) Productivity Tittensor et al. 2010
Pelagic Foraminifera Temperature Habitat area Rutherford et al. 1999;
Tittensor et al. 2010
Pelagic Copepods Temperature Salinity Rombouts et al. 2009
Pelagic Euphausiids Temperature Habitat area Tittensor et al. 2010
Pelagic Squids Temperature Habitat area Tittensor et al. 2010
Pelagic Macrofauna Nitrate Temperature Macpherson 2002
Pelagic Tuna and Temperature Habitat area Worm et al. 2005; Tittensor
billfish et al. 2010
Pelagic Sharks Temperature Habitat area Tittensor et al. 2010
Pelagic Cetaceans Productivity Temperature Tittensor et al. 2010
Pelagic Seabirds Habitat area Temperature (+/−) Davies et al. 2010
Pelagic Bacteria Temperature — Pommier et al. 2007;
Fuhrman et al. 2008
Pelagic Microbes Temperature — Sunagawa et al. 2015
Deep sea Brittle stars Export productivity (+/−) Oxygen stress Woolley et al. 2016
Deep sea Gastropods Export productivity (+/−) Depth Tittensor et al. 2011
Deep sea Bivalves Export productivity (+/−) Temperature Tittensor et al. 2011
Deep sea Foraminifera Export productivity — Culver and Buzas 2000
Land Vascular Potential Wet days Kreft and Jetz 2007
plants evapotranspiration
Land Soil fungi Moisture Soil calcium Tedersoo et al. 2014
Land Soil microbes pH (+/−) — Fierer and Jackson 2006
Land Amphibians Temperature Productivity Belmaker and Jetz 2011
Land Birds Temperature Productivity Belmaker and Jetz 2011
Land Mammals Temperature Elevational range Belmaker and Jetz 2011
Land Vertebrates Temperature Habitat area Jetz and Fine 2012
Freshwater Vertebrates Temperature Habitat area Tisseuil et al. 2013
Freshwater Crayfish Temperature Habitat area Tisseuil et al. 2013
Secondary
Predictor Main predictor predictor
Temperature 26 5
Habitat area 2 14
Productivity 5 5
Other 3 8

Note: All effects are positive, except where indicated: (−) denotes a negative correlation with richness, (+/−) a
unimodal one. Cumulative evidence for the three most common predictors is summarized at the bottom of the
table. All publications included here were global in scope and data coverage, except for five studies that were
at the scale of ocean basins (Culver and Buzas 2000; MacPherson 2002; Rombouts et al. 2009; Tittensor et al.
2011) or continents (Fierer and Jackson 2006).
92 CHAPTER 3

Overall, ambient temperature was a primary or secondary predictor of global spe-

cies richness in 31 of 36 cases (86%). Exceptions are deep-sea taxa, in which
richness is related to export productivity, and soil microbes, and fungi, for which
richness relates to soil chemistry and moisture (see table 3.6). It is important to
note that in studies where colinearity of temperature with latitude, oxygen con-
centration, or seasonality was accounted for, the effects of temperature always
remained significant. Thus, temperature and habitat together explained most of
the patterns, whereas productivity-related variables were important for deep-sea
species and marine mammals (see table 3.6).
Factors other than temperature, habitat, and productivity were rarely identified
as primary predictors (5%) but sometimes as secondary correlates of species rich-
ness (22% of cases; see table 3.6). Here, species-specific habitat variables such as
salinity, elevational range, or soil calcium were sometimes significant, showing
that other factors can play important roles. Despite this, the overall consistency
of our results raises the question of why there has been so much dissent and con-
troversy regarding the drivers and predictors of species richness gradients in the
past (Rohde 1992). It appears that global data coverage across multiple species
groups, in combination with modern geospatial analysis methods, now allows
for a much stronger test of environmental predictors than previous analyses of
latitudinal gradients. Such comprehensive tests often produce surprisingly consis-
tent results with common environmental drivers across diverse taxonomic groups
(McCoy and Heck 1975; Roberts et al. 2002; Jetz et al. 2009; Tittensor et al. 2010;
Belmaker and Jetz 2011; Tisseuil et al. 2013).
We conclude that there is good evidence for the effects of thermal energy (as a
primary driver) and habitat area and productivity (secondary drivers) for explain-
ing global richness patterns across different habitats and species groups (see table
3.6). This conclusion is supported by empirical analysis of present-day patterns
and trends, by careful examination of the fossil record, and by ecological theory.
In the next chapter, we will explore how these empirical insights can be combined
into a mathematical theory and testable model of global biodiversity.
 CHAPTER FOUR

Developing a Theory
of Global Biodiversity

In the previous chapters, we concluded that large-scale patterns of species rich-

ness appear to converge for well-studied species groups within each of the major
biogeographic realms (terrestrial, coastal, pelagic, and deep sea). We further
showed that there is some consistency to the environmental predictors of species
richness when analyzed at a global scale, and that these predictors are linked to
specific drivers and mechanisms. In particular, thermal energy emerged as the
major predictor across taxa, with measures of habitat area and productivity also
being significant across many species groups. Collectively, these results are most
consistent with the evolutionary speed hypothesis (Stehli et al. 1969; Rohde 1992;
Allen et al. 2002) and the more-individuals hypothesis (Hutchinson 1959; Wright
1983; Clarke and Gaston 2006).
In this chapter, we will develop a body of theory that allows us to capture and
test the previously described key processes governing the global distribution of bio-
diversity. From this theory, we devise a spatial metacommunity model that enables
us to reconstruct documented patterns of species richness from first principles, and
to predict their major features. Specifically, in this model, the patterns must emerge
from a combination of measurable ecological and evolutionary processes, rather
than from a statistical fit to environmental correlates. As such, this is a mechanis-
tic, process-based model sensu (Hilborn and Mangel 1997), although we do not
endeavor to incorporate all possible mechanisms or processes right away. Instead,
we chose to start with a simple, flexible, and tractable framework that can be built on
and expanded in order to test competing hypotheses. This modeling approach may
be described as an experimental toolbox for global biodiversity patterns. Our aim
is not necessarily to achieve the highest predictive power, but to explore the pos-
sibility space of global biodiversity patterns and their drivers. As such, the model
and its underlying theory are “instrumental” rather than “realistic” (Wennekes et al.
2012), and hopefully a useful foundation for others to improve and challenge. We
are motivated by a recent call for an expansion of theory in ecology to “accelerate
scientific progress, enhance the ability to address environmental challenges, and
foster the development of synthesis and unification” (Marquet et al. 2014). We aim
94 CHAPTER 4

for an “efficient theory,” as defined by Marquet et al. (2014)—that is, a theory that
is grounded in first principles and mathematical expressions, makes few assump-
tions, and generates a large number of predictions per free parameter, enabling the
testing of model predictions against multiple empirical datasets.
The building blocks for our theory of global biodiversity are based on the empir-
ical evidence assembled and analyzed in the previous chapters. From our review
of the existing literature on marine and terrestrial biodiversity patterns, we surmise
that the primary forces that structure large-scale patterns of species richness are
most likely related to some combination of ambient thermal energy, habitat area,
or productivity. The effects of thermal energy can be captured through metabolic
equations relating rates of community turnover and evolution (that is, evolution-
ary speed) to temperature. The effects of habitat area and productivity can both be
captured through equations linking species richness to community size (that is, the
number of individuals in a community). The equations describing these theoretical
building blocks and resultant models are outlined in the rest of this chapter.
We begin with a simple, spatially explicit null-model built on Hubbell’s well-
known metacommunity model that implements his neutral theory of biodiversity
and biogeography (Hubbell 2001). This model was chosen as a base because it
incorporates both evolutionary processes of speciation and extinction and eco-
logical processes of dispersal and disturbance, all of which influence species rich-
ness (Vellend 2010; Tittensor and Worm 2016). Like its predecessor, the theory of
island biogeography (MacArthur and Wilson 1967), this neutral model assumes
ecological equivalence among species. This assumption is of course an unreal-
istic abstraction of nature. Yet neutral theories have performed reasonably well
in predicting some major macroecological properties such as patterns of relative
abundance, range size, and diversity, although many open questions remain (Bell
2001; Rosindell et al. 2012; Marquet et al. 2014). This suggests at least the possi-
bility that species-specific differences may not always be critical in driving major
macroecological patterns. We evaluate this proposition with respect to observed
global patterns of species richness across taxa. Subsequently, we relax that
assumption by departing from neutrality and allowing species within our spatially
explicit model to differ in their niche width and thermal tolerances, accounting
for observed differences among species in nature (Sunday et al. 2011; Beaugrand
2014). In this way, we are combining elements of neutral theory, metabolic theory,
and niche theory into a synthetic theory of global biodiversity.

4.1. BASIC NEUTRAL THEORY

Our theory, building on Hubbell (2001), incorporates the fundamental processes

that drive species change in a metacommunity, specifically the birth and death
D E V E L O P I N G A T H E O RY 95

of individuals, dispersal to and from neighboring communities, as well as the

evolutionary processes of speciation and extinction. Hubbell’s ideas were first
implemented in a simple, nonspatial metacommunity model where a local com-
munity of n individuals corresponded (via immigration) with a larger, “external”
species pool. Later versions have modeled that species pool as a spatially explicit
metacommunity, in which many local communities are linked to each other via
dispersal across a model landscape (Bell 2001; Hubbell 2001; Rosindell et al.
2008; Rosindell et al. 2011). This model structure allows ecologists to investigate
spatial processes explicitly. On the downside, such a spatially explicit version is
analytically tractable only for the very simplest of cases (see box 4.1). More com-
plex scenarios, like the global richness patterns examined in this book, require
numerical simulation models (Bell 2001; Hubbell 2001). Such models can be
very computationally expensive, as every individual is tracked for every time step
across a complex metacommunity, potentially for many thousands of time steps,
until the model settles to a dynamic equilibrium. Even identifying when such
models have achieved equilibrium can be challenging (Rosindell et al. 2008). For-
tunately, a backward-simulation, or coalescence approach, partly alleviates these
computational problems (Rosindell et al. 2008), as explained later.

BOX 4.1
Analytical Solution for a Spatially Explicit Neutral Model

Here, we briefly demonstrate that beyond a trivially simple system, a spa-

tially explicit metacommunity model cannot be solved analytically and that
a simulation approach must be used. Adopting an approach analogous to that
of Hubbell (2001, 86), we can calculate the transition probabilities for species
in a local community, assuming exactly one death and one birth per time step.
In the simple case of no metacommunity dispersal from neighboring
cells (m = 0), we have a set of unlinked local communities, and can use
the Markovian matrix approach of Hubbell (2001, 79). The species in each
community reach an absorbing state of either monodominance or extinc-
tion, with the probabilities of each following exactly from Hubbell (2001),
and with a vector of fixation times calculated by multiplying the fundamen-
tal matrix (as denoted therein) by an identity column vector. In the case of
one birth and one death per time step, as per our model, the ith element in
this fixation vector is
T (Ni) = (J −1) 7(J − Ni) / k =1 (J − k) −1 + Ni / k = N +1 k −1A,
Ni J −1
i

where J is the size of the local community, and Ni is the number of individu-
als in species i (Hubbell 2001).
96 CHAPTER 4

(Box 4.1 continued)

When the communities are linked via dispersal and immigration, we can
write out the transition probabilities for the ith species (of local community
abundance Ni) in the ergodic community as:

;m (1− Pi) + (1− m) c mE

Ni J − Ni
Pr {Ni −1 | Ni} =
J J −1

Pr {Ni | Ni} = i ;mPi + (1− m) c i mE

N N −1
J J −1

+c m # ;m (1− Pi) + (1− m) c mE

J − Ni J − Ni −1
J (J − 1

Pr {Ni +1 | Ni} = c m ;mPi + (1− m) c i mE,

J − Ni N
J J −1
where 0 <= m <= 1 is the probability of immigration from the metacommu-
nity, and Pi is the relative proportion of individuals in the metacommunity
(here, the Moore neighborhood) that belong to species i (Hubbell 2001).
However, in our case, the metacommunity is not a separate, larger pool of
individuals, but constitutes the set of surrounding local communities. These
surrounding communities also have their own (overlapping) metacom-
munities. Thus, all local communities are simultaneously part of multiple
metacommunities for other local communities, and this dependence brings
about a recursive aspect to the system, whereby Pi becomes contingent.
For example, consider a very simple system of just two local communi-
ties, A and B. Assume that local community B acts as the metacommunity
for local community A, and A acts as the metacommunity for B. For com-
munity A, the Pi terms in the preceding transition probabilities become PB,
the relative proportion of individuals in community B. And, similarly, for
community B, the Pi terms become PA. So the dynamics of B depend on
A, which depend on B, and so forth. Thus, there is a two-way coupling
of dispersal between communities, not just a one-way flow of individuals
from the metacommunity to local communities. Deriving the elements in
the transition matrix (not shown), as well as being extraordinarily com-
plex for anything but a trivial spatial system, demonstrates this inherent
recursiveness. An expression for the multinomial probabilities of individual
states, and hence a Markovian process, cannot be written in fully explicit
terms, and hence we cannot utilize the established machinery for calculat-
ing the unconditional probability of every possible configuration of relative
species abundance in a sample of arbitrary size drawn at random from the
metacommunity (Hubbell 2001). Instead, we rely on simulation approaches
implemented either in forward or coalescence mode.
D E V E L O P I N G A T H E O RY 97

Two fundamental principles underlie the basic model implementation. The first
principle states that all processes that are parameterized (disturbance, dispersal,
and speciation) are modeled as per capita rates, such that all of these processes
have a given probability per individual. Note that species extinction is not param-
eterized, but emerges from the model due to the random dynamics of births and
deaths. All individuals regardless of species are assumed ecological equivalents—
that is, none are more likely to be disturbed, disperse, or speciate than any other,
and are selected at random to undergo these processes. We also assume zero-sum
ecological dynamics, meaning that there are a fixed number of individuals that can
be supported by a given environment, and while there is constant disturbance rate
and associated death and turnover of such individuals, their total number does not
change. This type of behavior applies only to ecologically similar species at one
trophic level—for example, metacommunities of trees, corals, herbivorous mam-
mals, or planktivorous fish—which are likely to be competing with one another for
resources such as space (Hubbell 2001). However, it is possible to envision over-
laying multiple models for different trophic groups atop one another, in an attempt
to determine broader biodiversity patterns, and perhaps to examine interactions
between these groups. We will return to this point later in this book.
The second fundamental principle is that environmental parameters thought
to influence and shape diversity patterns, such as ambient temperature, or habitat
area, are added in stepwise fashion to the base model. The expanded model is still
purely neutral within each local community, with per capita rates being identical
among all individuals, but now includes spatially heterogeneous environmental
factors across the metacommunity.
Our initial model begins from a local community that is composed of a number
of sites (fig. 4.1), and has no connection to a metacommunity. Each of these sites
is occupied by a single individual of a designated species. Local community size J
is constant through time. The local community is initially seeded at random from
a pool of S species, where each species has an equal chance of occupying each
site, in accordance with the principle of neutrality. It was previously shown that
the equilibrium community of this type of model was not sensitive to the initial
number of species (Hubbell 2001). At each time step, one randomly selected site
is disturbed, and the individual occupying that site dies and is replaced at random,
where the probability of a particular species filling that site is proportional to
its local abundance in that same community. Hence, species that attain a higher
abundance in the community are more likely to recolonize disturbed sites in the
next time step. Because of this positive feedback, the community converges to a
monoculture (S = 1) over time. This result is well established for neutral models
without immigration (Hubbell 2001).
Next, we add immigration to the model by linking the local community to a
global, spatially explicit, metacommunity M, allowing for dispersal between local
98 CHAPTER 4

Death Birth Immigration

Repeat until at equilibrium

Figure 4.1. Basic mechanics of a neutral model community. A local community is occupied by
J individuals belonging to S different species. A randomly selected individual dies at each time
step (square symbol) and is replaced at random with an individual born in the same community
(arrow symbol) or with an individual immigrating from a neighboring community (lightning
symbol). The probability of immigration is given by the dispersal parameter m. The full model
also allows for dispersing individuals to speciate as they colonize a neighboring community
(presumably by point mutation and reproductive isolation). The probability is given by the spe-
ciation rate v. In a neutral community, the per capita rates of birth, death, dispersal, and specia-
tion are assumed to be equal among all individuals, and subject only to random variation or drift.
Redrawn after Rosindell et al. (2011).

communities with rate m. The global metacommunity (here assumed to represent

a hypothetical planet-spanning global ocean) is composed of i × j local communi-
ties, where i is the number of local communities longitudinally, and j is the num-
ber latitudinally. The communities are assumed to be distributed on a regular grid
over a cylinder—that is, cells are connected over the longitudinal borders at the
180th meridian, but not the poles. Fig. 4.2 illustrates that basic spatial structure.
Each local community is connected via dispersal to its eight nearest local com-
munity neighbors, the Moore neighborhood of cellular automata theory (Hubbell
2001). Polar cells on the top or bottom row of the grid instead have a neighbor-
hood size of five local communities, since there is an upper or a lower border
through which species cannot disperse. As per the zero-sum assumption, the total
number of individuals in the global metacommunity (JM) is constant. It is given
by the product of the local community size (J) multiplied by the number of local
communities (i × j).
At each time step, a single site within the entire metacommunity is disturbed
and the individual that occupied that site dies and is replaced, either from the
local community or from a neighboring community. This approach settles to
the same dynamic equilibrium as disturbing one site within every local com-
munity per time step (Hubbell 2001; Tittensor and Worm 2016), though it takes
many more time steps to reach a stable equilibrium. However, the advantage
 D E V E L O P I N G A T H E O RY 99

Global metacommunity Local community

Cold
Thermal gradient

Hot Large area

Small area

Cold

Figure 4.2. Global metacommunity model. Our spatially explicit global metacommunity con-
sists of 21 × 21 local communities, each occupied by J individuals (with local community size
J = 16 and metacommunity size JM = 7056 as the base case). Shades in local communities sym-
bolize different species. Communities are connected through dispersal (at rate m) to neighboring
cells (arrows). Although the grid is depicted as flat, the left-hand and right-hand borders are con-
nected to form a cylindrical shape. The dashed line in the center represents the equator, and the
top and bottom of the main grid represent the poles. Disturbance and replacement of individuals
on the grid is a per capita function that is constant for all local communities (in the neutral base
model) or can become a function of temperature (in the combined neutral-metabolic model),
with increased turnover rates or speciation rates at higher temperature. The effect of increasing
habitat area or productivity can be simulated by scaling the number of individuals J in any spe-
cific local community up or down. Redrawn after Tittensor and Worm (2016).

of selecting a single disturbance across all communities is that this particular

method is more easily reconfigured for a nonuniform probability of disturbance
between communities (Tittensor and Worm 2016). This approach is implemented
later, in which local communities have different probabilities of disturbance
based on environmental conditions.
When a site gets disturbed, the individual occupying it is replaced at random with
an individual dispersing from a neighboring community (the Moore neighborhood)
with probability m, or from another site within the local community with probability
1 – m. The probability of a specific species occupying a disturbed site is propor-
tional to its relative abundance in the Moore neighborhood in the first instance, and
100 CHAPTER 4

in the local community in the second. At each time step, an individual can move
only to immediately neighboring communities. Ultimately, however, it can spread
through the global community via successive Moore neighborhoods (Bell 2001),
with faster dispersal through the metacommunity at higher values of m.
In this simple metacommunity model, species richness declines over time to
monodominance, due to the random processes outlined earlier, albeit more slowly
than for a single community. We find that even a low dispersal rate (m = 0.01)
introduces a spatial rescue effect that slows the spread of local monocultures (and
decelerates global extinction). Higher dispersal rates initially lead to higher aver-
age local species richness in each community, but lower global richness across the
metacommunity, as found by Hubbell (2001, 218). Ultimately, however, without
the input of any new species to the system, it will eventually settle to a monodom-
inant system. Because species are ecologically identical, the species that comes to
dominate cannot be predicted a priori.
Next, we introduce speciation into the model, which has a chance of occur-
ring when a new site is colonized by a dispersing propagule. Thus, every specia-
tion event corresponds to a dispersal event: dispersal occurs and then speciation is
determined independently. Speciation is assumed to occur as a point mutation with
a per capita probability of v. Although other speciation mechanisms have been pro-
posed (Rosindell et al. 2010), we use this simplest possible form in our first attempt
at a simple process-based model. Experimenting with different forms of speciation
remains one of many aspects that could be tested within the model framework.
Neutral theory characterizes the (sampling) distribution of species abundances
in a metacommunity of size JM and speciation rate v by a composite parameter
known as the fundamental biodiversity number,

ν
θ = JM
1− ν

(Hubbell 2001; Rosindell et al. 2011). A number of well-known ecological

properties emerge from a spatially explicit metacommunity model of this form,
including the species-area relationship (Hubbell 2001, 152–201), patterns of
species’ ranges (see Hubbell 2001, 216–217), and rank-abundance curves (Hub-
bell 2001, 219), among others. Note that these patterns emerge entirely due to
random processes parameterized by the speciation rate and dispersal parameter,
not because of any structure in the environment, or any assumed variation in
species’ traits.
Our model therefore entails the following basic steps (figs. 4.1 and 4.2):

1. At every time step, a randomly selected community in the global meta-

community has a random site disturbed and the individual residing
therein dies.
D E V E L O P I N G A T H E O RY 101

2. The empty space is then colonized by an individual from the metacommu-

nity with probability m (dispersal parameter) or from the local community
with probability (1 – m), with the individual chosen at random.
3. The newly colonizing individual evolves into a new species with probabil-
ity v (speciation parameter).
4. The preceding steps are repeated until a dynamic equilibrium is reached
(see section 4.2, later).

In summary, this basic model implementation of spatially explicit neutral the-

ory makes the following assumptions:

1. Dispersal, mortality, and speciation rates are constant and individuals are
ecologically equivalent (identical per capita rates regardless of species
identity).
2. The number of vacant sites opening up in a community is proportional to
the disturbance rate, which is equivalent for each local community, as one
random site in the metacommunity is disturbed per time step.
3. The probability of a species filling a single vacancy is equal to its relative
abundance in the local community (if local dispersal) or Moore neighbor-
hood (if metacommunity dispersal).
4. A finite amount of space is assumed in each local community (J) with a
constant number of individuals in the metacommunity, JM, competing for
the space across all local communities.

This model differs from the spatial model described in Hubbell (2001) and else-
where only in the implementation, in which a single community is disturbed each
time step, rather than all communities being disturbed in each time step. This
produces identical results to these other model implementations, but will become
important later, when additional components are added to the model, and assump-
tions of neutrality are relaxed.

4.2. IMPLEMENTATION IN FORWARD AND COALESCENCE MODE

Computationally, the model is implemented using two different algorithms or

modes, each of which has advantages and disadvantages, but which can be used
as independent checks on one another. The first is forward mode, which is the
simulation approach used in Hubbell (2001). It is used primarily to examine and
visualize transient and nonequilibrium community dynamics, and proceeds to
simulate community changes under a given set of parameters until a finite number
of time steps or community turnovers have been completed. The number of time
steps necessary to reach a dynamic equilibrium is dependent on the speciation rate.
 102 CHAPTER 4

A B

100 100
Log 10 (% relative abundance)

Log 10 (% relative abundance)

10 10

1 Dispersal = 0.005 1 Dispersal = 0.005

0.1 0.1

0.01 0.01
Dispersal = 0.5 Dispersal = 0.5

0.001 0.001
50 100 150 50 100 150
Rank Rank

Figure 4.3. Comparison of the global metacommunity model with original results by Hubbell
(2001). Rank-abundance plots are depicted. (A) Model results for a metacommunity of 7056
individuals with fundamental biodiversity number  = 10 simulated in coalescence mode (see
text). Solid lines indicate mean values, and the gray-shaded area indicates 95% range of 100 rep-
licate runs. Dashed black lines indicate values from fig. 7.7 of Hubbell (2001, 219) at the same
parameter settings. (B) Same, but solid lines represent results from forward-simulation mode,
run to 25,000 community turnovers, for approximately 1.7 billion time steps. Both forward and
coalescence modes produce results identical to Hubbel (2001).

Hubbell (2001) states that approximately 10,000 community turnovers (equiva-

lent to each individual site being disturbed 10,000 times, on average) should suf-
fice, but we found that at low speciation rates, the model needed to be run for
longer to settle to a dynamical steady-state. We therefore assessed settlement to
a dynamic equilibrium based on the settling of transient properties (for example,
relative species abundances), and on comparison to the equivalent coalescence
model explained later (see also fig. 4.3). The metacommunity is initially seeded
with a single species; we note that the transient dynamics are dependent on the
initial number of species (low initial richness gives an increase in richness, high
initial richness a decrease), but ultimately all initial conditions settle to the same
equilibrium (as noted by Hubbell 2001). We choose to start with a single species,
as we believe it more accurately reflects the process of evolution in novel environ-
ments, but have checked our results starting with high species richness, and will
indicate where any differences in transient dynamics occur.
As a second approach to model implementation, coalescence mode (Rosindell
et al. 2008) allows us to run large numbers of simulations in a computationally
tractable manner by beginning at the end-state and working backward without
having to compute redundant events that have no bearing on the final distribution
D E V E L O P I N G A T H E O RY 103

of species. Coalescence algorithms employ techniques originally developed to

track neutral evolutionary markers in population genetics (Felsenstein 2004) and
offer a number of important advantages over traditional simulation approaches.
In this instance, coalescence begins with a present-day global metacommunity
where each individual is of unknown species identity and lineage, and then works
backward in time, applying the rules of the model in reverse and probabilistically
determining speciation and dispersal events that can uniquely identify individuals
as being derived from the same lineage (Rosindell et al. 2008). This mode effi-
ciently uncovers the ancestry and phylogeny of contemporary individuals in the
sample, but without modification can be applied only to strictly neutral models.
Crucially, it provides a way to simulate our individual-based theory for large and
complex spatial structures; no known alternative algorithm would be tractable in
these situations (Rosindell et al. 2008; Rosindell et al. 2011). This gain in speed
and efficiency occurs through tracking only individuals whose lineage has not yet
been determined, and not those whose identities have been established, whereas
the forward model continues to follow every individual during all time steps. In
our tests, coalescence mode generally yields the same results as the more tradi-
tional forward approach (see fig. 4.3) but is up to 1,000 times faster, allowing us
to perform replicate runs that can be used to average over the stochastic variation
inherent to each simulation. Coalescence also provides an objective end-point,
unlike the forward mode, for which it can sometimes be challenging to determine
that the model has fully “settled” (Rosindell et al. 2008). The coalescence end-
point is reached when the identity of each species has been established, giving
a complete picture of the present state based on the ecological and evolutionary
events that have occurred. Owing to its computational efficiency, the coalescence
approach allows us to run many replicate simulations. In this chapter, unless oth-
erwise noted, we typically run 100 simulations for each parameter combination
and present the mean values and 2.5% and 97.5% percentiles.
One beneficial aspect of creating two almost entirely separate algorithms was
that each could be used as a check on the other. This redundancy promotes greater
confidence in our results, and it forced us to think clearly about how the imple-
mented ecological and evolutionary processes operated, given that each had to be
interpretable and specifiable both in forward and coalescence mode.
To enable direct comparison with Hubbell’s spatial metacommunity model,
we initially set the size of each local community as J = 16, and the number of
communities in longitudinal and latitudinal directions, i and j, to be 21, for a total
metacommunity size of JM = 7056 individuals (see fig. 4.2). While this relatively
tractable metacommunity is used in most simulations, we explored larger com-
munities in our sensitivity analyses. We further explored a range of values for
the speciation rate v, ranging from 0.0001 to 0.1, and for the metacommunity
104 CHAPTER 4

dispersal rate m, from 0.001 to 1. Furthermore, for direct comparison to Hubbell

(2001), we ran an analysis in which the dispersal parameter is set to either 0.005
or 0.5, and the speciation rate to 0.000709, giving a fundamental biodiversity
number () of 10. Results in both forward and coalescence mode were indistin-
guishable from Hubbell’s original model (see fig. 4.3). However, note that unlike
Hubbell, we did not embed the 21 × 21 grid of communities in a large plane,
though longitudinal edge effects will be avoided in our model, as the metacom-
munity grid is linked along this axis.
The basic model described here does not produce any gradients in biodiver-
sity due to the lack of geographic processes that may structure diversity between
regions. For this, we need to introduce a factor or combination of factors that vary
geographically across the global metacommunity. Based on the empirical findings
of chapter 3, we first focus on the gradient in ambient temperature, thereby inte-
grating metabolic and neutral theory into a unified theoretical framework.

4.3. INCLUDING METABOLIC THEORY

As discussed in the previous chapter, increases in ambient temperature are known

to increase individual metabolic rates, and consequently the rate of species inter-
actions and community turnover (Brown et al. 2004). This forms a first link in our
theory between a hypothesized driver (thermal energy), a documented mechanism
(metabolic rates), an empirical predictor (temperature), and observed patterns of
species richness. We simulate this driver within our model by establishing a tem-
perature gradient from the equator to the poles of our global metacommunity, and
making the rate of disturbance and recolonization temperature dependent based
on metabolic rates (Tittensor and Worm 2016). Although this remains, sensu
stricto, a neutral model in that all individuals are ecologically equivalent, with
identical per capita rates within each local community, the rates for each local
community are dependent on the latitudinal position of those communities. We
further assume that individual metabolism and turnover rates speed up at higher
temperatures, and that this effect is the same for all species. Clearly, this model is
more applicable to ectotherms than endotherms. Purely as a result of faster turn-
over, we also expect to observe more speciation events per unit of time at lower
latitudes. Thus, we induce an environmental gradient without changing the basic
neutrality assumptions of per capita equivalence (see fig. 4.2).
The effects of temperature on community turnover and speciation rate are
parameterized according to the metabolic theory of ecology (Brown et al. 2004)
described in the previous chapter. According to the theory, biochemical reaction
rates, metabolic rates, and other rates of biological activity increase exponentially
D E V E L O P I N G A T H E O RY 105

as a function of internal organism temperature and body size (see chapter 3).
In the context of our neutral model, we can ignore the effect of body mass, as
all organisms are assumed ecological equivalents. The temperature dependence
is described by the Boltzmann factor e−E/kT, where E is the empirically derived
activation energy (~0.65 eV for ectotherms, as stated by Brown et al. 2004), k is
Boltzmann’s constant (8.617 × 10 −5 eV K−1), and T is absolute internal temperature
in degrees Kelvin (K). This relationship predicts about a doubling of metabolic
rate with every 10 K increase in temperature. We assumed a 30 K gradient in aver-
age surface temperature between the equator and each pole, approximating the
observed gradients in sea surface temperature in today’s oceans (fig. 4.4A). This
realistic temperature gradient results in an approximately eightfold difference
between average metabolic rates from the equator to the poles for ectotherms.
This process was simulated in the model by making the probability of disturbance
at each site in a local community proportional to the rate difference (Tittensor and
Worm 2016). Therefore, a site located in an equatorial community had around an
eightfold higher chance of being disturbed in any individual time step than one at
the poles, with intermediate latitude cells following a gradient between the two.
We always normalized the total probabilities to sum to one, to enable the simple
random selection of a cell for disturbance.
When we implemented the specified 30 K latitudinal temperature gradient
along with its predicted effect on community turnover in the forward model,
we observed an unstable latitudinal gradient in mean local community species
richness (fig. 4.5). Faster turnover and shorter generation times in the tropics
resulted in a more rapid approach toward the dynamic equilibrium richness state

A B
25
Ocean area (million km2)

1.5
Mean temperature (°C)

20

15 1.0

10
0.5
5

0
0.0
−50 0 50 −50 0 50
Latitude Latitude

Figure 4.4. Observed global gradients in sea surface temperature and total ocean area by latitude.
(A) Surface temperature and (B) ocean area both peak around the equator and decrease sharply
toward the poles. The regional peak of ocean area in the Arctic partly reflects areas permanently
covered by ice. Redrawn after data in Tittensor et al. (2010); Allen and Gillooly (2006).
A B I J
10 10
8 8

Local richness

Local richness
Latitude

Latitude
6 6
4 4
2 2
0 5 10 0 5 10
Local richness Local richness
C D K L
10 10
8 8
Local richness

Local richness
Latitude

Latitude
6 6
4 4
2 2
0 5 10 0 5 10
Local richness Local richness
E F M N
10 10
8 8
Local richness

Latitude

Local richness

Latitude
6 6
4 4
2 2
0 5 10 0 5 10
Local richness Local richness
G H O P
10 10
8 8
Local richness

Latitude

Local richness

Latitude

6 6
4 4
2 2
0 5 10 0 5 10
Local richness Local richness

Figure 4.5. A transient biodiversity gradient resulting from increased community turnover at
higher ambient temperature. Left-hand column depicts a global metacommunity grid of 21 × 21
communities with shading indicating their species richness S. Right-hand column depicts the
resulting latitudinal gradient, with the solid line indicating the mean, and shading representing
the 95% range of 100 model runs. Shown is the appearance of a transient latitudinal gradient
in species richness from a forward-mode neutral-metabolic model after (A, B) 1 community
turnover (7056 time steps); (C, D) 10 community turnovers; (E, F) 50 community turnovers; (G,
H) 100 community turnovers; (I, J) 125 community turnovers; (K, L) 250 community turnovers;
and (M, N) its disappearance within 1000 community turnovers. Coalescence model results
(O, P) are shown for comparison. Dispersal parameter m = 0.1; speciation rate v = 0.01; global
metacommunity size Jm = 7056 individuals. After Tittensor and Worm (2016).
D E V E L O P I N G A T H E O RY 107

there, elevating tropical relative to polar richness. Eventually, however, the polar
regions did catch up and reached the same asymptotic richness and relative spe-
cies abundance distribution as equatorial areas (fig. 4.5M,N). The coalescence-
mode simulation (fig. 4.5O,P) confirmed that no gradient existed at equilibrium.
This partly resulted from the lack of any stabilizing force to maintain the asymp-
totic gradient of equilibrium richness—it is simply a matter of time—and partly
from the initial richness being lower than equilibrium richness. This latter point
can be demonstrated by starting a forward-mode model with local richness values
set to be higher than the mean equilibrium value, in which case the more rapid
approach of equatorial regions toward the equilibrium value produces a transient
inverse latitudinal gradient (results not shown). We note that it actually remains an
open question as to whether Earth has reached an equilibrium in terms of global
biodiversity, a fact that is deemed unlikely given the continuing increase of fossil
biodiversity up to the present, as well as the large-scale disturbance events that
“reset” biodiversity at regional and sometimes global scales (Raup and Sepkoski
1982; Benton and Twitchett 2003; Alroy et al. 2008).
Metabolic theory also invokes an effect of temperature on speciation rates
independent of the previously described effect on turnover times. As discussed
in chapter 3, there is empirical evidence that mutation rates increase as a function
of temperature (Muller 1928; Lindgren 1972; Matsuba et al. 2013). This may be
mechanistically explained by the increased production of free oxygen radicals at
higher metabolic rates, which increases nucleotide substitution rates, and may
ultimately drive up speciation rates (Allen et al. 2006). However, we note that the
mechanisms that link nucleotide substitution to speciation are not entirely clear.
Despite this gap in mechanistic understanding, increased speciation rates during
periods of climate change and increased temperature have also been evident in
the fossil record (Stehli et al. 1967; Sepkoski 1998; Mayhew et al. 2012). We
simulated such thermal effects on speciation rates in our model by setting the
speciation rate, v, to be a normalized function of temperature:
νbase e −E/kT j

νj = E ,
min (e − )kTj

where base is the “basic” speciation rate at the lowest temperature, and the meta-
bolic effect of temperature, e E/kT , is normalized by dividing by its minimum
j

value. Thus, at the poles the speciation probability equals base, and it increases
exponentially toward the equator as predicted by metabolic theory (Brown et al.
2004). This effect can be simulated independently of or in combination with the
effect of temperature on turnover rates.
We implemented this effect to explore under which conditions a permanent
richness gradient emerges (fig. 4.6). As previously discussed, no effect was seen
in the base model (fig. 4.6A,B), or when modeling the effects of temperature on
 A B
20

15

Local richness

Latitude
10

0 20 40
Local richness
C D
20

15
Local richness

Latitude
10

0 20 40
Local richness
E F
20

15
Local richness

Latitude

10

0 20 40
Local richness
G H
20

15
Local richness

Latitude

10

0 20 40
Local richness

Figure 4.6. Emergence of permanent latitudinal biodiversity gradient. Shown are results from
100 coalescence model runs each: (A, B) in a neutral base model; (C, D) including a thermal
effect on community turnover; (E, F) including thermal effect on speciation rates; (G, H) includ-
ing a gradient of increasing habitat area from the tropics to the poles. Symbols and base param-
eter settings as in fig. 4.5. After Tittensor and Worm (2016).
D E V E L O P I N G A T H E O RY 109

community turnover (fig. 4.6C,D). However, when a metabolic effect on specia-

tion was applied to our base model, a permanent latitudinal gradient emerged (fig.
4.6E,F). The mean richness of a local community at the equator (S = 7.3 species)
was around 2.1 times the average at the poles (S = 3.6), which showed near-identical
richness as the base model (S = 3.5). The resulting latitudinal gradient was near-lin-
ear, with some variability caused by the stochastic nature of our model (fig. 4.6E,F).

4.4. INCLUDING HABITAT AREA AND PRODUCTIVITY

A further extension of our theory and associated model implementation accounts

for the effects of habitat area and productivity. Species-area theory, both in its orig-
inal form (Preston 1962) and as formalized in the theory of island biogeography
(MacArthur and Wilson 1967), rests on the fundamental assumption that islands
with larger habitat area can support larger numbers of individuals, and larger aver-
age population sizes would reduce the rate of local extinction (see chapter 3).
Species-area theory was later extended to include productivity, which also affects
the number of individuals that a given environment can support (Wright 1983).
The effects that these factors might have on species richness have been formalized
as the species-energy hypothesis sensu (Wright 1983) or the more-individuals
hypothesis sensu (Evans et al. 2005). Thus, our theory also ought to account for
the fact that some local communities support higher numbers of individuals than
others. We implemented this in our model by varying local community size, while
keeping the per capita rates of ecological processes, and the temperature of that
environment, constant.
As a first approximation to the real-world ocean, we assumed a fivefold area
gradient from the tropics to the poles, which roughly corresponds to the observed
gradient when averaging habitat area by latitude across oceans (see fig. 4.4B).
Running the basic model with this fivefold gradient resulted in larger community
sizes at the equator and produced a stronger latitudinal gradient than that for either
effect of temperature (see fig. 4.6G,H), with mean values at the equator almost 4.4
times higher than at the poles. Higher species richness evolved in lower latitude
cells, in part as a simple effect of increased community size and sampling across
more individuals, and in part owing to a higher absolute probability of speciation
occurring within these larger communities because of proportionally more fre-
quent disturbance and dispersal events (but with constant rates per capita).
When modeling the combined effects of observed area and temperature gradi-
ents on species richness (fig. 4.7), their effects were multiplicative, producing a
stronger gradient with a sharper peak (fig. 4.7E,F), and a mean equatorial richness
value (S = 35.4), which was 9.2 times higher than the polar value (S = 3.9). Such
synergistic effects were not seen for turnover and area (fig. 4.7C,D), or when
 A B
20

15

Local richness

Latitude
10

0 20 40
Local richness
C D
20

15

Local richness

Latitude
10

0 20 40
Local richness
E F
20

15
Local richness

Latitude

10

0 20 40
Local richness
G H
20

15
Local richness

Latitude

10

0 20 40
Local richness

Figure 4.7. Combined effects of area and temperature gradients on latitudinal richness: (A, B)
including effect of temperature on both community turnover rate and speciation rate; (C, D) includ-
ing an area effect, and a temperature effect on community turnover rate; (E, F) including an area
effect, and a temperature effect on speciation rate; (G, H) including an area effect, and a temperature
effect on both community turnover rate and speciation rate. Symbols and base parameter settings as
in fig. 4.5. Thermal effects are parameterized as per the metabolic theory of ecology. Area and tem-
perature gradients approximate those found in the global oceans. After Tittensor and Worm (2016).
D E V E L O P I N G A T H E O RY 111

combining turnover and speciation and area effects (fig. 4.7G,H). We conclude
that gradients in speciation rate and community size, but not turnover, produce
persistent gradients in species richness. The effects of area and speciation can act
synergistically, with model results roughly equally sensitive to variation in both
parameters. Note that we assume here that increases in area-specific productivity
may produce similar results as increases in habitat area (Wright 1983), as both
are increasing local community size; we do not further distinguish between them
here, but contrast them when fitting to data in chapter 5, accounting for the fact
that they can show different scaling relationships with species richness in nature
(Hurlbert and Jetz 2010).
We explored the sensitivity of metacommunity properties to variation in specia-
tion rate v and dispersal parameter m for model runs with thermal gradient effects
on both speciation and turnover (fig. 4.8). Mean local community species rich-
ness increased both with increasing metacommunity dispersal and with increasing
speciation rates (fig. 4.8A). Clearly, higher speciation rates led to the evolution of
more species, whereas higher dispersal rates allowed those species to spread over
more local communities and avoid the higher extinction probability that plagues
small isolated populations. Mean global metacommunity richness showed an even
more pronounced increase with increasing speciation rate (fig. 4.8B), reflecting a
more positive net balance between the probabilities of speciation and extinction.
The effects of changes in the dispersal parameter m on global richness, however,
were minimal, acting only to slightly increase the total richness at low dispersal
values, probably owing to the greater “regionalization” of communities under low
dispersal regimes, resulting in higher beta-diversity. When assessing the effect of
both parameters on the strength of the latitudinal biodiversity gradient (fig. 4.8C),
we saw an interaction between the effects of speciation rate and dispersal. While
increasing speciation rate increased the strength of the latitudinal richness gradient
across most tested dispersal parameter values, this effect was more pronounced at
low dispersal rates than at high dispersal rates (see fig. 4.6). Dispersal had a slightly
positive effect on gradient strength at low speciation rates, but a negative effect at
the highest speciation rates. Note here that not all of these parameter combinations
might occur in nature—for example, high dispersal rates might prevent speciation
by undermining reproductive isolation, and thus high dispersal rates would not
necessarily co-occur with high speciation rates. As a final sensitivity check, we
explored the effects of changes in community size, and found that increasing com-
munity size to J = 64 (JM = 28,244) individuals increased local and global richness
at equilibrium but did not affect any of the latitudinal patterns we documented for
smaller community sizes. While such parameter space exploration proved insight-
ful, we acknowledge that the relationship to actual rates of dispersal and specia-
tion, as well as actual community sizes found in nature, is not fully resolved and
should be explored in future work.
 Local species richness
16

14

15 12

Richness
10 10

8
5
6
1 0.1
Di 0.1 0.01 es 4
sp 0.01 rat
ers 0.001
al 0.001 1e−04 tion 2
rat ia
es ec
Sp

Global species richness

4000

4000
3000
3000
Richness

2000
1000 2000

1 0.1
Di 0.1 0.01 es 1000
sp rat
ers 0.01 0.001
al 0.001 1e−04 tion
rat ia
es ec
Sp 0

Difference in equatorial and polar richness

12

10

10 8
Delta richness

8
6
6
4
2
4
1 0.1
Di 0.1 0.01 es
sp rat 2
ers 0.01 0.001
al 0.001 1e−04 tion
ra ia
tes ec 0
Sp

Figure 4.8. Parameter space exploration of the neutral-metabolic model. Community proper-
ties shown as a function of variation in dispersal and speciation rate parameters. (A) Effects on
mean local community species richness. (B) Effects on global metacommunity species richness.
(C) Effects on the strength of the latitudinal gradient, represented as the difference between
mean equatorial and mean polar richness. Shown are mean values of 100 model runs. After Tit-
tensor and Worm (2016).
D E V E L O P I N G A T H E O RY 11 3

4.5. INCLUDING TEMPERATURE NICHES

A final step in the development of this model framework introduces thermal toler-
ances and niches, and hence represents a departure from the strictly neutral model
in that we can now assume ecological differences among species. In a sense, we
are testing the sensitivity of previously described model results to the (very unre-
alistic) assumption of ecological equivalence by relaxing this assumption and
evaluating the effect of thermal niches on observed patterns. For some marine
species, it has been shown that we can reconstruct latitudinal ranges (Sunday et
al. 2012) and some global diversity patterns (Boyce et al. 2008; Beaugrand et al.
2013) from individual species’ thermal tolerances. Temperature niches have also
been used extensively in habitat models and were invoked in a general model
of latitudinal diversity, primarily applied to pelagic organisms (Beaugrand et al.
2013; Beaugrand 2014). Hence, we explored the effects of temperature niches on
latitudinal patterns in our model.
We assumed that all species have the same niche width (w), but different mid-
points in their thermal niche. The midpoint is given by the ambient temperature
where the species evolved. For example, assuming a ±5 K niche width, a species
that evolved in a 25°C environment is assumed to tolerate from 20 to 30°C ambi-
ent temperature. A species that evolved at 5°C may tolerate 0 to 10°C. Hence, spe-
cies are still assumed equivalent in that they all have identical thermal tolerance
ranges, but they also feature individual temperature niches in that they are adapted
to different optimal temperatures. Within each local community, species remain
equivalent, but within the metacommunity, they differ in their ability to disperse
to regions of different temperature. Species are generally assumed to be unable to
disperse outside their thermal niche. For phytoplankton, these assumptions have
detailed empirical support. As shown from an analysis of all available data on
temperature tolerance of phytoplankton strains, as well as from a mechanistic
model, the temperature for optimum growth is closely correlated with the mean
ambient temperature where the species is found (Thomas et al. 2012). Similar
results have been described for reef fish and invertebrates (Stuart-Smith et al.
2015). Furthermore, the width of the temperature niche for phytoplankton spe-
cies was independent of the mean ambient temperature of the environment where
the species occurred (Thomas et al. 2012). These empirical findings support our
simplified assumption of constant niche width. Finally, the maximum growth rate
of individual phytoplankton strains increased with mean ambient temperature,
indicating that adaptation to different temperature regimes does not override the
general metabolic relationship between temperature and growth (Thomas et al.
2012). This means that high-latitude species have similar temperature niches as
low-latitude ones, but with lower optimum temperature and lower realized growth
11 4 CHAPTER 4

rates, on average. This can be represented in our model framework by combining

thermal effects on speciation and turnover with thermal niches.
Niches are implemented in the model in a very simple manner: should an indi-
vidual attempt dispersal outside its thermal niche, it is assumed to have failed and
the individual perished. In this case, a new dispersal event is drawn at the same
location, retaining dispersal (m) and speciation (v) values (that is, whether a local or
metacommunity dispersal, and whether a new species is formed) in order to main-
tain rates equivalent to the input parameter values. This approach is implemented
equivalently in both forward-simulation and coalescence mode. In both approaches,
when a new species evolves, the midpoint of its thermal niche is set to be equivalent
to the temperature where it first appears. Thus, new species can evolve new thermal
tolerances that deviate from their parent species, enabling a gradual successive colo-
nization of species from the tropics to the poles—or vice versa.
The effects of niches on latitudinal ranges are displayed in figs. 4.9 and 4.10.
Latitudinal range here has a theoretical maximum value of 21 latitudinal bands,
corresponding to a pole-to-pole distribution in our standard 21 × 21 grid meta-
community (see fig. 4.2). In the simulations, we could see how niches constrained
the maximum latitudinal ranges of species, and how progressively larger niches
allowed species to realize greater ranges. A nonrestrictive niche of ±15 K spanned
the entire temperature gradient of 30°C and led to an identical outcome as the base
model without niches (fig. 4.9). It is very interesting, however, that the proportion
of wide-raging species (here defined as those spanning more than 3 latitudinal
bands) remained low irrespective of whether niches are present or not. The most
restrictive niche (w = ±3 K) had 99.9% of species at latitudinal ranges of 3 bands
or less, the exceptions being species that spanned the equator. This dropped to
95% at the largest niche width and for the base case of no niches at all. In other
words, at our standard parameter settings, only 1 out of every 20 species became
wide ranging, whether niches were implemented or not; most species were wiped
out before they could spread or survived only in smaller clusters of nearby com-
munities. The maximum mean latitudinal range was 10 bands, which is much
smaller than the theoretical maximum of 21 latitudinal bands (fig. 4.9).
The only case where we saw a marked effect of niches on the distribution of
species occurred at the highest dispersal rates (m = 1; see fig. 4.10), when every
dispersal event leads to colonization from a neighboring community. In this situ-
ation, which may approximate a mobile pelagic community, a larger fraction of
species occupied expanded ranges, with the proportion increasing from 3 to 30%
between a ±3 K and a ±15 K (nonrestrictive) thermal niche. Under this scenario,
we also found that at least one species extended from pole to pole, reaching the
theoretical latitudinal range maximum of 21 cells. Hence, it appears that, at least
in our model, the constraining effects of niches on species distributions were
 D E V E L O P I N G A T H E O RY 11 5

Thermal niche width 3 degrees Thermal niche width 12 degrees

500 500
Count

50 50
5 5
1 1
5 10 15 20 5 10 15 20

Thermal niche width 6 degrees Thermal niche width 15 degrees

500 500
Count

50 50
5 5
1 1
5 10 15 20 5 10 15 20

Thermal niche width 9 degrees Niches off

500 500
Count

50 50
5 5
1 1
5 10 15 20 5 10 15 20
Latitudinal range Latitudinal range

Figure 4.9. Neutral-metabolic-niche model under moderate dispersal. Shown are species lati-
tudinal range distributions at dispersal rate m = 0.1, speciation rate v = 0.01, and under different
assumed thermal niche width ranging from ±3 to ±15 K. Note logarithmic scale on the y-axis.
Few species (up to 5%) colonize large ranges, irrespective of their thermal niche width. Note
that a thermal niche width of ±15 K is nonrestrictive given a total 30 K temperature gradient, and
produced identical results to a model run with niche parameter turned off.

realized only when there was no dispersal limitation. These results were upheld
at larger community sizes, and whether we allowed niches to evolve over time or
forced them to remain fixed (results not shown).
When we further explored the effects of niches on diversity patterns across
parameter space, we found that niches can have a positive effect (~50% increase)
on local diversity (fig. 4.11), due to greater regionalization. However, this was
seen only at the highest dispersal rates, and not at lower dispersal rates, where
high regionalization exists regardless of niche settings. Little effect was seen on
global metacommunity richness, but there was an effect on the strength of the lati-
tudinal gradient at high dispersal rates (see fig. 4.11). Niches more than doubled
the steepness of the latitudinal gradient relative to the non-niche case at high
dispersal (m = 1), but not at low or moderate dispersal rates. These effects on lati-
tudinal gradient strength were seen particularly at smaller niche width (w = ±3 K),
but less so at larger niche widths (w = ±9 K, w = ±12 K) (fig. 4.12).
These results make sense when considering latitudinal range size distributions
at different niche widths w and dispersal rates m (see figs. 4.9 and 4.10). Wide-
ranging species can “flatten” the latitudinal gradient, but only when they contrib-
ute a substantial proportion of overall species richness, which occurs only at high
dispersal rates (see fig. 4.10). Under these circumstances, niches are effective
in limiting the latitudinal spread of species, and hence in maintaining a steeper
 11 6 CHAPTER 4

Thermal niche width 3 degrees Thermal niche width 12 degrees

500 500
Count

50 50
5 5
1 1
5 10 15 20 5 10 15 20

Thermal niche width 6 degrees Thermal niche width 15 degrees

500 500
Count

50 50
5 5
1 1
5 10 15 20 5 10 15 20

Thermal niche width 9 degrees Niches off

500 500
Count

50 50
5 5
1 1
5 10 15 20 5 10 15 20
Latitudinal range Latitudinal range

Figure 4.10. Neutral-metabolic-niche model under high dispersal. Shown are species latitudinal
range distributions at maximum dispersal rate m = 1, speciation rate v = 0.01, and under different
assumed thermal niche width ranging from ±3 to ±15 K. Under assumed maximum dispersal,
a larger fraction of species (up to 30%) colonizes large ranges, with higher fractions at larger
thermal niche width.

richness gradient. It is striking however, how little effect niches had at medium to
low dispersal rates (figs. 4.9 to 4.12). It is interesting in this context that most of
the empirical (Boyce et al. 2008; Thomas et al. 2012) and theoretical work (Beau-
grand et al. 2013; Beaugrand 2014) on temperature niches affecting global diver-
sity patterns has been conducted for pelagic communities that are typically very
mobile, and have little dispersal limitation. Empirically, we see clear evidence
that pelagic organisms tend to have larger ranges than their coastal counterparts
(see fig. 4.13, for example). This could potentially affect their patterns of species
richness, and partly explain the broad peaks of tropical to subtropical richness we
observe in many pelagic taxa (see chapter 2).
When we check these results with our forward-simulation model, we find very
similar patterns, but in addition we observe some transient effects of niches under
most parameter combinations. Specifically, tropical richness was elevated when
(restrictive) niches were present for 100 to 250 complete metacommunity turn-
overs, and a notable gradient appears after about 500 turnovers. Yet, over time,
these effects disappeared, and patterns at equilibrium were near-identical to the
case with no niches (results not shown).
At this point, we should clarify that of course niches can have large and impor-
tant effects on individual species, their distribution, local abundance, and extinc-
tion risk (fig. 4.14). They also have clear effects on community composition and
species identity, and may keep many species bound at the latitude at which they
 16
A 14

15 12

10
Richness
10

8
5
6
1 0.1
Di 0.1 0.01 s 4
sp e
ers 0.01
al 0.001 rat
rat 0.001 tion
es 1e.04 cia 2
e
Sp

B
4,000

4,000
3,000
Richness

3,000
2,000
1,000 2,000

1 0.1
Di
sp 0.1 0.01 s 1,000
ers 0.01 ate
al
rat 0.001
0.001
ionr
es 1e.04 ciat
e
Sp 0

12
C
10

10 8
Delta richness

8
6
6
4
2
4
1 0.1
Di 0.1 0.01 s
sp e 2
ers 0.01
al 0.001 rat
rat 0.001 tion
es 1e.04 cia
e
Sp 0

Figure 4.11. Parameter space exploration of the neutral-metabolic-niche model with assumed
thermal niche width ±3 K. (A) Effects of different speciation and dispersal rates on on mean local
community species richness. (B) Effects on global metacommunity species richness. (C) Effects
on the strength of the latitudinal gradient, represented as the difference between mean equatorial
and mean polar richness. Comparison with neutral-metabolic model without temperature niches
(see fig. 4.8) reveals only minor differences.
 11 8 CHAPTER 4

Dispersal rate = 0.1 Dispersal rate = 1

14 14
3 degree niche

12 12

Local richness

Local richness
10 10

Latitude

Latitude
8 8
6 6
4 4
2 2
0.0 7.5 15.0 0.0 7.5 15.0
Mean local Mean local
richness richness

14 14
9 degree niche

12 12
Local richness

Local richness
10 10
Latitude

Latitude
8 8
6 6
4 4
2 2
0.0 7.5 15.0 0.0 7.5 15.0
Mean local Mean local
richness richness

14 14
12 degree niche

12
Local richness

12
Local richness

10
Latitude

Latitude
10
8 8
6 6
4 4
2 2
0.0 7.5 15.0 0.0 7.5 15.0
Mean local Mean local
richness richness

Figure 4.12. Effects of changes in thermal niche width and dispersal rate on global gradients in
species richness. Shown are metacommunities with the same 30 K temperature gradient and the
base model speciation rate v = 0.01. At moderate dispersal rate (m = 0.1), thermal niches are not
affecting gradients of species richness, whereas high dispersal leads to higher richness overall,
flatter gradients, and more pronounced latitudinal gradients at reduced niche widths.

originated, as seen in the fossil record (Jablonski et al. 2013). From the macro-
ecological perspective, however, and abstracting from species identities, niches
appeared to have limited effect on the strength of global richness gradients, except
at very high dispersal. Our model results suggest that even moderate dispersal
constraints will have a similar effect in constraining most (but certainly not all)
species to their original habitat (see fig. 4.9).
With respect to species’ ranges, we also found that the distribution patterns
that emerged from the model tended to support Rapoport’s rule, which states that
the latitudinal ranges of plants and animals are generally smaller at lower than at
 Shark range sizes

8e+08

6e+08
Km2
4e+08

2e+08

0e+00
Coastal Oceanic

Shark temperature range (max – min)

30

25

20
Degrees C

15

10

0
Coastal Oceanic

Shark mean temperature

30

25

20
Degrees C

15

10

5
Coastal Oceanic

Figure 4.13. Realized ranges and thermal niches in coastal versus oceanic sharks. Shown are box-
plots of the ranges and temperature requirements of all known shark species, contrasting coastal
and oceanic species. Oceanic sharks have both larger ranges and realized thermal niches, but mean
temperature preference similar to coastal species. After range data from Lucifora et al. (2011).
 120 CHAPTER 4

No niches Niches

16 16

Local abundance
Local abundance
12 12
1 community
turnover 8 8
6 6
4 4
2 2

16 16

Local abundance

Local abundance
12 12
10 community
turnovers 8 8
6 6
4 4
2 2

16 16

Local abundance
Local abundance

12 12
50 community
8 8
turnovers 6
6
4 4
2 2

16 16

Local abundance
Local abundance

12 12
100 community
8 8
turnovers
6 6
4 4
2 2

Figure 4.14. Effects of thermal niches on individual species. The distribution of two example
species is shown over time. It is evident how narrow (3K) temperature niches can constrain the
latitudinal spread of a species, its local and global abundance, as well as extinction risk.

higher latitudes (Stevens 1989). Specifically, we saw larger latitudinal ranges

for higher latitude species emerge in the model with and without niches when
there was also a thermal effect on speciation rate (fig. 4.15). It is noteworthy
that this well-documented natural phenomenon could emerge here from a purely
neutral model (case with no niches) and did not require previously hypothesized
external forces such as seasonality or ice ages as additional explanations. Based
on these findings, we propose a new explanation for Rapoport’s rule, in that
it may emerge from higher relative speciation rates at low latitudes leading to
 D E V E L O P I N G A T H E O RY 121

No niches Niches
2.0 2.0
Grand mean latitudinal range size

1.5 1.5

1.0 1.0

0.5 0.5

0.0 0.0
5 10 15 20 5 10 15 20
Latitude strip Latitude strip

Figure 4.15. Rapoport’s rule emerging from a neutral model. Average latitudinal range size is
plotted versus latitude in a neutral-metabolic model (A) without niches or (B) with ±3K thermal
niches. Larger ranges consistently emerge at higher latitudes, possibly as a consequence of lower
community richness at those latitudes.

increased numbers of species able to coexist and compete for limiting resources,
and hence limiting the range sizes of those same species relative to their high-
latitude counterparts.
In conclusion, results emerged from our model that suggest that the effects of
temperature on speciation rate and the effects of habitat area and productivity on
community size matter most for the equilibrium species richness gradient. These
mechanisms correspond to the evolutionary speed and more-individuals hypoth-
eses discussed in chapter 3. Temperature effects on species distribution were also
addressed via thermal niches, which had surprisingly little effect on patterns of
species richness at the global scale. Niches appeared to have an effect mostly at
high dispersal rates, as may be found, for example, in pelagic communities and for
widely dispersing species groups such as seabirds, whales, and possibly bacteria.
Clearly, niche-width constraints become influential when species have the ability to
move about widely and could be more far-ranging were they not limited by thermal
constraints. It is under these conditions that we observed effects of niches on the
latitudinal gradient, which became steeper when small niches were imposed at high
dispersal rates (see fig. 4.12). Overall, however, temperature-driven gradients in
speciation rates appeared much more influential than dispersal constraints or niches
in determining global richness patterns, at least through the lens of our model. This
may partly explain why even species with minimal dispersal constraints can show
strong patterns and gradients of biodiversity (Sunagawa et al. 2015).
122 CHAPTER 4

4.6. DISCUSSION AND COMPARISON WITH OTHER THEORY

The body of theory that is developed here represents only one of many possible
perspectives on global biodiversity. At one end of the modeling spectrum, purely
statistical models that capture empirical patterns typically perform best in pre-
dicting species distribution and diversity (Kreft and Jetz 2007; Tittensor et al.
2010; Belmaker and Jetz 2011; Tisseuil et al. 2013), but provide little mechanistic
understanding. At the other end, process-based models provide better understand-
ing, but tend to have poorer predictive capacity (Rohde 1992; Beaugrand et al.
2013; Brown 2014).
Here, we have attempted to merge these perspectives by reviewing statistical
associations between observed diversity and environmental drivers (chapters 2 and
3) and hence building a solid empirical basis. We then introduced environmental
factors that had gathered the most empirical support into a spatial metacommunity
model to assess their effects on the evolution of diversity gradients. Our model is
built on, and combines, three of the most prominent ecological theories—namely,
neutral, metabolic, and niche theories. The model that emerged from these efforts
captures both evolutionary (speciation, extinction) and ecological (dispersal and
individual species-environment relationships) dynamics.
Our model may also help to reconcile a long-standing dispute between sup-
porters of niche-based and neutral perspectives. This dispute has been cast as an
example of a more general clash between two philosophical perspectives: realism
and instrumentalism, respectively (Wennekes et al. 2012). In the realist’s view,
a true model will always perform well, precisely because it is true. In contrast,
instrumentalists emphasize the predictive value and other uses of a model; the
literal truth of the model is less of an issue (Wennekes et al. 2012). Hence, in
the niche-neutrality debate, supporters of niche models critique the fact that the
key assumption of ecological equivalence in neutral models is clearly unrealis-
tic, while proponents of neutral models are more interested in their predictive
capacity (Rosindell et al. 2012). Using art as a metaphor, Wennekes et al. (2012)
suggest that neutral theory can provide only broad sketches, while niche theory
provides beautiful detail, but leaves much of the canvas blank. They argue that
a combined approach would be the most useful way to go about “painting the
image,” and that this may also be the only way to end up with a reasonable pic-
ture. Our theory and model attempt to offer such a combined perspective in the
context of a global metacommunity.
In the literature, there is a continuum of purely niche to purely neutral models,
for which empirical support falls somewhere in the middle (Gravel et al. 2006;
Leibold and McPeek 2006; Adler et al. 2007; Gravel et al. 2011). Some mod-
els have attempted to incorporate aspects of both neutral and niche theory, but
D E V E L O P I N G A T H E O RY 123

typically applied at the local community scale and not spatially explicit (Gravel
et al. 2006; Leibold and McPeek 2006; Adler et al. 2007). Such models often
find that neutral dynamics become more important at high diversity and at larger
scales (Chisholm and Pacala 2010), which is relevant with respect to our ques-
tions about large-scale biodiversity patterns.
Empirical studies have likewise found evidence for both neutral processes
(ecological drift) and environmental filtering via niches to explain community
structure. For example, a large-scale study conducted along a meridional transect
of the Atlantic (50 degrees North to 50 degrees South) suggested that phytoplank-
ton communities were slightly more determined by niche segregation (24%), than
by dispersal limitation and ecological drift (17%). Notably, in 60% of the sur-
veyed communities, the assumption of neutrality in species’ abundance distribu-
tions could not be rejected (Chust et al. 2012).
Plankton communities also served as model systems in a previous attempt to
reconstruct global diversity patterns from first principles (Beaugrand et al. 2013).
In that study, hypothetical “pseudospecies” were randomly assembled along a
latitudinal temperature gradient. Purely by chance, more species assembled
toward the center of the temperature domain, in a niche analogy to the spatial
mid-domain effect (see also chapter 3). Accounting for assumed loss of species
at higher latitudes owing to long-term climatic variability (such as ice ages), a
gradient that is broadly representative of those observed in many pelagic groups
could be constructed (Beaugrand et al. 2013; Beaugrand 2014). The question
that emerges from this work is whether niches are indeed necessary to explain
observed diversity patterns. We observed that their effect is mostly small in our
model, because most species tended to have small latitudinal ranges regardless
of assumed niche width constraints (see fig. 4.9). In our fully neutral model, it
appeared that niches were not a major driver of species distributions, except
when there was no other limitation to dispersal. In other words, temperature
niches appeared here to be more a consequence rather than a root cause of the
eco-evolutionary processes that shape global biodiversity patterns. We see these
results as a starting point to dive deeper and to further explore the rich vari-
ety of diversity patterns found in different realms—namely, terrestrial, coastal,
pelagic, and deep-sea environments. This is the topic of our next chapter, where
we attempt to confront our theory with the existing data on species richness pat-
terns in the ocean and on land.
 CHAPTER FIVE

Predicting Global Biodiversity

Patterns from Theory

In the previous chapter, we developed a global theory of biodiversity incorporat-

ing gradients in ambient temperature and habitat area or productivity. We showed
that a metacommunity model implementation of our theory can reproduce first-
order patterns of declining species richness from the tropics to the poles in an ide-
alized cylindrical ocean. Low-dispersal scenarios were more likely to reproduce
steep latitudinal declines with a tropical peak, such as those seen in coastal and
terrestrial communities, whereas high metacommunity dispersal rates produced
flatter gradients, such as those observed in many pelagic communities. The relax-
ation of our neutrality assumption and the inclusion of thermal niches had little
effect on latitudinal richness patterns except at very high dispersal rates.
In this chapter, we test our theory in a more realistic setting by fitting the
neutral-metabolic metacommunity model (chapter 4) to a global equal-area grid
(chapter 2) with a more realistic spatial structure and empirically observed gra-
dients in temperature, habitat, and productivity variables that were identified as
potential drivers in chapter 3. The rationale here is to explore whether the commu-
nities that evolve in a simple theoretical model can reproduce observed patterns
of species richness in the real world, and reconcile the contrasting patterns seen
in coastal, pelagic, deep-sea, and terrestrial habitats. Ultimately, we aim to assess
the extent to which our theory and its model implementation can capture the pro-
cesses that structure spatial patterns of biodiversity at the global scale.
Our core assumption is that the fundamental ecological and evolutionary
mechanisms by which biodiversity is generated should be consistent across
realms and taxa, but with the unique patterns in each resulting from different
environmental constraints in different habitats. In chapter 3, we showed empiri-
cally that temperature is the primary environmental variable that correlates with
most global richness patterns, with the exception of some endotherms and cold-
water specialists in polar waters and the deep sea. Other important environmental
predictors capture habitat area and productivity; however, they differed among
realms and species groups. They included (1) coastline length in coastal species,
PREDICTING GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY 125

(2) oceanographic fronts for pelagic groups, (3) export production for deep-sea
taxa, and (4) water availability on land, all of which influence habitat availabil-
ity or productivity, and hence community size. Empirically, we have found that
these habitat features, in conjunction with temperature, correlate with and help
to predict observed patterns of species richness (chapter 3). Mechanistically, this
is likely the case because greater habitat area or productivity allows for higher
numbers of individuals to coexist in a given habitat, and hence larger commu-
nity size, larger populations sizes, and reduced extinction rates (Wright 1983;
Gaston 2000). Empirical observations strongly support the notion that a larger
area of shoreline supports more individuals (Abele and Patton 1976; Connor et
al. 2000), frontal areas sustain higher densities of pelagic animals (Haney 1986;
Olson et al. 1994), areas of high export production support larger communities
in the deep sea (Haedrich and Rowe 1977; Rex and Etter 2010), and wetter areas
allow for more biomass to develop on land (Silvertown et al. 1994; Kreft and
Jetz 2007), all else being equal. By incorporating these habitat features into a
metacommunity model with realistic spatial structure, and scaling them to the
number of individuals in our model communities, we attempt to reproduce broad
patterns of biodiversity observed in these four major habitats. Much like in the
previous chapter, we do try to keep the model framework as simple and trac-
table as possible, or “instrumental” rather than “realistic” sensu (Wennekes et al.
2012). Time steps, community sizes, and speciation rates as implemented in our
model, for example, remain abstractions and are not directly comparable to the
real world. We also do not employ a formal statistical model selection framework
to optimize model fit to data. Rather, to aid in our understanding, we explore a set
of base parameters that match the data reasonably well, and then we allow these
parameters to vary such that we can explore the sensitivity of model predictions
and their fit to observed data.

5.1. FITTING THEORETICAL PREDICTIONS TO EMPIRICAL DATA

To facilitate the comparison of theoretical predictions with empirical richness

data, we scaled our global metacommunity model to the same 880 × 880 km
equal-area grid used in chapters 2 and 3. Across this global grid, 325 cells con-
tained coastal areas, 526 were pelagic, 500 deep sea (<2000 m), and 205 on land.
We included a cell, for example as coastal or deep sea, if it had at least 10%
of its area covered by that respective realm. Every cell then equated to a local
community. The basic local community size was assumed to be J = 16 individu-
als, as in our base model, but this number was allowed to increase in relation to
changes in habitat area or productivity (see the following). Metacommunity size
126 CHAPTER 5

JM was variable, and a product of the number of cells in each realm (between
205 and 526) and the number of individuals per community (between 16 and
240). As in chapter 4, we assumed that dispersal occurs only between adjacent
cells (local communities), and that cells outside that particular realm would block
dispersal. Hence, terrestrial communities could not disperse across marine cells,
coastal communities could not disperse across terrestrial or noncoastal marine
cells, and so forth. The Moore neighborhood of each local community therefore
varied based on the geography of the grid cell. Further, we assumed that there was
no dispersal through the Suez and Panama canals, which could act as dispersal
pathways between the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific. As these pathways were opened
relatively recently, we surmised that they may not yet have influenced global rich-
ness patterns in a major way. When we tested the sensitivity of predicted richness
patterns to this particular assumption (by opening or closing canals), we found
little effect (results not shown). We explored the land, coastal, pelagic, and deep-
sea communities separately in our analysis by running ensembles of simulations
for each realm.
The effects of temperature on turnover and speciation rates were parameter-
ized using metabolic theory, and were exactly analogous to chapter 4, but driven
by the observed global (surface) temperature field in both latitude and longitude,
rather than the hypothetical 0 to 30 degree gradient that was assumed in chapter 4.
Global sea and land surface temperature data were taken from published sources
as documented in chapter 3.
While the relationships between temperature, metabolic rate, community
turnover, and speciation rate are based on exact mathematical expressions, there
is no analogous expression that enables us to generally parameterize a relation-
ship between empirical measures of habitat area or productivity and the number
of individuals in a local community. While an approximately linear or log-linear
relationship is empirically founded, the slope of that relationship may be vari-
able and has so far been assessed only over small spatial scales (Connor et al.
2000). Therefore, we scaled the effects of habitat area, productivity, and moisture
(on land) in a linear fashion to the number of individuals in a local community,
analogous to chapter 4. This reflects the empirically observed linear individ-
uals-area relationship for whole faunas (Connor et al. 2000).The relationship
between the number of individuals and habitat area may alternatively be derived
theoretically through consideration of two other well-documented patterns: the
species-area relationship and the species-individuals relationship (Peet 1974).
These two relationships, when combined, give rise to an individuals-area rela-
tionship. However, given the wide range of observed slopes values for species-
area and species-individuals relationships (Hillebrand et al. 2001; Drakare et al.
2006), the slope of the relationship between individuals and area will also vary
widely. We further note that these relationships may change at large scales, as
PREDICTING GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY 127

for example in the species-area slope, which was shown to be scale dependent
(Crawley and Harral 2001).
We conclude that there is both theoretical and empirical justification for a linear
relationship between the number of individuals and habitat area, but that the slope
value of that relationship is unknown. This is even more salient for measures of
productivity, which likewise should increase the density of individuals per unit
area, possibly in a linear fashion, but with unknown slope. One study suggests
that at global scales, the relationship between species (as opposed to individuals)
and energy is steeper than that between species and area (Hurlbert and Jetz 2010).
We thus explored a range of possible scaling relationships, by varying the slope of
the linear function relating empirical habitat and productivity variables (coastline
length, frontal zones, export productivity, or moisture respectively) to the number
of individuals in a local model community, treating this slope as a parameter to
be estimated. We normalized the smallest value of each empirical habitat and
productivity variable to one, with linear scaling to higher values, and estimated
the sensitivity of model predictions to different slope values. We explored a wide
range of scaling relationships, but generally found that a two- to fivefold increase
in community size with increasing habitat area or productivity provides the best
fit to data (see figs. 5.1 to 5.7). Once we identified an approximate optimal scaling
of community sizes, we explored the sensitivity of model predictions to varying
dispersal rate (1 ≤ m ≤ 0.001), and speciation rate (0.1 ≤ v ≤ 0.0001), as in chapter
4. All parameter combinations were run 100 times in coalescence mode. We took
the mean community values across the 100 replicate runs to average across the
stochastic variation inherent in these simulations.
In the following, we separate our model prediction exercise between coastal,
pelagic, deep-sea, and land species, because these major environmental realms
each showed distinct patterns of global biodiversity (chapter 2). We aim to
explore similarities and differences between relative richness patterns (normal-
ized to maximum value), and do not attempt to estimate absolute values of species
richness. We further explore model predictions for endotherms versus ectotherms,
because their metabolic rates may have different sensitivity to ambient tempera-
ture. Importantly, we fit only to observed richness data, and do not use any envi-
ronmentally extrapolated data points, to prevent circularity of reasoning. Finally,
we assess under which conditions the inclusion of temperature niches improves
model predictions of realized biodiversity patterns.

5.1.1. Coastal Biodiversity

First, we used the model to predict a generalized biodiversity pattern of coastal

ectotherm species, which was derived as a normalized composite of observed
128 CHAPTER 5

coral, bivalve, mangrove, seagrass, ophiuroid, cone snail, cephalopod, coastal

fish, and coastal shark richness (fig. 5.1; results for single taxa can be seen in table
5.1). We did not include the pinnipeds, owing to their endothermy and special-
ized cold-adaptation, and made predictions for coastal cells only. When we ran
our metacommunity model on this coastal grid (v = 0.001, m = 0.1), a null-model
effect was examined first, which was a base-parameter model run that included the
observed spatial structure of present ocean basins but ignored the effects of tem-
perature or community size (that is, a basic neutral metacommunity model). Such
a null-model correlated positively, but weakly, with observed richness (r = 0.37,
t-test P < 0.001). This fit is entirely due to the spatial structure of today’s oceans,
including connectivity and continental dispersal barriers as well as edge effects in
polar regions. The relative importance of other processes can be assessed against
such a null-model.
When we added the effect of observed surface temperature on speciation rates
to this model, the predicted global richness pattern became much more similar to
the empirical data (r = 0.70, P < 0.0001), except slightly overpredicting diversity
in the central and eastern Pacific.
When including the effects of both temperature and coastline length on
community size in our model, the fit with observed data improved (r = 0.77,
P < 0.0001; fig. 5.2A), but not dramatically. Scaling the effects of coastline length
to community size by a factor of 3 over the baseline model provided the optimal
fit (fig. 5.2B). Everything else being equal, longer coastlines will harbor more
individuals, influencing community size, but also tend to display larger habitat
complexity due to the inclusion of bays and islands, for example. In contrast,
inclusion of net primary productivity (NPP) as an alternative variable that influ-
ences community size provided a weaker prediction than the effect of coastline
length (fig. 5.2B). Clearly, the majority of the observed pattern related to tempera-
ture variation and its effects on evolutionary rates, with habitat area (and possibly
habitat complexity) playing an additional role.
While our theoretical model captured the main global features observed for
coastal ectotherm richness (see fig. 5.1A,B), it did not predict the steepness of
observed gradients in normalized richness as well. Most areas were slightly over-
predicted, while species richness across the Indonesian-Australian Archipelago
hotspot was underpredicted by our model (see fig. 5.1C). We speculate that high
habitat and trophic complexity in that hotspot may further amplify diversity in a
way that is not captured by a simple measure of coastline length. Species interac-
tions and coevolution, as well as speciation by reproductive isolation in dynamic
and structurally complex coral reef habitats may provide additional mechanisms
for diversification not captured by our model (Bellwood et al. 2012). This is the
“diversity begets diversity” argument, which does not explain the existence of a
 PREDICTING GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY 129

Table 5.1. Model Fit to Global Biodiversity Data

Latitudinal Longitudinal
Habitat Species group peak Accuracy peak Accuracy r P

Coastal All ectotherms Tropical Yes East Asia Yes 0.77 < 0.0001
Coastal Stony corals Tropical Yes East Asia Yes 0.61 < 0.0001
Coastal Brittle stars Tropical Yes East Asia Yes 0.70 < 0.0001
Coastal Bivalves Tropical Yes East Asia Yes 0.71 < 0.0001
Coastal Cone snails Tropical Yes East Asia Yes 0.63 < 0.0001
Coastal Cephalopods* Subtropical No East Asia Yes 0.57 < 0.0001
Coastal Mangroves Tropical Yes East Asia Yes 0.69 < 0.0001
Coastal Seagrasses Subtropical No East Asia Yes 0.48 < 0.0001
Coastal Fish Tropical Yes East Asia Yes 0.70 < 0.0001
Coastal Sharks Subtropical No East Asia Yes 0.36 < 0.0001
Coastal Pinnipeds Polar No Various No –0.39 < 0.0001

Pelagic All ectotherms Subtropical Yes Various Yes 0.87 < 0.0001
Pelagic Foraminifera Subtropical No Various Yes 0.85 < 0.0001
Pelagic Euphausiids Subtropical No Various Yes 0.78 < 0.0001
Pelagic Squids* Temperate No Various Yes 0.20 < 0.0001
Pelagic Tuna and Tropical- Yes Various Yes 0.64 < 0.0001
billfish subtropical
Pelagic Sharks Subtropical No East Asia Yes 0.59 < 0.0001
Pelagic Cetaceans Temperate No Various Yes 0.70 < 0.0001
Pelagic Seabirds Temperate- No Various Yes −0.14 < 0.01
polar

Deep sea All ectotherms Temperate Yes Various Yes 0.24 < 0.01
Deep sea Brittle stars Temperate Yes Various Yes 0.24 < 0.01

Land All ectotherms Tropical Yes Various Yes 0.70 < 0.0001
Land Vascular plants Tropical Yes Various Yes 0.77 < 0.0001
Land Amphibians Tropical Yes South America No 0.64 < 0.0001
Land Reptiles* Subtropical No Central No 0.32 < 0.0001
America,
Africa, Asia
Land Birds Tropical Yes South No 0.59 < 0.0001
America, Asia
Land Mammals Tropical Yes South Yes 0.62 < 0.0001
America,
Africa, Asia

Success
60% 88% 92%
rate

Note: Shown are the summary results of fitting neutral-metabolic metacommunity model runs to empirical
data for aggregate groups (see also figs. 5.1 to 5.8) and fits of the same model for individual taxa. The strength
and significance of the correlation is indicated by correlation coefficient r and associated P-value. Accuracy
of predicted versus observed latitudinal and longitudinal peaks in species richness is noted. Limited global
sampling or limited species coverage is marked with an asterisk (*).
130 CHAPTER 5

A Coastal ectotherms

1.00

Latitude
0.75

0.51

0.26

0.02
0.05 0.18 0.32
Mean richness
B Model projection

1.00

Latitude
0.81

0.62

0.43

0.25
0.32 0.53 0.73
Mean richness
C Residuals
0.85

0.58
Latitude

0.31

0.03

−0.24
0.25 0.30 0.36
Mean richness

Figure 5.1. Predicting coastal biodiversity. Shown are (A) observed richness patterns for all
coastal ectotherm species combined, and (B) predicted global richness patterns derived from
a neutral-metabolic metacommunity model (m = 0.1, v = 0.01) involving the effects of sea sur-
face temperature on evolutionary speed and the effects of coastline length on community size.
(C) Residual variation plot displays spatial structure in the fit between theoretical model predic-
tions and empirical data. Note that only cells with both model prediction and empirical data
have been plotted.

gradient, but may explain why some of the gradients are steeper than expected by
metabolic theory alone (Brown 2014).
When exploring the sensitivity of theoretical model predictions to changes in
speciation and dispersal parameters (see fig. 5.2C), we found moderate sensitivity
to variation in speciation rates, but low sensitivity to changes in dispersal rates,
except at very low speciation, which produced a flat diversity pattern that did not
 A Correlation
1.0

Modeled diversity
0.8

0.6

0.4
r = 0.77
0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00
Empirical diversity
B Coastal ectotherms
1.0
Coastline length + SST
NPP + SST
0.8 Coastline length only
NPP only

0.6
Correlation

0.4

0.2

0.0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Length scaling
C
0.8

0.7

0.8 0.6

0.6
Correlation

0.5
0.4
0.4
0.2
0.3
0.0
1 0.1
Di 0.1 0.01 0.2
sp
ers 0.01 es
al 0.001
rat 0.001 0.0001 n rat 0.1
io
es iat
p ec 0.0
S

Figure 5.2. Sensitivity of predictions for coastal biodiversity. (A) The best model fit is derived
by the inclusion of metabolic effects of sea surface temperature (SST) on evolutionary speed and
the effects of coastline length on community size. (B) Sensitivity of model predictions to different
correlates of community size (coastline length or net primary productivity) is shown at a range
of scaling factors. (C) Sensitivity of model results to variation in speciation and dispersal rates.
132 CHAPTER 5

fit well to observed data for any species group. Moderate speciation and dispersal
rates (m = 0.1, v = 0.001), as used in most of our simulations, produced the best fit
to the observed data, with low sensitivity to modest changes in these parameters
(see fig. 5.2C).

5.1.2. Pelagic Biodiversity

Pelagic species were combined to derive a normalized average richness pattern

for tuna and billfish, pelagic sharks, squids, euphausiids, and foraminifera (fig.
5.3; results for single taxa can be seen in table 5.1), but excluding cetaceans due
to their endothermy. Similar to the coastal species, the corresponding pelagic
richness pattern was predicted surprisingly well by the effects of temperature
alone (r = 0.77, P < 0.0001), an effect that was improved by including the effect
of pelagic frontal habitats on community size (r = 0.87, P < 0.0001; fig. 5.4A).
Again, scaling the effects of habitat to include a twofold increase in community
size provided the best fit to empirical data, inclusion of NPP gave a slightly poorer
fit to the data, and exclusion of sea surface temperature (SST) effects provided
a poor fit overall (fig. 5.4B). It is interesting to note that the primary mecha-
nisms—that is, a large effect of temperature on evolutionary speed and smaller
effects of habitat on community size—appear similar between coastal and pelagic
ectotherms despite contrasting global richness patterns (see figs. 5.1 and 5.3). In
contrast to the coastal model, however, the pelagic model predicted species rich-
ness most accurately in tropical regions, while underpredicting some temperate
and overpredicting some polar regions, although not dramatically (fig. 5.3C). We
note that the fit from a process-based neutral-metabolic model is almost as good
as that from a purely statistical model that includes more free parameters and
explanatory variables (Tittensor et al. 2010). Predictions were sensitive to low
speciation rates and high dispersal rates, but stable over much of the explored
parameter space (fig. 5.4C).

5.1.3. Deep-Sea Biodiversity

Deep-sea ophiuroids represented the single deep-sea taxon with appropriate global
sampling. Their global richness pattern was predicted by the effects of export pro-
ductivity, as scaled to community size in our theoretical model (fig. 5.5), but with
a modest overall fit (r = 0.24, P < 0.01; fig. 5.6A). Including the effects of deep-
water temperature made the prediction slightly worse (fig. 5.6B), and did not give
much contrast, as temperatures are uniformly cold (2–4°C) below 2000 m depth.
PREDICTING GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY 133

A Pelagic ectotherms

1.00

0.76

Latitude
0.52

0.28

0.03
0.11 0.36 0.61
Mean richness
B Model projection

1.00

0.81

Latitude
0.62

0.43

0.24
0.41 0.57 0.74
Mean richness
C Residuals
0.50

0.29
Latitude

0.08

−0.13

−0.33
0.06 0.16 0.27
Mean richness

Figure 5.3. Predicting pelagic biodiversity. Shown are (A) observed richness patterns for all
pelagic ectotherm species combined, and (B) predicted global richness patterns derived from a
neutral-metabolic metacommunity model (m = 0.1, v = 0.01) involving the effects of sea surface
temperature (SST) on evolutionary speed and pelagic frontal habitats (measured as SST slope)
on community size. (C) Residual variation plot displays spatial structure in the fit between theo-
retical model predictions and empirical data. Note that only cells with both model prediction and
empirical data have been plotted.

Model predictions of observed richness tended to improve at moderate dispersal

and low speciation rates, and were somewhat weaker at low dispersal and high
speciation rate (fig. 5.6C). There was little pattern in the residuals, suggesting that
an average pattern was captured by our theoretical model, but that there is signifi-
cant spatially random variation that cannot be readily explained.
 A Correlation
1.0

Modeled diversity
0.8

0.6

0.4
r = 0.87
0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00
Empirical diversity
B Pelagic ectotherms
1.0
SST + NPP
SST + SST fronts
0.8 NPP only
SST fronts only

0.6
Correlation

0.4

0.2

0.0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Length scaling
C
0.9

0.8

0.7
0.8
0.6
Correlation

0.6
0.4 0.5
0.2 0.4
0.0
1 0.1 0.3
Di 0.1 0.01 s
sp
ers ate 0.2
nr
0.01 0.001
al io
rat iat
es 0.001 0.0001 ec 0.1
Sp

Figure 5.4. Sensitivity of predictions for pelagic biodiversity. (A) The best model fit is derived
by the inclusion of metabolic effects of sea surface temperature (SST) on evolutionary speed and
pelagic frontal habitats (measured as SST slope) on community size. (B) Sensitivity of model pre-
dictions to different correlates of community size (SST slope or net primary productivity) at a range
of scaling factors. (C) Sensitivity of model results to variation in speciation and dispersal rates.
PREDICTING GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY 135

A Empirical data
1.00

0.76

Latitude
0.53

0.29

0.06
0.17 0.33 0.49
Mean richness
B Model projection
1.00

0.88

Latitude
0.77

0.65

0.54
0.60 0.74 0.88
Mean richness
C Residuals
0.84

0.53
Latitude

0.22

−0.10

−0.41
0.28 0.40 0.53
Mean richness

Figure 5.5. Predicting deep-sea biodiversity. Shown are (A) observed richness patterns for
deep-sea ophiuroids, and (B) predicted global richness patterns derived from a neutral-metabolic
metacommunity model (m = 0.1, v = 0.01) involving the effects of export productivity on com-
munity size. (C) Residual variation plot displays spatial structure in the fit between theoreti-
cal model predictions and empirical data. Note that only cells with both model prediction and
empirical data have been plotted.

5.1.6. Terrestrial Biodiversity

Normalized richness patterns for vascular plants, amphibians, and reptiles were
combined to examine model fit for terrestrial ectotherm species (fig. 5.7; results
for single taxa can be seen in table 5.1). Mammals and birds were excluded due to
their endothermy and are treated separately later. Adapting our neutral-metabolic
 A Correlation
1.0

Modeled diversity
0.9

0.8

0.7

0.6
r = 0.24
0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00
Empirical diversity
B Deep-sea ectotherms
1.0
SST + XPP
XPP only
0.8

0.6
Correlation

0.4

0.2

0.0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Length scaling
C

0.25

0.25
0.20
Correlation

0.20

0.15
0.15
0.10

1 0.1
Di 0.1 0.01 0.10
sp
ers 0.01 at es
al 0.001 nr
rat tio
es 0.001 1e−04 e cia
Sp 0.05

Figure 5.6. Sensitivity of predictions for deep-sea biodiversity. (A) The best model fit is derived
by the inclusion of export production (XPP) on community size. (B) Sensitivity of model pre-
dictions to the inclusion of temperature or XPP at a range of scaling factors. (C) Sensitivity of
model results to variation in speciation and dispersal rates.
PREDICTING GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY 137

metacommunity model to the land required including the effects of moisture,

expressed as the average number of wet days per year. Community size was
scaled to this variable, predicting that wetter places support more individuals
and larger communities of land plants and other ectotherms, and hence more spe-
cies, all else being equal. We found that together with the effects of temperature,
this provided a surprisingly good prediction of the observed richness pattern at
a global scale (figs. 5.7 and 5.8A). Some species-rich hotspots in the Andes or
in South Asia were underpredicted (fig. 5.7C), possibly due to the added effects
of elevated habitat complexity and elevation range found there (Kreft and Jetz
2007; Belmaker and Jetz 2011; Weigelt et al. 2016). Despite these local residu-
als, however, the overall predicted pattern fit the observed richness data surpris-
ingly well (r = 0.70, P < 0.0001), with an even better fit achieved for plants only
(r = 0.77, P < 0.0001; see table 5.1), which represent the most well-sampled
taxon, and maybe most strongly relate to the effects of moisture (wet days), as
implemented in this model. The improvement of model fit by including the num-
ber of wet days was substantial over the temperature-only model (fig. 5.8B), and
maintained across a range of scaling relationships. Predicted patterns and their
fit to empirical data were not very sensitive to variation in parameters, with the
exception of low speciation rates, which provide a low fit due to low equilibrium
richness overall (fig. 5.8C).

5.2. ECTOTHERMS VERSUS ENDOTHERMS

As metabolic theory is thought to apply specifically to ectotherms, we analyzed

endothermic mammals and birds separately. Somewhat surprisingly, we found
that the effects of surface temperature as implemented in the model also needed
to be invoked to explain endotherm biodiversity patterns. Cetacean richness, for
example, was quite well predicted by the effects of SST as implemented in our
theoretical model (r = 0.52, P < 0.001). This prediction was improved upon by
adding the effects of NPP or fronts on community size, with fronts being the better
predictor of community size (fig. 5.9A). When only the effects of fronts or NPP
were implemented, these models predicted the observed data slightly better than
the SST-only model. However, the best model included both SST and fronts, simi-
lar to the pelagic ectotherms, but with a weaker fit to the observed data (r = 0.70,
P < 0.0001). Model residuals were clustered in coastal areas and in the Southern
Ocean, where richness was underpredicted by our theoretical model, relative to
observed data (fig. 5.9A).
The cetaceans’ mammalian cousins on land provided an interesting point of
comparison (see fig. 5.9B). Again, we were surprised to find that the effects of
138 CHAPTER 5

A Land ectotherms

1.00

Latitude
0.75

0.50

0.26

0.01
0.05 0.16 0.26
Mean richness
B Model projection

1.00

Latitude
0.81

0.63

0.44

0.26 0.00 0.40 0.79

Mean richness
C Residuals
0.58

0.32
Latitude

0.07

−0.18

−0.44
0.00 0.20 0.40
Mean richness

Figure 5.7. Predicting terrestrial biodiversity. Shown are (A) observed richness patterns for
land ectotherms (land plants, amphibians, reptiles), and (B) predicted global richness patterns
derived from a neutral-metabolic metacommunity model (m = 0.1, v = 0.01) involving the effects
of temperature on evolutionary speed and the effects of the number of wet days on community
size. (C) Residual variation plot displays spatial structure in the fit between theoretical model
predictions and empirical data. Note that only cells with both model prediction and empirical
data have been plotted.

temperature on metabolic rate as implemented in our theoretical model provided

a reasonable prediction of the observed data. Community size was scaled to the
number of wet days, or alternatively to the rate of NPP, which provided a mar-
ginally better fit (not shown). Interestingly, most negative residuals were found
in mountainous regions, where the model consistently underpredicted species
 A Correlation
1.0

Modeled diversity
0.8

0.6

0.4
r = 0.70
0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00
Empirical diversity
B Land ectotherms
1.0
Temp + wet days
Wet days only
0.8

0.6
Correlation

0.4

0.2

0.0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Length scaling
C

0.70

0.65

0.6 0.60
Correlation

0.4 0.55

0.2
0.50
0.0
1 0.1 0.45
Di 0.1 0.01
sp
ers 0.01 0.001 rates 0.40
al
rat 0.001 0.0001 a t ion
es i
ec 0.35
Sp

Figure 5.8. Sensitivity of predictions for terrestrial biodiversity. (A) The best model fit is
derived by the inclusion of metabolic effects of surface temperature on evolutionary speed and
the effects of the number of wet days on community size. (B) Sensitivity of model predictions to
the inclusion of wet days and temperature at a range of scaling factors (C) Sensitivity of model
results to variation in speciation and dispersal rates.
 A Cetaceans

1.00

0.76

Latitude
0.51

0.27

0.02
0.29 0.56 0.83
Mean richness
Model projection

1.00

0.81

Latitude
0.62

0.43

0.24
0.41 0.57 0.74
Mean richness
Residuals

0.41

0.23
Latitude
0.06

−0.12

−0.30 0.03 0.08 0.13

Mean richness
Correlation
1.0
Modeled diversity

0.8

0.6

0.4
r = 0.70

0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00

Empirical diversity

Figure 5.9. Predicting biodiversity of endotherms. Shown are observed and predicted global
richness patterns for (A) marine mammals (cetacean), and (B) land mammals from a neutral-
metabolic metacommunity model (m = 0.1, v = 0.01), including the effects of surface tem-
perature and wet days on land, and sea surface temperature and net primary productivity in the
 B Land mammals

1.00

0.75

Latitude
0.51

0.26

0.02
0.01 0.24 0.48
Mean richness
Model projection

1.00

Latitude
0.81

0.63

0.44

0.26 0.00 0.39 0.78

Mean richness
Residuals
0.52

0.30
Latitude

0.07

−0.15

−0.38
0.00 0.16 0.31
Mean richness
Correlation
1.0
Modeled diversity

0.8

0.6

0.4
r = 0.62

0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00

Empirical diversity

ocean. Residual variation plot displays spatial structure, and correlation plot displays the statisti-
cal fit between theoretical model predictions and empirical data. Note that only cells with both
model prediction and empirical data have been plotted.
142 CHAPTER 5

richness. As for land ectotherms, we surmise that the effects of topographic het-
erogeneity may be important here, although we cannot at present capture this
effect in our model. The overall fit relative to observed data (r = 0.62, P < 0.0001)
was somewhat weaker than for land ectotherms, and sensitivity to change in the
dispersal parameter was more pronounced, with low predictive power at both the
high and low end of the scale for dispersal rate (not shown).
The other endotherm taxon examined was birds, which were almost equally
well predicted using the same model as employed for mammals on land (r = 0.59,
P < 0.0001). However, pelagic seabirds (Order: Procellariformes) could not be
predicted well at all (r = −0.14, P < 0.01; see table 5.1) owing to a heavily skewed
distribution of seabird diversity toward the Southern Ocean (see fig. 2.6). Pos-
sibly, the unique dependence of this taxon on wind energy may contribute to an
outlying pattern of diversity, as suggested by Davies et al. (2010). Similarly, the
pinnipeds with their polar distribution were not captured by our metacommunity
model in the same way that cetaceans were (r = −0.39, P < 0.001; see table 5.1),
likely owing to their unique circumpolar distribution.
In conclusion, our theory performs reasonably well for several larger endo-
therm groups comprising thousands of species (land mammals and birds, ceta-
ceans) but poorly for smaller, more specialized marine groups found at higher
latitudes (procellariform seabirds and pinnipeds). The fact that major species
groups are captured reasonably well by the theory may point toward an unex-
plained mechanism that links temperature to evolutionary rates in endotherms, for
which we might otherwise not expect such a pattern. Alternatively, or in addition,
there may be biotic interactions with ectotherms such as competition, predation,
or mutualism that affect the biogeography of endotherms, resulting in an apparent
relationship with temperature. Such interactions might also in part explain the
specialized distributions of endotherm taxa that find a competitive niche in colder,
highly productive environments.

5.3. INCLUDING NICHES

In chapter 4, we hypothesized that global richness patterns may in part relate

to species temperature tolerances and associated thermal niches. The effects of
niches in constraining realized range size and dispersal, however, was very mod-
est, except in high-dispersal scenarios (m = 1), where smaller niches constrained
range sizes and led to a steepening of latitudinal gradients, in comparison to non-
niche scenarios (see figs. 4.9 to 4.12). We further hypothesized that such a high
dispersal scenario may approximate pelagic communities, where average range
PREDICTING GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY 143

sizes tends to be larger (see fig. 4.13) and there are few constraints to dispersal,
other than unsuitable temperature regimes (Beaugrand et al. 2013).
Here, we evaluate the effects of assumed temperature niches in our expanded
neutral-metabolic-niche model. We began with a base case of moderate dispersal
and speciation rates (m = 0.1, v = 0.01) and used the best-fitting model for pelagic
biodiversity, including the metabolic effects of SST on turnover and speciation
as well as the effects of frontal habitats on community size (see also see fig. 5.3).
When we introduced nonevolving or evolving thermal niches of various width
(from w = ±3 K to w = ±12 K) into this base model, the predicted patterns of
pelagic species richness were practically indistinguishable from the case with-
out niches, and the statistical fit to observed data was very similar (r = 0.81,
P < 0.0001). In order to check this negative result in another environment, and
for less mobile species, we applied the same procedure to land plants, and again
got identical results to the base case without assumed niches, with identical fit to
observed data (r = 0.77, P < 0.0001).
Next, we expanded to a scenario of unconstrained dispersal (m = 1) in pelagic
communities, where such high dispersal rates may be more plausible. In this case,
the ability of the neutral-metabolic base model to capture observed richness pat-
terns for pelagic ectotherms was poor (r = 0.54), largely because the high dispersal
rate equalized global richness and led to a flat pattern overall (fig. 5.10A). When
introducing narrow niches (w = ±3 K) into this model, these formed a barrier to
dispersal and partially restored a gradient in species richness (fig. 5.10B), and
henceforth provided an improved fit to observed data (r = 0.81). Yet these predic-
tions were not as strong as for the non-niche case at moderate dispersal (see figs.
5.3 and 5.4), which also provided a simpler model with fewer assumed param-
eters. These results mirror and support our previous conclusions from chapter 4
that niches have little effect on equilibrium species richness patterns in our model,
except for the limiting case of unconstrained dispersal. Unconstrained dispersal,
however, did not provide a better prediction of the observed data, even for highly
mobile pelagic communities.

5.4. SYNTHESIS

First, we shall pause to emphasize the difference between our theoretical model
and other approaches to predicting global patterns of biodiversity. While the
common approach is to statistically predict observed patterns from environ-
mental correlates (chapter 3 and references therein), our approach here is very
different. Based on our combined neutral-metabolic theory, we have simulated
 A Empirical data

1.00

0.76

0.52

0.28

0.03

Pelagic ectotherms, no niches

1.00

0.80

0.61

0.41

0.21

Residuals

0.53

0.32

0.11

−0.11

−0.32

Correlation
1.0
Modeled diversity

0.8

0.6

0.4
r = 0.54
0.2
0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00
Empirical diversity

Figure 5.10. Effects of thermal niches on model predictions at high dispersal rates. Shown
are predicted global richness patterns for pelagic ectotherm species derived from a neutral-
metabolic metacommunity model, and compared to observed data. The effects of sea surface
temperature (SST) and frontal habitat are included, as in fig. 5.3, but dispersal rate is assumed to
be elevated ten-fold (m = 1, v = 0.01). (A) Empirical composite pattern of species richness for
 B Empirical data

1.00

0.76

0.52

0.28

0.03

Pelagic ectotherms, with niches

1.00

0.80

0.60

0.41

0.21

Residuals

0.52

0.33

0.14

−0.05

−0.24

Correlation
1.0
Modeled diversity

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2 r = 0.81

0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00

Empirical diversity

pelagic ectotherms and model predictions, residuals and correlation plots assuming no niches;
and (B) assuming ±3 K thermal niches. Inclusion of niches improved the predictions under
assumed high dispersal rate, but did not produce as good a fit as the non-niche model at moderate
dispersal rate (see figs. 5.3 and 5.4).
146 CHAPTER 5

ecological processes (disturbance, dispersal) and evolutionary processes (specia-

tion, extinction), allowing local and global community structure to evolve from
these mechanisms without predetermination. The theoretical model we used
here for prediction is very simple, including a maximum of four free parameters
(scaling of local community size J as a function of habitat area or productivity),
as well as speciation rate v, dispersal rate m, and thermal niche width w. This
contrasts markedly with ecological models that typically feature dozens of free
parameters (Pauly et al. 2000; Fulton et al. 2005; Harfoot et al. 2014) and with
statistical models, in which a relationship between an environmental predictor
and observed data is estimated without necessarily shedding light on a mecha-
nism (Gotelli et al. 2009; Tittensor et al. 2010).
It appears remarkable that at most two mechanistic processes (metabolic scal-
ing of speciation rate with temperature and scaling of community size with habitat
area or productivity) need to be invoked to predict in some detail observed global
patterns of biodiversity, generating fits to empirical data that are within the general
range of statistical nonmechanistic models (see table 5.1). Even more surprising
is the fact that these same two mechanisms in our process-based models fit across
biomes, reconciling previously disparate patterns of species richness on land and
in the sea, for highly mobile and sessile species, and to some degree for endo-
therms and ectotherms. This provides support for the idea that the processes that
we discuss here are indeed of fundamental importance for the evolution of life
forms and biodiversity at large scales. Results further suggest that a reasonably
simple theoretical model can aid us in understanding and distinguishing between
the potential mechanisms—some of which may be indistinguishable through sta-
tistical fits—operating in real-world communities and shaping global biodiversity.
When we compared theoretical model predictions across realms and species
groups, we found that the fit to observed data differed (see table 5.1). The best
predictions were achieved for aggregate ectotherm groups (shown as subheadings
in table 5.1). The models for pelagic ectotherm biodiversity fit best (r = 0.87),
followed by coastal (r = 0.77), and land species groups (r = 0.70), whereas model
predictions for the sole taxonomic group in the deep sea fit observed data more
poorly (r = 0.24; see table 5.1). Empirically, the deep sea is the most poorly sam-
pled, but it also provides a special case from a modeling perspective because of a
flat and uniformly cold temperature profile. Hence, it might be unsurprising that
our neutral-metabolic model does not perform as well here.
Individual taxa that were best predicted by our model included some coastal
and pelagic invertebrates as well as land plants. It was notable that endotherm taxa
generally did not fit as well as their ectotherm counterparts in the same habitat,
with negative predictions recorded for pinnipeds and seabirds. This likely indi-
cates that the metabolic theory model works best for ectotherms, and additional
PREDICTING GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY 147

processes may need to be invoked to understand the distribution of endotherm

species at a global scale. There was also a contrast in the sensitivity of model pre-
dictions to changes in dispersal and speciation parameters. Ectotherms were most
sensitive to changes in speciation rates, and generally fit better when assuming
moderate to high speciation rates. Model predictions for endotherms, in contrast,
appeared more sensitive to variation in dispersal rates. Our standard scenario of
moderate speciation and dispersal rates (m = 0.1, v = 0.01), however, fit almost
equally well across groups. In addition to endotherm species groups, taxa with
limited geographic or species coverage were also not predicted as well as others
(see table 5.1).
As seen in chapter 4, model predictions here were less sensitive to the inclu-
sion of thermal niches, except at very high dispersal rates. Such high-dispersal
scenarios, however, did provide a lesser fit to observed data than moderate disper-
sal rates. This leads us to conclude that a base case without niches provides a more
parsimonious explanation, as fewer parameters are invoked, and the predictive
capacity is the same as for an extended case that includes niches. We reiterate here
that temperature niches are undoubtedly important in driving species composition
and turnover, but appear less influential on global biodiversity patterns, at least
through the lens of our model. Possibly, niches are better understood as an emer-
gent outcome of mechanisms generating biodiversity, rather than as a mechanism
in themselves.
In summary, our theoretical model does surprisingly well not just in delineat-
ing broad latitudinal pattern in a theoretical ocean (chapter 4) but also in capturing
more complex patterns of observed species richness in the real world (see table
5.1). Despite significant variability among habitats and individual taxa, 60% of
taxa were successfully predicted in terms of their latitudinal peak and 88% in
terms of their general longitudinal pattern of diversity, and 92% showed a positive
and significant (P < 0.01) fit to the observed data overall (longitude × latitude full
spatial pattern) (see table 5.1).
The model is simple and abstract, and most certainly misses important pro-
cesses, particularly in diversity hotspots, where it often underpredicts observed
richness. Here, additional environmental variables such as habitat, topographi-
cal, or vegetation complexity may play an important role (Kreft and Jetz 2007;
Weigelt et al. 2016). Coevolutionary processes may also be important, whereas a
larger number of species begets more diversity of parasites, predators, and sym-
bionts, for example (Brown 2014). While silent on these processes, our simple
theory still does a reasonable job in increasing our understanding of the funda-
mental processes involved. The “experimental toolbox” for biodiversity patterns
that we have created is certainly still in its infancy, and we are excited to see what
the addition of alternative mechanisms shaping biodiversity can tell us. We hope
148 CHAPTER 5

that the work reported here can serve as a starting point for others, to improve
predictive capacity by expanding on the basic theory and its model implementa-
tions. We further suggest that the empirical and theoretical insights assembled
here may have some applications in exploring possible effects of human drivers
on the current state and future prospects for biodiversity, and its conservation at a
global scale. These topics will be expanded on in chapter 6.
 CHAPTER SIX

Conservation Applications

As stated in chapter 1, this book emerged out of a long-standing interest in synthe-

sizing and explaining observed patterns of biodiversity (Stehli et al. 1969; Rohde
1992; Gaston 2000; Tittensor et al. 2010), but was equally motivated by concerns
about the present status and future prospects for global biodiversity (Pimm et al.
1995; Worm et al. 2006; Tittensor et al. 2014; Beaugrand et al. 2015). There is
little doubt that we are in the midst of a global biodiversity crisis, with local and
global extinction rates ranging far outside the bounds of natural variation (Rock-
strom et al. 2009; Dirzo et al. 2014; De Vos et al. 2015). How can our knowledge
of global biodiversity patterns and our understanding of underlying processes and
drivers help us to apprehend, project, and reverse the trajectory of large-scale
biodiversity loss? That question forms a core motivation for our work, and will be
explored in this chapter.
In reviewing this topic, we cannot hope to complete a synthesis of all exist-
ing work; such a comprehensive review undoubtedly would fill a volume on its
own. The main thrust of our book concerns the development of an empirical and
theoretical understanding of global biodiversity patterns and their underlying
drivers, rather than designing approaches specifically targeted for conservation
application. This is partly the case because our focus remains at regional to global
scales, not at the finer spatial grain at which management interventions most often
occur. Yet, there is a long history of biodiversity theory informing more applied
work—for example, with respect to the Theory of Island Biogeography and the
Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography (Mangel 2002). Here,
we build on these earlier efforts and explore possible conservation applications of
our empirical and theoretical synthesis.
Broadly, we see three major applications in conservation biology. The first
concerns the present state of biodiversity on land and in the sea, and the develop-
ment of a globally integrated empirical basis for conservation planning. Such an
approach might use all available data from the four environmental realms identi-
fied in chapter 2, and work toward harmonizing conservation strategies across
these disparate realms. The second major application concerns ongoing biodiver-
sity change, and how a better understanding of fundamental drivers of diversity
150 CHAPTER 6

can help us prioritize mitigation of certain deleterious impacts over others. The
third area of application concerns the future of biodiversity on this planet, and
how an improved understanding of patterns, drivers, and changes in global biodi-
versity can help to project possible scenarios of long-term change, under a given
rate of environmental change. We will briefly highlight these three potential appli-
cations in the following sections.

6.1. GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS

AND CONSERVATION PRIORITIES

One of the contributions we attempted to make in this book was to synthesize

known patterns of global biodiversity across land and sea (chapter 2). Here, we
examine what this empirical synthesis implies in terms of large-scale conserva-
tion prioritization on an increasingly fragile planet. An important generalization
that emerged in both our current and previous work is that global patterns of spe-
cies richness tend to be spatially correlated among taxonomically distant groups
inhabiting the coastal, pelagic, and terrestrial (including freshwater) realms
(Grenyer et al. 2006; Tittensor et al. 2010; Tisseuil et al. 2013). This generaliza-
tion might also apply to the deep sea, but this cannot yet be ascertained, as only
one group has been globally sampled and mapped (Woolley et al. 2016). This
means that human impacts on these different habitats may produce correlated
responses across species groups, at least when those impacts occur over the large
scales examined here, and assuming that these correlations also hold for unders-
ampled species groups not represented in our global overview.
This correlation structure across taxa is important for systematic conservation
planning at the global scale and has been applied in a “hotspot” approach to con-
servation prioritization (Myers et al. 2000; Roberts et al. 2002; Worm et al. 2003;
Selig et al. 2014). Within such a framework, areas of high species richness, the
so-called biodiversity hotspots, are considered immediate conservation priorities,
in order to safeguard the maximum number of species per unit of area that is pro-
tected. This prioritization scheme is often used in combination with other spatial
data layers on biodiversity threats, endemism, rarity, or number of endangered
species to provide a more comprehensive picture of actual conservation needs
(Myers et al. 2000; Roberts et al. 2002; Orme et al. 2005; Selig et al. 2014). Of
course, prioritizing total species richness as the metric of biodiversity might lead
to different outcomes compared to alternative metrics such as functional diversity
or phylogenetic distinctness (for example, Stuart-Smith et al. 2013). Regardless
of the metric used, this prioritization scheme can be applied for high-level global
decision making (Myers et al. 2000; Roberts et al. 2002; Selig et al. 2014), or
C O N S E RVAT I O N A P P L I C AT I O N S 151

be adapted for use at finer scales to inform local to regional conservation plan-
ning (for example, Cowling et al. 2003), while accounting for ongoing changes in
human impacts and their dynamic effects on local biodiversity patterns (Pressey
et al. 2007). Remarkably, this approach has never been applied to the planet as a
whole, but only to terrestrial (for example, Myers et al. 2000; Orme et al. 2005)
or marine (for example, Roberts et al. 2002; Selig et al. 2014) environments in
isolation.
Here, we examine global richness patterns and biodiversity hotspots on land
and in the sea together. We look at these patterns through two different lenses—
namely, (1) total species richness, and (2) relative richness across taxa. For total
richness, and combining all available data from chapter 2, fig. 6.1 shows the
synthetic global pattern of total species richness summed across all well-sam-
pled groups on land and in the sea. We observe that the land and coastal marine
areas sustain higher richness than the pelagic ocean or the deep sea (fig. 6.1A),
likely reflecting fundamental differences in temperature (surface being warmer
than deep waters), habitat complexity and productivity (higher on land and in
the coastal ocean than in pelagic and deep-sea habitats), and evolutionary his-
tory (more rapid diversification on land). On the other hand, some aspects of
this strong pattern in absolute richness might reflect the biases of sampling well-
known taxa and the effects of relative sampling effort, accessibility, and length of
study on land and in coastal regions. Moreover, some features are likely shaped to
an extent by species-rich groups such as land plants and coastal fishes (see chapter
2 for similarities and contrasts between individual taxa). Yet the observed land-
sea gradient broadly matches estimated differences in total richness across these
two realms (Mora et al. 2011), though there remains considerable uncertainty
about total deep-sea biodiversity (Rex and Etter 2010).
The most species-richness cells in our global sample are consistently found
in tropical coastal areas, where the highest observed richness of terrestrial and
marine groups intersects. This is seen most prominently in Southeast Asia and
in western South America, where global biodiversity hotspots converge between
land and sea. Here, a conservation approach that integrates terrestrial and marine
protected areas and other conservation measures may be particularly fruitful.
Conservation of species-rich hotspots becomes even more important, when
considering that global patterns in sampled biodiversity also mirror similar gradi-
ents in human population density, environmental footprint, and associated impacts
(fig. 6.1B). Such impacts do not concern the land or the sea in isolation, and con-
centrate in coastal areas, where more than half of humanity has chosen to settle.
This human focus on the coast may at least in part be motivated by the rich port-
folio of natural resources found there historically (Lotze et al. 2006). Due to this
particular settlement pattern, human impacts thus tend to decline with increasing
152 CHAPTER 6

A Total species richness

6319
4761
3204
1647
89

B Human impact

High
Medium
Low

Figure 6.1. Total species richness and human impact. Shown is (A) the sum of species counts per
cell for all taxa in chapter 2. (B) Human impacts expressed as cumulative relative impact. Data
were derived for the land from the Human Footprint Map, accessed from NASA’s Earth Observ-
ing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Socioeconomic Data and Applications Cen-
ter (http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/wildareas-v2-human-footprint-geographic/maps);
marine aggregate human impact data were compiled from Halpern et al. (2015).

distance from the coasts, and both toward landlocked areas and toward the open
ocean and deep sea (Vitousek et al. 1997; Imhoff et al. 2004; Halpern et al. 2008).
This means that human impacts appear to be intensified in the world’s most spe-
cies-rich habitats, land and sea, imposing large risks on biodiversity there. The
overlap between species richness and human impacts is particularly strong in East
Asia, which is a major global biodiversity hotspot both on land as well as in the
sea (fig. 6.1A), and home to 60% of the human population, with a massive foot-
print on local resource use (fig. 6.1B). Other marked hotspots of overlap in spe-
cies richness and human impact, both land and sea, include Mesoamerica and the
Caribbean, as well as East Africa including Madagascar (fig. 6.1). The available
data strongly suggest that these areas should all be treated as marine-terrestrial
conservation priorities at a global scale.
Another way of looking at global biodiversity is to describe hotspots of relative
richness that are consistent across taxa, no matter what their absolute richness is.
By normalizing species richness for each taxon and then averaging across all taxa
C O N S E RVAT I O N A P P L I C AT I O N S 153

present in each cell, we derive synthetic patterns of relative richness in which each
group contributes equally to the total estimate, and the strong influence of par-
ticularly species-richness taxa is neutralized (fig. 6.2). Hotspot areas in fig. 6.2 are
arbitrarily delineated by the top 10% of cells, in terms of average normalized rich-
ness across groups. On land, such consistent hotspots across sampled taxa emerged
in the tropical Andes, central East Africa, and Southeast Asia (fig. 6.2A), all of
which sustain tropical wet forests. We note that these cross-taxa hotspots broadly
match the originally described hotspots for vascular plants (Myers et al. 2000),
pointing again at the strong correlation between plant and vertebrate taxa. In the
ocean, highest coastal diversity was observed in hotspots around the Indonesian-
Philippines-Australian Archipelago (the “coral triangle”), southern India and Sri
Lanka, southeast Africa and Madagascar, and the Caribbean (fig. 6.2B), all of which
feature warm waters, extensive coastlines, and large islands that are located close
to continental coastlines. In contrast, smaller island chains in the central Pacific
(Micronesia and Polynesia) do not support the same number of species (fig. 6.2B).
Pelagic species (fig. 6.2C) and deep-sea species (fig. 6.2D) provided a striking con-
trast to terrestrial and coastal marine species by showing much more uniform pat-
terns of diversity across ocean basins, with hotspots at ~20 to 30 degrees latitude
North or South in all oceans. Within these latitudes, the most diverse hotspots of
pelagic species were typically located closer to the continents and along bound-
ary currents such as the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio Current. This probably relates
again to the availability of favorable habitat features of oceanic fronts often forming
alongside boundary currents and along shelf breaks (Olson et al. 1994; Etnoyer et
al. 2004; Worm et al. 2005). In the deep sea, hotspots of diversity for ophiuroids, the
single taxon with global coverage, were seen in the North Atlantic, off Japan and
New Zealand, and below coastal upwelling zones in southwest Africa, South Amer-
ica, and the California Current (fig. 6.2D). The North Atlantic hotspot was also
seen in other taxa that were more regionally sampled, such as mollusks (Tittensor
et al. 2011). When comparing relative richness patterns across all sampled realms
and taxa, the Western Pacific Rim emerged as particularly prominent for terrestrial,
coastal, and pelagic taxa, including hotspots around Japan, the Philippines, and
Australia (fig. 6.2). The North Atlantic, particularly off Europe and North America,
showed regional hotspots for both pelagic and deep-sea taxa; similar overlap was
seen in the southern hemisphere off South Africa and New Zealand. Land and deep-
sea species richness hotspots coincided around eastern South America.
This highly nonrandom distribution of species richness within and across
taxa and realms is an important feature to inform systematic conservation plan-
ning on regional to global scales (Margules and Pressey 2000; Myers et al.
2000). Specific habitat features tend to harbor the highest observed diversity
across species groups; these include tropical moist forests on land, tropical
 A Normalized terrestrial richness

0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00

B Normalized coastal richness

0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00

C Normalized pelagic richness

0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00

D Normalized deep sea richness

0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00

Figure 6.2. Hotspots of species richness across taxa. Shown are normalized patterns of species
richness across all species groups in each of the four major realms: (A) land (4 taxa), (B) coastal
(9 taxa), (C) pelagic (7 taxa), and (D) deep sea (1 taxon). The 10% most species rich cells are
outlined in bold white. Richness data were derived from sources in table 2.1.
C O N S E RVAT I O N A P P L I C AT I O N S 155

archipelagos in the coastal oceans, frontal areas at intermediate latitudes for

pelagic species, and areas of high export production for deep-sea species.
Clearly, areas and regions that harbor these critical habitat features, and that
show overlap between different taxa, should receive priority attention under a
hotspot approach, due to their importance across species and their unique global
significance for biodiversity.
While the hotspot approach is an intuitive first-order method for spatial con-
servation, it clearly cannot be sufficient on its own, as large parts of the planet
will not be represented by it, such as land and coastal areas at higher latitudes
(Kareiva and Marvier 2003). Likewise, when prioritizing endemic or threatened
species (Orme et al. 2005), or looking at functional or phylogenetic diversity (Safi
et al. 2011; Devictor et al. 2010; Stuart-Smith et al. 2013), other hotspot patterns
may emerge and need to be taken into account to comprehensively safeguard
biodiversity at a global scale. Furthermore, real-world conservation efforts also
reflect the changing priorities that society, or conservation organizations, has at a
given time, focusing on particular species groups or habitats of value to people.
Merging such dynamic socioeconomic preferences with information on the bio-
logical patterns documented here remains an interdisciplinary frontier in conser-
vation planning. Finally, another aspect that is becoming increasingly prominent
is rapid environmental change and the effects this may have on species distribu-
tion, richness, and conservation outcomes (Pressey et al. 2007). This is briefly
described in the following section.

6.2. OBSERVED BIODIVERSITY CHANGE AND ITS DRIVERS

As discussed in chapters 2 and 3, biodiversity has been a dynamic entity over the
past 4 billion years. Yet, at the present time, biodiversity is changing much faster
than throughout most of Earth’s history, driven by unprecedented environmen-
tal change brought about by manifold human impacts. In this section, we briefly
review what is known about present biodiversity change, and how it relates to our
previously discussed understanding of fundamental drivers. We suggest that an
improved understanding of biodiversity drivers gained in chapter 3 can help us
to prioritize the mitigation of certain human impacts over others, and to project
future scenarios of biodiversity change from process-based models (see also the
following sections).
As biodiversity continues to change and evolve in response to environmental
change, it is paramount for conservation biologists to gain a better understand-
ing of the direction of change, and the main drivers that effect this (Sala et al.
156 CHAPTER 6

Table 6.1. Average Direction and Model Implementation

of Global Impacts on Biodiversity

Driver of Model
diversity Direction of human impact implementation Source
Land Coast Pelagic Deep
sea
Temperature     Temperature Burrows et al.
2011; Allen et al.
2014
Habitat area     Community size Bender et al.
1998; Worm and
Lenihan 2013
Productivity     Community size Nemani et al.
2003; Boyce and
Worm 2015
Disturbance     Community Watling and
turnover Norse 1998;
Dirzo et al. 2014
Connectivity     Dispersal rate Fahrig 2003;
Cowen et al.
2006
Note: Shown are major drivers of biodiversity that are affected by various human impacts; the approxi-
mate direction of global impacts is indicated by arrows ( increasing,  decreasing,  minor change).
Model implementations (see chapter 4) of key parameters that can be adjusted to simulate change in
human impacts are listed. References highlight documented global impacts and their direction.

2000; Thomas et al. 2004; Tittensor et al. 2014). In our empirical analyses and
theoretical models, temperature (affecting species distributions, community turn-
over rates, and speciation rates) as well as habitat area and productivity (driving
changes in local community size) emerge as strong predictors of species richness
through space and time. This is significant, because human activities increasingly
affect and drive these variables (Waters et al. 2016). There is now ample evidence
that human-induced changes in temperature, habitat area and complexity, produc-
tivity and disturbance, as well as changes in connectivity among ecosystems, are
affecting biodiversity worldwide (table 6.1). Arguably, these are among the most
severe human impacts, precisely because they affect fundamental drivers of bio-
diversity. These drivers have been much studied, and their effects have been mod-
eled using various approaches, In this section, we will very briefly explore such
processes as they unfold across various ecosystems, and assess to what degree
observed changes in species distribution and diversity may relate to predictions
made by our theory.
C O N S E RVAT I O N A P P L I C AT I O N S 157

6.2.1. Effects of Temperature and Climate Change

We are living through an era of rapid global climate change (Allen et al. 2014),
which is causing both regional- and planetary-scale changes in weather patterns,
temperature, and ice cover (Barnett et al. 2001; Mora et al. 2013) and further
affects sea level, thermal stratification regimes, atmospheric and oceanic circula-
tion patterns, ocean pH, oxygen content, and productivity (Richardson and Schoe-
man 2004; Sarmiento et al. 2004; Bryden et al. 2005; Behrenfeld et al. 2006;
Polovina et al. 2008; Boyce et al. 2010; Lewandowska et al. 2014; Boyce and
Worm 2015; Waters et al. 2016). As such, global climate change is predicted to
have complex effects on species distributions and diversity (Sala et al. 2000;
Brander 2010; Sydeman et al. 2015).
Clearly, temperature change in particular directly relates to species richness
empirically (chapter 2) and in our theory and model (chapters 4 and 5). Sustained
changes in temperature under global warming will affect species’ thermal niche
distributions (ecological timescale), individual metabolic rates and community
turnover (ecological timescale), and speciation and diversification (evolutionary
timescales). Here, we briefly review what is known empirically about the effects
of temperature changes on observed diversity patterns.
In the oceans, long-term fish and plankton monitoring programs have provided
particularly compelling evidence for temperature- and climate-driven changes in
species diversity (Hays et al. 2005; Perry et al. 2005; Pinsky et al. 2013). Obser-
vations most consistently indicated an increase in species richness in temperate
regions, as warm-adapted species invade from the subtropics and more than com-
pensate for cold-adapted species that are displaced to higher latitudes. The net
effect of such temperature-induced compositional changes on species richness can
be surprisingly large: for fish, an almost 50% increase in the number of species
recorded per year in North Sea bottom trawl surveys was documented between
1985 and 2006 (Hiddink and ter Hofstede 2008). This change correlated tightly
with increasing water temperatures. Similar trends have been found in the United
Kingdom’s Bristol Channel, where fish species richness increased by 39% from
1982 to 1998 (Henderson 2007). In both cases, increases in richness were mainly
driven by invasion of small-bodied southern species. Similar changes have been
observed for terrestrial taxa, where long-term monitoring has historically been
somewhat more straightforward. For example, the species richness of British but-
terflies (Menéndez et al. 2006) and epiphytic lichen in the Netherlands (van Herk
et al. 2002) have increased with warming over time.
Some polar regions have seen a similar pattern of slow invasion by temperate
species. However, only few observations on net changes in species richness are
available (Wassmann et al. 2011)—for example, surveys of Arctic macrobenthos
158 CHAPTER 6

suggest slow increases in species numbers at sites that are accessible to larval
advection from southern locations (Węsławski et al. 2011). Large uncertain-
ties remain due in part to low sampling effort (Wassmann et al. 2011), and in
part due to the complexity of this highly seasonal environment, and the com-
pounding effect of changes in sea ice, salinity, stratification, runoff, and acidity
(Michel et al. 2012).
Under rapid warming, tropical regions become increasingly heat-stressed and
may decline in richness, particularly where there is a loss of foundation species
such as trees or corals. For example, coral reefs have experienced mass bleach-
ing where sea temperatures have exceeded long-term summer averages by more
than 1°C for several weeks (Hoegh-Guldberg 1999; Donner et al. 2005; Hughes
et al. 2017). The loss of sensitive coral species causes secondary changes of reef-
associated or obligate fauna and flora (McClanahan et al. 2001). For reef fish
specifically, studies indicate large changes in species composition after bleaching
events, and a decline in species diversity that is linearly related to disturbance
intensity (Wilson et al. 2006), but see Bellwood et al. (2006) for an exception.
Other habitat-forming species, such as seagrasses, mangroves, and some sea-
weeds, also face elevated extinction risk due to warming and sea-level rise (Poli-
doro et al. 2010; Short et al. 2011; Harley et al. 2012), with consequences for
communities dependent on these habitats.
On land, the effects of warming are also complicated by changing patterns of
rainfall, which could enhance or reduce diversity (Bellard et al. 2012). Empirical
evidence for lizards (Sinervo et al. 2010) and amphibians (Pounds et al. 2006)
suggest, however, that climate-related extinctions are already under way on land.
More generally, warming will increase metabolic rates in these and other ecto-
therm species, and this increase will be disproportionally large in tropical species
due to the nonlinear relationship between temperature and metabolic rate (Dillon
et al. 2010). Such increases likely have substantial physiological and ecological
impacts including an increased need for food, increased rates of evaporative water
loss in dry environments, behavioral change, changes in tropical soil respiration,
and altered food web dynamics (Dillon et al. 2010). In the long term, as discussed
at length in chapter 3, metabolic theory also predicts increased rates of molecular
evolution and speciation (Allen and Gillooly 2006), which could ultimately foster
biological innovation and novel adaptations.
In summary, as the planet rapidly warms, and as a first approximation, the
tropics may lose diversity, temperate regions show species turnover and increases
in net diversity, whereas polar environments so far mostly show declines in ice-
dependent species and some invasion of subpolar taxa with unclear effects on net
diversity. Constraints to range shifts and expansions appear to be less important
in the oceans than on the land. In the North Sea, for example, the average rate of
C O N S E RVAT I O N A P P L I C AT I O N S 159

northward range shift was 2.2 km a−1 (Perry et al. 2005), more than three times
faster than observed range shifts in terrestrial environments, which reportedly
average 0.6 km a−1 (Parmesan and Yohe 2003). Likewise, a meta-analysis of spe-
cies range shifts showed that marine species fill their thermal niches more fully
and move more readily at both cold and warm range boundaries compared with
than terrestrial species (Sunday et al. 2012). These findings may not be surprising,
given the absence of hard physical boundaries in marine, and particularly pelagic,
environments. There are, however other potential constraints, such as light avail-
ability for corals at higher latitudes, or lower oxygen for fish in warmer waters,
that might prove to set unexpected boundaries to dispersal (Kleypas 2015). Simi-
larly, changes in habitat area or productivity could constrain realized changes in
species richness relative to anticipated outcomes based solely on thermal change,
as discussed later.

6.2.2. Changes in Habitat Area and Productivity

In addition to its effect on temperature, global environmental change has other

important consequences, such as changes in habitat quality, quantity, and pro-
ductivity, that directly affect the carrying capacity of ecological communities
(Vitousek 1994; Vitousek et al. 1997).
On land and in coastal environments, the physical alteration of habitats often
reduces the effective area available for colonization—for example, where coast-
lines are modified for human infrastructure (Airoldi and Beck 2007) or forests
are cleared for agriculture (Ellis et al. 2010; Newbold et al. 2015). Specifically,
between the years 1700 and 2000 the terrestrial biosphere made a transition from
mostly wild to mostly human-dominated habitats, passing the 50% mark early in
the twentieth century (Ellis et al. 2010). Interestingly, some of the associated losses
in native species richness have been compensated for by species invasions, such
that overall observed richness has not changed dramatically in some cases, though
composition has (Ellis et al. 2012). The rate of habitat destruction, however, will
likely accelerate in the future, as a function of human population growth and
increasing affluence (Godfray et al. 2010), with a significant projected “extinction
debt” for terrestrial species (Tilman et al. 1994). Similar historical trends have
been documented in marine coastal environments (Pandolfi et al. 2003; Lotze et
al. 2006), with increasing industrialization and habitat conversion moving out-
ward from heavily populated coastlines toward the open ocean (McCauley et al.
2015). In addition, habitat fragmentation is occurring alongside habitat changes
and has far-reaching effects on biodiversity (Fahrig 2003), with the potential for
synergistic impacts from these two habitat-related stressors (Bartlett et al. 2016).
160 CHAPTER 6

Just as the effects of habitat alteration, changes in productivity can be equally

important, as they affect community size and composition, and consequently
diversity. For example, a temperate reef fish community in southern California
initially saw increased species richness with gradual warming over time (Hol-
brook et al. 1997). Yet, sudden warming events also led to a decline in productiv-
ity, 80% loss of large zooplankton biomass, and recruitment failure of many reef
fish. This may explain why total biomass declined significantly, and total species
richness also declined by 15 to 25% at the two study sites despite increases in
temperature (Holbrook et al. 1997). This example illustrates that predictions of
changes in species composition and diversity that are based solely on temperature
can be misleading, if concomitant changes in habitat area, productivity or other
drivers are ignored. Such countervailing influences are particularly important in
the oceans, as warming waters are becoming more stratified, reducing the deliv-
ery of nutrients from deeper waters (Behrenfeld et al. 2006), which has already
depressed plankton biomass, particularly in pelagic ecosystems far from shore
(Polovina et al. 2008; Boyce et al. 2014). A recently observed signal of changes
in phytoplankton biomass on fish production at the early life stage suggests that
these ongoing changes could have far-reaching effects on species communities
at multiple trophic levels (Britten et al. 2016). On land and in the coastal ocean,
however, productivity may be broadly increasing due to anthropogenic mobili-
zation of nitrogen and phosphorus, which stimulates primary production, with
variable effects on species richness (Worm et al. 2002; Stevens et al. 2004). The
increasing magnitude and global scale of atmospheric nitrogen deposition in par-
ticular is bound to have far-reaching effects on the productivity and diversity of
land and ocean communities worldwide (Jefferies and Maron 1997; Sala et al.
2000; Duce et al. 2008). In the terrestrial ecosystem, however, there is added
uncertainty, associated with other processes, such as carbon cycle feedbacks due
to elevated CO2, as well as changes in growing season length, and land use (Erb
et al. 2016). Despite these complexities, the overall signal emerging from histori-
cal time series is one of increased primary production in terrestrial (Nemani et
al. 2003; Campbell et al. 2017) and reduced production in marine environments
(Gregg et al. 2003; Boyce and Worm 2016), with so far unknown effects on global
biodiversity patterns on land and in the sea.

6.2.3. Disturbance and Exploitation

In addition to the effects of temperature, habitat, and productivity change, direct

disturbance and removal of species by logging, hunting or fishing can also repre-
sent a dominant impact on species richness. For example, the widespread “wild
C O N S E RVAT I O N A P P L I C AT I O N S 161

meat” hunt on land (Milner-Gulland et al. 2003), or the estimated annual fish catch
of ~100 Mt from the oceans (Pauly and Zeller 2016) can affect the regional pat-
terns of species richness (Worm et al. 2005; Effiom et al. 2013). Indeed, observed
richness of large fish (>25 cm length) on standardized underwater visual surveys
is depressed in most fished areas, but elevated in well-enforced marine protected
areas worldwide (Edgar et al. 2014). A model of species richness for all reef-asso-
ciated fish, large and small, showed the typical pattern of maximum richness in the
western tropical Pacific (Edgar et al. 2014). In contrast, observed richness for large
fish showed a subtly different pattern, peaking at remote sites in the central Pacific,
around French Polynesia and the Line Islands (Edgar et al. 2014). Similarly, an
analysis of heavily exploited tuna and billfish species sampled by a globally oper-
ating long-line fleet indicated large-scale changes in species richness patterns from
the 1950s to 1990s, and overall declines in average richness in the Atlantic and
Indian Ocean, but not the Pacific (Worm et al. 2005; Worm et al. 2010). Changing
richness patterns were at least in part due to declining range extent in a number of
species, such as three species of bluefin tuna (Worm and Tittensor 2011). Likewise,
a historical data set of coastal biodiversity showed that 7% of the species for which
data were available went regionally extinct over the last 1000 years (Lotze et al.
2006; Worm et al. 2006). Clearly, fishing is reshaping patterns of local and regional
richness for exploited groups, as well as the spatial scaling of biodiversity (Titten-
sor et al. 2007), and this change might skew our perception of what the baseline
patterns of biodiversity are (Pauly 1995; Baum and Myers 2004).
Despite these large regional changes, global extinctions remain relatively few in
the oceans. Only two marine fish species are thought to have gone globally extinct
over recent human history, although undersampling in reef and deep-water envi-
ronments may hide unrecognized extinction events (Roberts 2002; Reynolds et al.
2005). However, four marine mammals and four mollusks are known to be lost, as
well as a number of freshwater fish and one anadromous species, the New Zealand
grayling, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Red List (Worm and Lenihan 2013). This means that the overall global richness of
marine life is likely still similar to preindustrial times, but that local and regional
patterns of community structure, biomass, and diversity have changed, sometimes
dramatically, especially for heavily exploited species (Lotze et al. 2006; Estes et
al. 2011). This is reflected in the IUCN assessments, which listed between 9%
(for bony fish) and 38% (for marine mammals) of non-data-deficient species as
threatened by extinction in 2013 (Worm and Lenihan 2013). On land, in contrast,
more than 700 extinctions have already occurred, many of them due to exploitation
or human-mediated invasion by exotic species, with tens of thousands threatened
by extinction in the near future (Barnosky et al. 2011). While this situation does
not yet reach the magnitude of previous mass extinction events, human impacts
162 CHAPTER 6

are undoubtedly reshaping current and future patterns of biodiversity (Barnosky

et al. 2011; Waters et al. 2016), with documented effects on trophic structure and
ecosystem functioning (Worm et al. 2006; Estes et al. 2011).

6.2.4. Model Implementation

In summary, many (but not all) of the human impacts that are affecting bio-
diversity on land and in the sea relate directly to key processes that are driv-
ing observed patterns of species richness—namely, temperature, habitat area and
connectivity, productivity, and disturbances. As such, it seems prudent to further
investigate these impacts as we attempt to mitigate biodiversity change and loss.
Where empirical observations are scarce or unavailable—for example, in poorly
sampled regions, or with respect to the future—models can help us to explore pos-
sible scenarios of biodiversity change under a given impact scenario. While there
are many other process-based models that can potentially shed light on human
impacts in biodiversity, we suggest that the theoretical framework presented in
this volume may, with some modification, be useful to further explore and project
the likely long-term consequences of these impacts, and their effects on species
richness now and in the future (see table 6.1). As discussed in chapters 4 and 5,
changes in surface temperature are readily incorporated into the model via a global
temperature grid that can be adjusted to reflect observed or projected changes.
Changes in suitable habitat area correspond directly to changes in the commu-
nity size parameter J, and could thus be potentially assessed alongside the effects of
temperature. Increasing habitat fragmentation limits connectivity among neighbor-
ing communities, and could be assessed through modification in dispersal rate m,
adjusting the connectivity between local communities in our metacommunity model
(see table 6.1). Changes in disturbance or exploitation rate can be implemented as
changes in local community turnover. As such, our metacommunity model may
provide an experimental toolbox for projecting the complex effects of single or
combined environmental impacts and changes. As an example, we will illustrate
in the following the use of our model framework for exploring scenarios of future
climate change, in order to understand possible long-term effects on biodiversity.

6.3. PROJECTING BIODIVERSITY CHANGE FROM THEORY

Unprecedented rates of environmental changes are making biodiversity conserva-

tion a moving target, complicating present and future conservation efforts (Pressey
et al. 2007; Worm and Lotze 2015). As such, conservation planning increasingly
C O N S E RVAT I O N A P P L I C AT I O N S 163

uses empirical data synthesis and process-based models to project possible changes
in biodiversity, and the effects it may have on conservation outcomes. As spatial
data on recent changes in species richness patterns are typically not available at a
global scale (but see Worm et al. 2010; Dornelas et al. 2014; Newbold et al. 2016
for exceptions), species distribution models have been utilized most commonly to
fill this gap. These models typically reconstruct biodiversity patterns by overlay-
ing species ranges derived from habitat requirements, such as thermal tolerances,
for example. Such models can be used to forecast future changes in species rich-
ness, given projected scenarios of climate and habitat change (Cheung et al. 2009;
Kaschner et al. 2011). Here, we briefly review existing modeling approaches and
then present a new, and possibly complementary, approach based on our global
metacommunity model presented in chapters 4 and 5.

6.3.1. Projections from Species Distribution Models

Species distribution models (SDMs) are currently the most widely used model-
ing tool to project the possible future impacts of environmental change on bio-
diversity (Franklin et al. 2013). Terrestrially, there exists a voluminous literature
on projecting biodiversity changes using SDMs (see, for example, Urban 2015);
we don’t attempt to survey it further here. The vast majority of projections for
future biodiversity scenarios have been derived from SDMs assuming static ther-
mal tolerances and thermal niches. For example, Molinos et al. (2016) recently
used observed temperature tolerances and habitat preferences for 12,796 coastal
and pelagic species represented in Aquamaps, an online resource that maps out
predicted species ranges in the marine environment (www.aquamaps.org). The
authors projected overall increases in average biodiversity under both moderate
and high greenhouse gas emissions, as implemented in the representative con-
centration pathways RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 (fig. 6.3). Increases in species richness
were projected at high latitudes, matching empirical observations (see section
6.2.1, earlier). But these regional increases were partly offset by declining rich-
ness in tropical regions, especially at the higher emission scenario (fig. 6.3); this
also led to a partial flattening of latitudinal richness gradients (Molinos et al.
2016). It is important to remember that these changes were entirely based on
assumed contraction or expansion of predicted species ranges; neither speciation
nor extinction processes were included, assuming no evolutionary change. Tropi-
cal losses of biodiversity, for example, were driven by the displacement of tropi-
cal species to higher latitudes, under assumed constant temperature tolerances,
and no evolution. Parallel work for fishes (Cheung et al. 2009) and marine mam-
mals (Kaschner et al. 2011) produced similar results for individual species groups,
 164 CHAPTER 6

Δ Richness
<–1,000
–1,000 to –500
ΔN° species

–500 to –250
100 –250 to –50

50 ΔRRCP8.5 –50 to 0
0
0 ΔRRCP4.5
0–50
50–250
250–500
500–1,000
–1 0
–1 0
–1 0
–1 0
00
0
0
0
0
0
20
40
60
80

0
0
0
0
0
8
6
4
2

–8
–6
–4
–2

10
12
14
16
18
–1

A Longitude (°) >1,000

90
70
ΔN°RCP4.5(2006–2100)

50

Latitude (°)
30
10
–10
–30
–50
–70
–90
–200 0 200
B ΔN° species
90
70
ΔN°RCP8.5(2006–2100)

50
30
Latitude (°)

10
–10
–30
–50
–70
–90
–200 0 200
ΔN° species

Figure 6.3. Future projections for marine species richness from a species distribution model.
Shown are projected changes in absolute species richness (n = 12,796 species) from 2006 to
2100 given two representative concentration pathways (RCPs) devised by the Intergovernmen-
tal Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), (A) RCP 4.5 and (B) RCP 8.5. Black contour lines cor-
respond to countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs). Changes to average latitudinal and
longitudinal gradients (solid line) with their 25% and 75% quartiles (shaded areas) are also
shown. Note that the high-emission scenario results in much greater species losses, particularly
in the tropics. After data in Molinos et al. (2016).

with some more recent work including more realistic dispersal constraints into the
SDMs (Cheung et al. 2015).
Beaugrand and coworkers used a more theoretical approach of modeled distri-
butions for randomly generated pelagic “pseudospecies,” mimicking present-day
distributions of pelagic zooplankton groups (Beaugrand et al. 2015). Their results
C O N S E RVAT I O N A P P L I C AT I O N S 165

showed patterns similar to the previously mentioned SDMs. The authors quanti-
fied projected changes relative to those that might have occurred between the last
glacial maximum and the present. For example, under severe global warming
(RCP 6.0 and RCP 8.5), between 50 and 70% of the global ocean was projected to
show a magnitude of biodiversity change not seen since the last glacial maximum
(Beaugrand et al. 2015).
Other approaches that sought to model future biodiversity have been based on
observed species-environment relationships from electronic tracking data (Hazen et
al. 2013), or observed species richness-environment relationships from observational
data (Whitehead et al. 2008). What connects all of these contemporary approaches
is that they do not include evolutionary dynamics. Species distribution models may
capture the short-term rearrangement of species that are thought to move along with
their temperature niche, but do not capture the effects of changes in temperature on
the processes that generate biodiversity, nor the evolutionary plasticity that allowed
species to survive previous environmental perturbations. Microevolutionary pat-
terns of adaptation to changes in the environment are becoming increasingly obvi-
ous in empirical studies (Hoffmann and Sgrò 2011). For example, it has been shown
experimentally that stickleback evolve quickly from marine forms to freshwater
forms, with one major aspect being rapid adaptation to low temperatures (Barrett et
al. 2010). Similar patterns of rapid evolutionary adaptation have recently emerged
in marine phytoplankton (Schlüter et al. 2014) and corals (Palumbi et al. 2014).
This recent work collectively suggests that changes in ocean temperature and acid-
ity provide major evolutionary challenges along which populations diversify within
species, and most likely across species and lineages. Adaptation to very high tem-
peratures, however, appears particularly challenging for many taxa and could rep-
resent a hard evolutionary barrier. Araújo et al. (2013) analyzed thermal tolerances
of a large number of terrestrial ectotherm (n = 697), endotherm (n = 227), and plant
(n = 1816) species worldwide, and showed that tolerance to heat is largely conserved
across lineages, while tolerance to cold is more malleable and varies more widely
between and within species. It is interesting that the evolutionary processes that
may have shaped global diversity patterns over millennia are also observable in real
time (Barrett et al. 2010; Hoffmann and Sgrò 2011; Palumbi et al. 2014; Schlüter et
al. 2014). In terms of the approach in this volume, our eco-evolutionary metacom-
munity model allows for such evolutionary processes to occur, while also tracking
changes in habitat, disturbance regimes, dispersal, and thermal adaptation.

6.3.2. Projections from a Neutral-Metabolic Model

In order to experiment with the utility of our approach for understanding dynamic
changes owing to human impacts, we utilized the richness patterns predicted by our
166 CHAPTER 6

Coastal ectotherms relative richness (present)

1.00
0.81
0.62
0.43
0.25

Coastal ectotherms relative richness (future)

1.00

0.81

0.62

0.42

0.23

Difference (future-present)

0.10
0.05
0.00
−0.05
−0.10

Figure 6.4. Future projections for coastal marine species richness from a neutral-metabolic
metacommunity model. Shown are relative changes in species richness from 2006–2010 to
2091–2100 given projected climate change effects on surface temperature and precipitations
forced by the representative concentration pathway RCP 8.5.

global metacommunity model (see chapter 5) to explore possible future changes

in species richness from projected global warming and altered moisture regimes
for coastal ectotherms (fig. 6.4) and land plants (fig. 6.5). This is different from the
previously described modeling approaches in that no species identities are tracked,
and no ecological differences are assumed; we recognize the limitations here but
note that this allows us to explore processes that are typically left aside. Projected
changes in this framework are due to thermal effects on speciation and turnover
C O N S E RVAT I O N A P P L I C AT I O N S 167

Land plants relative richness (present)

1.00

0.78

0.56

0.33

0.11

Land plants relative richness (future)

1.00

0.77

0.53

0.30

0.07

Difference (future-present)

0.60
0.40
0.20

0.00
−0.20

Figure 6.5. Future projections for land plant species richness from a neutral-metabolic model.
Shown are relative changes in species richness from 2006–2010 to 2091–2100 given projected
climate change effects on surface temperature and precipitations forced by the representative
concentration pathway RCP 8.5.

rates, as well as effects of changes in moisture regime on productivity and hence

community size on land. These are mechanisms that are typically not included
in other modeling approaches, which tend to focus on thermal niches. Standard
settings for the base parameters (m = 0.1, v = 0.01) were used as in previous sim-
ulations. For environmental drivers, we used RCP 8.5 from the Institute Pierre
Simon Laplace (IPSL) Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) bias-
corrected model runs (http://icmc.ipsl.fr/index.php/icmc-models/icmc-ipsl-cm5).
168 CHAPTER 6

We extracted mean modeled land and sea surface temperature in 2091–2100 and
proportional changes in precipitation between 2006–2010 and 2091–2100. We did
not use predicted precipitation change directly in our model, but rather translated
this information into changes in wet days, assuming linear scaling between annual
precipitation and number of wet days, which have are a good global predictor of
species richness for terrestrial plants (Kreft and Jetz 2007).
One critical aspect of this exploration is that the effects of temperature on com-
munity turnover and speciation are calculated relative to other local communities
rather than pinned to an absolute value (that is, the summed probabilities for all
individuals in all communities acting within each time step is equal to one). This
means that while the model, in its present form, can be used to examine the rela-
tive change in spatial patterns of species richness, it cannot be used to examine
absolute changes in richness values (though with further modification this may be
feasible). Note also that our metacommunity model runs to a dynamic equilibrium
state. Hence, the question we are asking is: How might the long-term ecological
and evolutionary changes effected by changes in temperature and moisture alter
global richness patterns and gradients relative to the present day?
We ran future explorations for coastal ectotherms and land plants, contrasting
marine and terrestrial patterns of response to projected climate change. Changes
in the future richness of ectothermic coastal species (see fig. 6.4) were calcu-
lated in response to projected changes in temperature only, as habitat effects via
changes in coastline length could not be parameterized. As in the species dis-
tribution models discussed earlier, normalized species richness (relative to the
observed global maximum richness) increased in most cells, particularly those
projected to see large increases in temperature, such as those in the northwest
Atlantic (see fig. 6.4). Some decreases in relative richness were observed along
European and Caribbean coastlines, though.
On land, vascular plant richness according to empirical analyses (Kreft and
Jetz 2007) and our theoretical models (chapter 5) is affected by changes in both
temperature and moisture regimes. Both of these variables are tracked by Earth
System Models and can hence be included in our projections (see fig. 6.5). Our
model projected reduced relative richness in the two present hotspots, the tropical
Andes and South America, but also in Europe and West Africa. Large increases
in regional richness were projected for the Arabian Peninsula, for example, fol-
lowing projected increases in precipitation (see fig. 6.5). Some major features of
these patterns of change were also reproduced by projections based simply on
extrapolation of the statistical relationships between temperature, moisture, and
plant species richness (Sommer et al. 2010).
These results should not be viewed as solid predictions but rather simple
explorations based on changes in only one or two factors, and ignoring many
C O N S E RVAT I O N A P P L I C AT I O N S 169

other aspects biological and environmental change. Similar shortcomings, how-

ever apply to other modeling approaches that have been used for future projec-
tions; ultimately, we would search for commonalities and differences that emerge
across a variety different modeling approaches.
We do see our approach as complementary to existing modeling tools, and an
illustration of how evolutionary processes could be accounted for in global biodi-
versity scenarios. Our approach allows us to explore possible long-term ecologi-
cal and evolutionary consequences of climate change, but may also potentially
be applied to integrate the shorter-term effects of changes in community size as
driven by habitat loss and changes in productivity (see table 6.1). As such, the
theoretical models developed in this book may represent an interesting contrast to
the commonly used SDMs that bypass possible evolutionary dynamics, or to the
projections of biodiversity loss due to climate change that rely on statistical rela-
tionships such as the species-area curve (Thomas et al. 2004), which have been
criticized by some (He and Hubbell 2011).
Future explorations could also examine transient (nonequilibrium) dynamics
that may arise in response to projected environmental changes. Possibly, and with
some more dedicated development, the ideas and models developed here might
be expanded and in principle find application in environmental forecasting and
scenario building.

6.4. THE FUTURE OF BIODIVERSITY

As discussed throughout this volume, biodiversity patterns are not a static fea-
ture. Both in recent decades, and certainly throughout Earth’s history, the global
magnitude and distribution of biodiversity has been dynamically changing in
response to various environmental drivers, many of which are now affected by
human activities. This means that the future of biodiversity is in a very real sense
in our own hands, and future trajectories will largely depend on how we choose
to constrain or manage the cumulative impacts that arise from our actions. This
aspect of biodiversity change is not easily captured by ecological theory, as it
is largely dependent on societal choices and interactions. Fortunately, there is
growing awareness of this simple fact, and global commitments to halt the loss of
biodiversity are being implemented as we write this.
When tracking changes in these commitments, however, it is often found that
increases in pressures on biodiversity outweigh increasing societal responses to
stem the loss of biodiversity (Butchart et al. 2004; Butchart et al. 2010; Titten-
sor et al. 2014). In a recent update on this topic, progress toward the 20 “Aichi”
targets—a set of internationally agreed goals for biodiversity conservation under
 170 CHAPTER 6

Pressures States Responses

+100%

Worsening Improving Improving

No change

Improving Worsening Worsening

–100%

2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

Figure 6.6. Global trends in biodiversity pressures, biodiversity states, and societal responses
to biodiversity loss. Each line represents a unique response variable and its estimated significant
(continuous) or nonsignificant (dotted) trend, extrapolated to 2020. Lines represent trends rela-
tive to 2010 value (horizontal dotted black line). Redrawn; after Tittensor et al. (2014).

the Convention on Biological Diversity—was tracked using 55 global indicators

of biodiversity pressures, states, benefits, and responses to biodiversity loss (fig.
6.6). Results indicate that the rate of biodiversity loss may have slowed for some
indicators, but that about half still show significant declines. The reason for this
is undoubtedly that pressures are uniformly rising, and this is only partly com-
pensated for by growing responses to biodiversity loss (Tittensor et al. 2014).
Clearly, the biogeography of future biodiversity will hinge to a significant degree
on changes in these societal parameters, emerging from our individual as well as
collective choices. With the upcoming 2030 target for the United Nations Sustain-
able Development Goals, and beyond that the need to preserve biodiversity and
ecosystems, the degree to which we can alter individual and societal choices that
affect our shared natural environment represents an important research topic—
perhaps one of the most important facing us.
 CHAPTER SEVEN

Conclusions

A striking and primary feature of our planet is the bewildering diversity of species
that inhabit it. As far as we know, the geographic distribution of these species has
always been highly nonrandom (Stehli et al. 1969; Yasuhara et al. 2012; Man-
nion et al. 2014), and spatial variation in biodiversity along latitudinal, altitudinal,
and moisture gradients has long been recognized by naturalists (Gaston 2000).
Here, we approached these general patterns from an empirical and a theoretical
perspective, in an attempt to gather a more comprehensive understanding of the
processes that control the distribution of species richness at the global scale. Our
approach was driven by two lines of inquiry—specifically, (1) synthesizing, test-
ing, and contrasting observed patterns, hypothesized drivers, and environmental
predictors across all available taxa on land and in the ocean on the same global-
scale grid; and (2) integrating aspects of neutral, metabolic, and niche theories
into a synthetic neutral-metabolic-niche (NMN) theory of biodiversity (fig. 7.1A)
that generates a surprisingly accurate picture of global richness patterns from few
underlying processes.

7.1. SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS

In our empirical synthesis, we found clear evidence that global biodiversity

organizes into distinct patterns within four major biogeographic realms: coastal,
pelagic, deep ocean, and land. Taxonomically distinct species groups tended to
show similar patterns of biodiversity at large scales within each of these four
realms (chapter 2). These patterns included steep latitudinal gradients in spe-
cies richness from tropical latitudes (but not always the equator) to the poles for
most coastal and terrestrial groups, and broader peaks of species richness across
subtropical or temperate regions for pelagic and deep-sea taxa, respectively.
Interestingly, we found that patterns appeared more robust and predictable at pro-
gressively higher levels of the taxonomic hierarchy (Class level and up), and were
more likely to break down at the Order or Family level. When correlating species-
richness patterns to environmental predictors, we found that ambient thermal
 A Dispersal

ry

Nic
eo
l th

he
a

the
utr

or y
Ne

NMN THEORY

Metabolic theory
Speciation Environment

B
Global community
Speciation
Drift
Selection

Dispersal Regional community Dispersal

Speciation
Drift
Selection

Dispersal Dispersal
Local
community
Speciation
Drift
Selection

Figure 7.1. Synthesis in ecological theory. (A) The theory that is presented in this volume
considers these fundamental processes by combining aspects of neutral, metabolic, and niche
theory into a unified framework (NMN theory) that can be used for studying large-scale bio-
diversity patterns. While previous theories focused on dispersal and speciation (neutral theory),
or dispersal-environment relations (niche theory), or how evolution is shaped by the environ-
ment (metabolic theory), we are modeling all three processes and their relationships in a syn-
thetic, mathematically explicit framework. (B) In a previous conceptual synthesis, Vellend
(2010, 2016) identifies four fundamental processes that shape local, regional, and global com-
munity structure and biodiversity: speciation, random drift, and selection shape local, regional,
and global species pools, whereas dispersal drives the exchange of species across these pools.
CONCLUSIONS 173

energy (typically measured as average surface temperature) was the only factor
that empirically correlated with areas of high diversity across all realms we inves-
tigated (chapter 3). Notable exceptions included cold-adapted endotherms such
as pinnipeds, and deep-sea species, which occur in environments that are near-
uniformly cold, with very limited temperature variation. Within each realm, we
found that variables related to habitat area and productivity were also important
(see table 3.6), both of which constrain the number of individuals in a community.
Based on this empirical synthesis, we attempted to devise a body of theory
that might explain observed biodiversity patterns within and across taxa (chap-
ter 4). The idea was to examine the ecological and evolutionary processes by
which empirically documented predictors could affect diversity—for example,
by changing community size or turnover, influencing the speed of evolution, or
constraining dispersal. From this theoretical framework, we built a global meta-
community model that could simulate these processes, singularly or in combina-
tion, and generate global biodiversity patterns, thus enabling us to investigate their
relative influence. This work entailed a synthesis of three largely separate bodies
of ecological theory—namely, neutral theory (Bell 2001; Hubbell 2001), which
includes dispersal and speciation; metabolic theory (Allen et al. 2002; Brown
et al. 2004), which parametrizes environmental constraints on metabolic activity
and speciation rates; and niche theory (Hutchinson 1957; Pearman et al. 2008;
Beaugrand et al. 2013), which links the environment to constraints on dispersal
(fig. 7.1A). Hence, we developed a synthetic theory that attempted to reconcile
previously idiosyncratic patterns of global biodiversity on land and in the ocean,
and produced generally strong fits to the empirical data via our model implemen-
tation (chapter 5).
Somewhat surprisingly, this theory suggests that only two variables are required
to predict the majority of first-order patterns of biodiversity on our planet—
namely, ambient temperature and community size. Temperature primarily affects
the rate of community turnover and the speed of evolution, while community size
determines the number of individuals on which evolutionary processes can act.
To use a chemical analogy, a community of individuals may be equivalent to the
number of molecules reacting with each other in a test tube: the more molecules
are interacting, and the higher the temperature, the higher the probability that
new compounds will form purely by chance. Or, by similar analogy, life emerged
on a primitive Earth almost 4 billion years ago (Tashiro et al. 2017), presumably
through random chemical reactions at elevated temperature, whereas more com-
plex organic compounds formed from simpler inorganic precursors (Miller and
Orgel 1974). This analogy also helps us to highlight a significant weakness of the
theory—namely, that the step from random mutations and molecular evolution to
speciation rate is not mechanistically resolved, much like the step from randomly
174 CHAPTER 7

formed organic compounds to functioning cells is not clear. Even though our
theory is not fully mechanistic due to this gap in understanding, it is encouraging
that with an assumed link between temperature and speciation rate, and realistic
spatial structure, the global patterns of biodiversity are captured surprisingly well
(chapter 5).
The empirical and theoretical synthesis offered here may therefore help in some
way to resolve a long-standing debate on the causes and mechanisms that underlie
observed patterns of species richness at large scales (Rohde 1992; Gaston 2000;
Gotelli et al. 2009; Brown 2014). From a theoretical perspective, this is significant
because it sheds light on some of the processes that may drive first-order bio-
geographic patterns on our planet. From an applied perspective, this knowledge
has relevance for understanding and conserving global biodiversity in the face
of human impacts and global environmental change (chapter 6). From a methods
perspective, our theory provides a flexible “modeling toolbox” to test alternative
hypotheses on the relative importance of changes in environmental factors (for
example, temperature, productivity), metacommunity processes (for example, dis-
persal), ecological attributes (for example, niche width), or even sampling effects
(for example, the mid-domain effect) in driving the spatial organization of bio-
diversity. Of course, this toolbox could be extended, as there are many other pro-
cesses (for example, the effects of large-scale disturbances, or habitat complexity)
that could be specified and tested within this modeling framework. Ultimately, we
hope that others will take our approach as a starting point and push it further, by
improving the realism, confronting it with more data, specifying missing mecha-
nisms, or invoking alternative hypotheses and approaches. We consider our theo-
retical and modeling framework as complementary to the statistical modeling more
commonly used in macroecology and biodiversity science (Gotelli et al. 2009).
Notwithstanding some outstanding questions about specific mechanisms, we hope
that our work will help spur the development and growth of mechanistic macro-
ecology, a more process-oriented approach to understanding large-scale patterns of
biological variation (Purves et al. 2013; Harfoot et al. 2014).

7.2. ECOLOGICAL THEORY

Our work is founded on the Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Bio-
geography (Hubbell 2001), which itself built on the Theory of Island Biogeography
(MacArthur and Wilson 1967). Both are neutral models, in which no inherent eco-
logical differences among species need to be invoked to explain observed patterns
of species richness. While MacArthur and Wilson’s theory focused on local ecolog-
ical processes, specifically local community size and dispersal, Hubbell extended
CONCLUSIONS 175

this to include the process of evolution—namely, by incorporating a term for spe-

ciation. Likewise, our theory combines ecological and evolutionary processes—
namely, speciation-extinction and dispersal-colonization dynamics (see fig. 7.1).
We then translated this theory into a spatially explicit model by adapting Hubbell’s
neutral metacommunity approach to a global scale, and then adding empirically
documented constraints on both evolutionary (such as temperature-driven meta-
bolic rates) and ecological (thermal niches, barriers to dispersal) processes. In its
full implementation, the model relaxes the assumption of neutrality, such that spe-
cies can differ in their realized speciation rate (depending on the observed tempera-
ture) and environmental tolerance (depending on their thermal niche).
Despite including a variety of key processes, the model is still very simple,
involving a maximum of four free parameters—namely, local community size (J)
speciation rate (v), dispersal rate (m), and thermal niche width (w)—and a limited
number of constants such as metacommunity size (JM), and the Boltzmann and
activation energy constants specified by metabolic theory. Any of the three param-
eters can be muted or amplified, allowing exploration of the relative importance
of different processes in driving community composition and diversity. Similarly,
the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms in our model can be individually
switched on or off. In our explorations, we consistently found that speciation rate
and community size were the most important variables in explaining contrasts in
species richness. This is similar to results obtained by Hubbell (2001), who found
that one could predict a wide range of local community properties from speciation
rate and metacommunity size, which he combined into a composite parameter, the
fundamental biodiversity number . Yet neutral theory so far has not yet been able
to predict large-scale patterns of biodiversity, because it did not specify the effects
of environmental drivers such as temperature or productivity on speciation rate
and community size, respectively. This was accomplished here by an integration
of neutral and metabolic theory.
Surveying a wide range of models and theories in community ecology, Vellend
(2010) highlighted that patterns in the composition and diversity of species are
fundamentally influenced by only four processes: selection, drift, speciation, and
dispersal (see fig. 7.1B). Selection, in his notation, represents deterministic fitness
differences among species, drift represents stochastic changes in species abun-
dance, speciation creates new species, and dispersal is the movement of organ-
isms across space (Vellend 2010). He suggested that all models in community
ecology could be understood through the lens of these processes, but that none
actually included all four of them. Vellend (2010) then conceptualized a general
theory of community dynamics, in which species are added to communities via
speciation and dispersal, and the relative abundances of these species are then
shaped by drift and selection, as well as ongoing dispersal, to drive community
176 CHAPTER 7

dynamics (see fig. 7.1B). This theory was later implemented in a neutral two-
species community model that served to illustrate some of the underlying pro-
cesses (Vellend 2016), and hypotheses generated by the theory were discussed
and compared against empirical data. Generally, there are conceptual similarities
between Vellend (2016) and our volume, the major differences being the inclusion
of metabolic theory, and the focus on large-scale biogeographic patterns herein
(see fig. 7.1A). We believe that our theory is the first of global biodiversity to inte-
grate all of Velland’s key processes, re-create them in a model, and translate their
effects from local communities to the global scale. Our theory might also be con-
sidered “efficient” sensu Marquet et al. (2014), as it is grounded in first principles
and mathematical expressions, makes few assumptions, generates a large number
of predictions per free parameter, and enables the testing of model predictions
against empirical data, as demonstrated in chapter 5. We are, of course, aware
of its limitations, and of the trade-offs between simplicity and realism. Thus, we
make no claims of providing a final answer to some of these questions; this is
merely a first attempt at reconciling some fundamental processes in a relatively
coarse, abstract, and simple approach.

7.3. A NICHE FOR NEUTRALITY?

Our theory might perhaps help to inform an ongoing debate on the importance
of neutral (independent of species traits) versus niche (species-specific adapta-
tions) processes in shaping macroecological patterns. We find that on the large
scales that we consider here, thermal niches do not emerge as a major factor in
the generation of global species richness patterns, though they do have a clear
influence on both species composition and community turnover (chapter 4).
Indeed, if we were concerned with the identity of the species that make up our
local communities, or with metrics that took such identities into account, then
niches would clearly play a large role in constraining those. However, reason-
ably realistic latitudinal distributions along temperature gradients consistently
emerged in a neutral-metabolic metacommunity whether niches were assumed
or not. Our model results suggested that the average species will not establish a
large range, not necessarily because of limited niche width, but because of the
difficulty of colonizing new habitats and establishing a larger range across suc-
cessive neighboring communities (Note that the model assumption of zero-sum
ecological dynamics is important in this context.) The model results indicated that
it is far more likely for a new species to become extinct than it is for it to grow in
abundance and to spread to other regions. Thermal niches did significantly con-
strain realized niches only in cases where we assumed every disturbance led to a
CONCLUSIONS 177

metacommunity dispersal event (equivalent to unconstrained dispersal in an open

metacommunity). This might be a reasonable scenario in the pelagic realm, where
species are very mobile and may disperse widely (Block et al. 2011; Beaugrand
2014), showing wider geographic and thermal niches than their coastal counter-
parts (see fig. 4.13). Yet a high dispersal scenario with niches did not provide an
improved prediction of the observed data, even for pelagic taxa (see fig. 5.8). Of
course, thermal niches are an important and heavily conserved feature of individ-
ual biology (Peterson et al. 1999). They are clearly important for species’ realized
distributions under a given set of environmental constraints (Sunday et al. 2011)
and strongly influence local community composition and its response to changing
climates (Sunday et al. 2012; Pinsky et al. 2013; Beaugrand et al. 2015). More-
over, the niche concept invokes a multidimensional axis, along which a species’
ecological operating space is defined (Hutchinson 1957). Such multidimensional
niches have not been considered in the framework of this theory, although this
could be a possible extension for further work.
The niche versus neutrality debate highlights a key difference in terms of con-
ceptualizing ecological processes. Here, we are emphasizing the perspective of
(meta-)communities rather than that of individual species. That is, we are look-
ing at aggregate community properties, specifically the total number of individ-
uals and species, without being necessarily interested in their identity. For any
given species, dispersal and niche limitations may both be constraining, as shown
empirically for plankton communities (Chust et al. 2012), for example. But from
the perspective of a whole community, and when integrating over evolutionary
timescales, turnover in species identities may be less important for the long-term
dynamics in species richness at large sales, which may be driven primarily by
changes in speciation rate and community size. Interestingly, these conclusions
are not unlike those of Vellend (2016), based on his more local theory of eco-
logical communities. Therefore, the niche versus neutrality debate might perhaps
move towards reconciliation by taking into account multiple viewpoints (species
or community), timescales (ecological versus evolutionary), and metrics (focus-
ing on species identities or broader properties).

7.4. SPATIAL SCALE

One of the fundamental premises of this book was the focus on large scales, spe-
cifically on regional to global patterns and drivers of biodiversity. Patterns and
drivers of biodiversity do change across scales, however, likely becoming more
idiosyncratic at smaller grain sizes, as local variations in ecological interactions
and processes become more important in selecting from the regional species pool.
178 CHAPTER 7

For land vertebrates, for example, it has been shown that the predictability of spe-
cies richness patterns decreases sharply at smaller scales and that temperature and
moisture as major drivers of species richness are replaced by other factors, such
as productivity and environmental heterogeneity (Belmaker and Jetz 2011). This
means that our theory at present captures some global-scale processes at coarse
resolution quite well, but would need to be modified to apply at smaller scales.
One advantage of our metacommunity model is that it is easily scalable. While
we considered only a tractable number of local communities (<1000), each of
which was unrealistically small, there is no reason, other than computational
cost, why this could not be scaled up to include many thousands of local com-
munities, each of which could include large numbers of individuals. Our limited
explorations in chapter 4 suggested that increasing the number of individuals in
each local community does not qualitatively change the observed patterns (see
also Tittensor and Worm 2016). Fitting a conceptually similar model to local or
regional data and using realistic dispersal constraints would allow a closer look
at processes operating at a variety of scales. As such, this approach could perhaps
help to illuminate and test hypotheses about cross-scale variation in the processes
and drivers of species richness.

7.5. ECOLOGICAL VERSUS EVOLUTIONARY TIME

Several authors have recently called upon ecologists to better integrate ecological
and evolutionary processes in the study of communities and ecosystems (Fritz
et al. 2013; Mannion et al. 2014; Weigelt et al. 2016). Our theory attempts such
integration in an effort to explain global biodiversity patterns (see fig. 7.1). Within
this framework, and over evolutionary timescales, assumed thermal effects on
speciation emerge as the most general process that determines the speed at which
new species evolve. At ecological timescales, habitat area and productivity adjust
the number of individuals that can be supported, and thereby affect the number of
species in a community. This also relates to spatial scale: at local scales, contem-
porary ecological drivers appear important in determining community size and
selecting from the regional species pool. At larger scales, the size of the species
pool, as determined by evolutionary drivers, becomes more important (Vellend
2016). This change from ecological to evolutionary drivers with increasing spatial
scale might help to explain the empirically observed shift from productivity and
habitat at smaller scales to temperature as the major environmental predictor at
larger scales (see fig. 3.2 and data in Belmaker and Jetz 2011).
Biogeographically, the global distribution of thermal energy from a hot equa-
tor to cold poles is determined by the angle of the planet toward the sun, which
CONCLUSIONS 179

is approximately stable over evolutionary time, though with variation related to

regular Milankovitch cycles (Bennett 1990). As such, it makes sense that some
latitudinal biodiversity gradient has persisted through time (Stehli et al. 1969;
Yasuhara et al. 2012; Mannion et al. 2014). In contrast to the relative stability of
global temperature gradients, changes in habitat area and productivity have been
more dynamic. Indeed, these factors can show dramatic changes over both space
and time—for example, through tectonic processes—and hence lead to varying
patterns of species diversity such as “hopping hotspots” (Renema et al. 2008).
Likewise, historic patterns of productivity and habitat area can leave a clear
imprint on present-day patterns of diversity, shown both on continents (Jetz and
Fine 2012) and on islands (Weigelt et al. 2016). We are as yet unable to include
such temporal process variation within our coalescence model, although these
could, at least conceptually, be implemented in our forward-simulation approach.
We suggest, however, that such temporal-spatial variation in habitat area and
productivity is unlikely to override or reverse the long-term evolutionary signal
of an equator-to-pole temperature gradient. Maybe the evolutionary primacy of
temperature is one reason why this driver explains most of the variation in species
richness across taxa, with habitat explaining a smaller proportion for most spe-
cies groups (for example, Tittensor et al. 2010). Somewhat surprisingly, this also
applies to mammals and birds, which operate at near-constant body temperature,
yet are affected at least to some extent by the effects of ambient temperature
(chapters 3 and 5), either directly or indirectly. While the precise mechanism by
which ambient temperature drives evolutionary rates in these species groups is
not necessarily clear, there is substantial empirical evidence for faster evolution-
ary rates in the tropics, both for ectotherms and for endotherms (Gillman et al.
2009; Gillman and Wright 2014), as well as higher origination rates in warmer
environments (Jablonski et al. 2006), and during warmer periods over Earth’s his-
tory (Mayhew et al. 2012).

7.6. APPLICATIONS

A clear understanding of biodiversity patterns, drivers, and mechanisms is

required for global conservation planning, particularly in the face of rapid envi-
ronmental change. A global synthesis of species richness such as presented in
chapter 2 may help with prioritization of areas of elevated biodiversity, threat,
and vulnerability, though perhaps could be repeated at a finer resolution where
possible. The empirical outcome that patterns of biodiversity are highly correlated
across species groups, and almost universally linked to temperature, habitat area,
and productivity, also means that we need to pay particular attention to these
180 CHAPTER 7

factors in conservation biology. Temperature, habitat availability, and productiv-

ity are perhaps the three aspects of our planet most strongly influenced by people,
and all three have been changing rapidly since the industrial revolution (Lotze
and McClenachan 2013; Waters et al. 2016). Clearly, a permanently changed bio-
sphere will produce novel communities and altered patterns of species richness in
the short term, but also affect the course of evolution in the long term. Of course,
these are not fundamentally new insights, as hotspots of richness, temperature
change, and habitat change have been previously suggested as global conservation
priorities (Tittensor et al. 2010; Selig et al. 2014; Beaugrand et al. 2015). What is
new, however, is that we can now potentially integrate our understanding of the
ecological and evolutionary processes that may generate biodiversity patterns in
the first place with our knowledge of the major human impacts that compromise
biodiversity. This integrated understanding may one day help us to predict future
changes from a more mechanistic basis, and taking ecological and well as evolu-
tionary dynamics into account. In this context, however, it is important to recall
that we are not, within our framework, able to predict any real-world changes
in species composition or identity, due to neutral model assumptions. We focus
on aggregate variables concerning communities of competing organisms at the
same trophic level, though models for different trophic groups could potentially
be “stacked” and interact with each other. These limitations do of course restrict
applications in conservation biology, which often maintains a focus on specific
threatened species or species groups. However, there is also an increasing focus
on whole-ecosystem approaches, and a growing interest in process-based model-
ing to be utilized for global conservation planning (Purves et al. 2013; Harfoot
et al. 2014).

7.7. LIMITATIONS

We prefer our theory of global biodiversity to be interpreted as a series of hypoth-

eses that are established through empirical and theoretical synthesis, and then
tested and explored using a simple model that generates patterns from first princi-
ples based on putative mechanisms. The approach will continue to be confronted
by new and additional data, and we remain excited to find out how well, or poorly,
it may meet those challenges. Indeed, often it is the times when a model does not
fit well that are the most informative and interesting (Hilborn and Mangel 1997),
and it is in this spirit that we present our theory and recognize its many limita-
tions, the most important of which we list here.
The neutral model, as it was originally developed, was geared toward organ-
isms of a similar trophic level competing for similar sets of resources, hence
CONCLUSIONS 181

resulting in zero-sum dynamics (Hubbell 2001). Thus, our approach does not
explicitly include trophic interactions such as predation or competition (though
mortality events may implicitly be caused by either). Other effects that are miss-
ing, but are known to be important, include the effects of habitat complexity and
body size. We propose that these are reasonable assumptions and limitations for a
first iteration of our model framework applied to very large scales.
Fully neutral models also have recognized limitations or assumptions in terms
of their simplified representation of speciation, assumptions of species equiva-
lence, evolutionary rates, and variable fit to empirical patterns (Bell 2001; Gravel
et al. 2006; Rosindell et al. 2011; Marquet et al. 2014). In part, such limitations
have provided incentive for us to relax the assumption of neutrality and to include
potentially important differences among species—for example, with respect to
their thermal tolerances. At the same time, we agree with other commentators
who have pointed out that grossly simplified models can be very useful tools even
when some of their assumptions are “wrong” (as with any model), by helping to
inform us which processes may be important (Marquet et al. 2014).
Other inherent limitations of our model framework relate to abstractions in time
and space. In particular, we do not attempt to define a specific temporal period
that corresponds to each model time step. This is especially true for our modi-
fied version of Hubbell’s model, which features probabilistic selection of single
local communities for disturbance, rather than simultaneous or probabilistic dis-
turbance of all communities. Our representation of time and time-specific rates is
thus abstracted, and not easily comparable to empirically measured time steps or
rates. Our model is also running on a coarse spatial grid, but using very small local
communities, mostly for reasons of computational efficiency. At such scales, and
particularly when fitting to a global grid, the meaning of a model “individual” does
not equate to an individual in the real world, but more likely to a population. While
we have tested both finer resolution metacommunities and larger local communi-
ties, we recognize that neither of these scenarios is strictly “realistic.” The same
goes for our parameter values of speciation rate and dispersal rate. Because both
are scaled relative to a theoretical time step, of unspecified length, these rates do
not yet have solid empirical grounding, but serve as tools for exploring fundamen-
tal processes. Again, we emphasize that this is a theoretical model that strives more
for simplicity, tractability, and understanding rather than realism.
In summary, the degree of valid inference is limited by the simple nature of the
mechanistic model that we derived. The emphasis here is on first-order patterns
and processes, and model assumptions remain to be scrutinized or challenged by
future work. Nonetheless, at present, no equivalent model exists, so we under-
stand this as a “first step” rather than a finish line. The model in its simplicity and
generality can be extended in many ways—for example, to include other factors
182 CHAPTER 7

such as environmental variability and large-scale disturbances, and test alterna-

tive hypotheses related to these and other processes.

7.8. FINAL OUTLOOK

How does species richness vary across the planet, and can we predict some of the
observed patterns from simple ecological theory and first principles? In this vol-
ume, we have developed a synthetic empirical understanding of global patterns
in species richness and developed a theory that can predict first-order patterns of
species richness on land and in the sea. Much work remains to be done in testing,
revising, and extending this theory. In closing, we point out some of the further
research questions we see emerging from this work.
Clearly, more detailed analysis should be conducted to explain spatial patterns
of biodiversity, especially at finer spatial grains. Given the greater availability
of data on land and recent integration in global databases, it may be feasible to
understand patterns and mechanisms in finer detail than in the ocean. This might
also provide new insights about changing drivers and correlates of diversity across
scales (Belmaker and Jetz 2011) and the factors that shape the exchange between
local, regional, and global species pools (Vellend 2010, 2016).
Another open question is how the speed of evolution in endotherms and ecto-
therms is related to environmental conditions. How do gradients in temperature
or productivity affect these groups similarly or differently? It is interesting, for
example, that vascular plants (see fig. 2.8) and mammals on land (see fig. 2.9)
show very similar geographic patterns of biodiversity, whereas those patterns
diverge in the oceans for the same species groups (compare seagrasses and man-
groves [see fig. 2.3] to cetaceans and pinnipeds [see figs. 2.4 and 2.6]). Yet in both
environments, these groups strongly relate to gradients in surface temperature,
albeit in different ways (see fig. 3.4). Clearly, the mechanistic basis of these rela-
tionships is not well resolved, especially for endotherms, but is an area of active
research (Gillman and Wright 2014).
More broadly, our model could also be used to explore other macroecologi-
cal patterns and biodiversity attributes in greater detail, such as species-area or
range-abundance relationships. We have touched on this in our investigations of
Rapoport’s rule (see fig. 4.15), but clearly there is much more that can be done.
Our strong focus on global richness has not allowed for much detailed exploration
of other facets of biodiversity, but such work could potentially be accomplished
with the tools and data at hand.
It would also be fascinating to examine past patterns of species richness under
previous environmental regimes, and to test some of the ideas that are emerging
CONCLUSIONS 183

in paleontology about dynamic changes in biodiversity throughout Earth’s his-

tory (Renema et al. 2008; Mannion et al. 2012; Mannion et al. 2014). Can we
reconstruct diversity patterns at various points in the past? As fundamental eco-
logical laws on thermodynamics and resource availability should apply to all time
periods, such an approach would generate “temporal replicates” to examine the
ideas presented in this volume.
Likewise, potential applications in astrobiology would be fascinating to
explore. Would temperature and habitat also have primacy in shaping richness
patterns of life forms on other planets, which may well be based on alternative
molecular building blocks and levels of organization? How do fundamental ther-
modynamic laws shape the course of evolution, no matter the circumstances?
Clearly, there appears much room for exploration of the general principles that
have shaped and continue to shape the distribution of life in our world, and pos-
sibly others. In looking back on what we have learned from the last 200 years of
biodiversity research, we contend that life on Earth conforms to a set of universal
laws that we must understand—and respect—in order to succeed in our quest for
beneficial coexistence with those millions of other species that grace and define
our planet.
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 Index

Age of the Enlightenment, 5 to diversity metrics, 48–50; robustness of

Aichi Targets, 169 documented patterns, 44–50; robustness to
amphibians: climate-related extinctions of, 158; sampling methodology, 45–48; robustness
environmental predictors of species richness to taxonomic resolution, 45; spatial scale
across scales, 74–75; global biodiversity data of patterns and drivers of, 177–78; species
fit, 129; species richness of, 38, 39; synthesis richness as measure of, 11–12; term, 8;
of global biodiversity patterns, 53; terrestrial terrestrial, 35–41; understanding patterns,
biodiversity, 135, 138 drivers and mechanisms of, 179–80
angiosperms (flowering plants): species rich- biodiversity change: direction of global
ness of, 18, 19 impacts on, 156; disturbance and exploita-
Antarctic icefishes, 23, 68 88 tion, 160–62; drivers of observed, 155–62;
Arabian Peninsula, 41, 168 habitat area and productivity, 159–60; model
Arabian Sea: biodiversity, 41, 42 implementation, 156, 162; projecting, from
Arctic Archipelago, 83 theory, 162–69; projections from neutral-
Arctic macrobenthos, 157–58 metabolic-niche model, 165–69; projections
Arrhenius function, 61 from species distribution models, 163–65;
astrobiology, 183 recent trends, 170; temperature and climate
Ausubel, Jesse, 7 change, 157–59
biodiversity hotspots: changes over time,
bacteria: cyanobacteria, 24; diversity of marine 41–43; as conservation priorities, 150–53;
bacteria, 27–28; environmental predictors of, for corals, 15
91; niches and, 121 biogeography, 2, 5; of endotherms, 137; large-
bacterioplankton, 53 scale, 10; of pelagic organisms, 43; theory of
bears, sensitivity of biodiversity patterns to island, 8, 65, 71, 72, 94, 109, 149, 174
taxonomic resolution, 45, 46 birds: environmental predictors of species rich-
benthic (seafloor-associated) 31; fauna, 34, 91; ness across scales, 74–75; species richness
foraminifera, 34, 41, 42; invertebrates, 87; of, 38, 39–40; synthesis of global bio-
nematodes, 34 diversity patterns, 53
billfish. See tuna and billfish bivalves, 11, 43; environmental predictors of
biodiversity: awareness of crisis of, 4–5; brief species richness, 77, 91; functional richness
history of research, 5–8; changes in pat- and evenness, 50; global biodiversity of,
terns through time, 41–44; complexity of 128, 129; marine biodiversity of, 13, 14;
Earth’s, 1–2; deep-sea, 31–35; experimental species richness of, 15, 17–18; synthesis of
toolbox for, 147; first-order pattern of, 3, global biodiversity patterns, 52; univari-
173–74; future of, 169–70; global patterns ate relationship of species richness and sea
of, 10–12; global trends in pressures, states surface temperature, 86
and societal responses, 170; implementation Bonpland, Aimé, 5
of global impacts on, 156; large-scale pat- brittle stars (ophiuroids), 32; deep-sea spatial
terns of, 8–9; marine and terrestrial habitats, richness, 33; global biodiversity data fit, 129;
4; marine coastal, 12–24; marine pelagic, species richness patterns, 16, 17, 18; synthe-
24–31; mathematical theory of patterns, sis of global biodiversity patterns, 52, 53
6–7; phylogenetic richness, 50; relationship brown algae: genus richness, 20
208 INDEX

carnivores: sensitivity of biodiversity patterns 119; species richness of, 21, 22; synthesis of
to taxonomic resolution, 46–47 global biodiversity patterns, 52; univariate
cats, sensitivity of biodiversity patterns to relationship of species richness and sea sur-
taxonomic resolution, 45 face temperature, 83. See also pelagic sharks
Census of Marine Life, 7 coastal vertebrates: biodiversity of, 20–23;
cephalopods, pelagic, 28. See also coastal bony fishes, 20–21, 22; marine mammals,
cephalopods 23; pinnipeds, 22, 23; sharks, 21, 22; species
cetaceans, 182; environmental predictors of richness patterns, 22. See also coastal sharks
species richness, 78; global biodiversity coccolithophores, 27
data fit, 129; predicting biodiversity of community size, 94, 138; coastal biodiversity
endotherms, 140; species richness of, 29, 30; and, 127, 128; deep-sea biodiversity and,
synthesis of global biodiversity patterns, 53; 132–33; ecological theory, 174–75; frontal
univariate relationship of species richness habits and, 143; global species richness
and sea surface temperature, 83 patterns and, 176; habitat area and, 121, 125,
Challenger expedition, 5, 32 162, 169; local, 97–99, 109, 111, 115, 125,
clades, 13 146; metacommunity, 99, 103, 106, 128;
climate change, biodiversity changes by, 157–59 model implementation, 94, 156; optimal
coalescence approach, 95; implementation of, scaling of, 127; pelagic biodiversity and,
101–4; implementation of thermal niche in, 132, 133, 134; productivity and, 121, 125,
114; latitudinal biodiversity gradient, 108; 160, 167, 169; temperature and, 173–74;
transient biodiversity gradient comparison, terrestrial biodiversity and, 135–38
106; simulation, 96, 106, 107, 108, 127; community turnover, 62; in forward mode, 101,
temporal process variation, 179 102; hypothesized diversity mechanism, 58,
coastal biodiversity: hotspots of species rich- 59; in metabolic theory, 104–6; model imple-
ness across taxa, 154; model fit to global mentation, 156, 162; temperature and, 108,
biodiversity data, 129; predicting, 130; 110, 126, 157, 168, 173; thermal energy and,
predictions, 127–32; sensitivity of predic- 58, 94; transient biodiversity gradient, 106
tions for, 131 cone snails: environmental predictors of spe-
coastal cephalopods: environmental predictors cies richness, 91; global biodiversity data fit,
of species richness, 77, 91; global biodiver- 129; species richness patterns of, 16, 17, 18;
sity data fit, 129; species richness patterns, synthesis of global biodiversity patterns, 52;
16, 17, 18; synthesis of global biodiversity univariate relationship of species richness
patterns, 52; univariate relationship of spe- and sea surface temperature, 86
cies richness and sea surface temperature, 84 connectivity, global impact on biodiversity, 156
coastal ectotherms: changes in future richness conservation biology: applications of eco-
of, 168; predicting coastal biodiversity, 130; logical theory in, 149–50, 179–80; hotspot
sensitivity of predictions for, 131 approach to priorities, 150–55; ongoing
coastal habitats: biodiversity of invertebrates, biodiversity change and its drivers, 155–62;
13–18; biodiversity of plants, 18–20; biodi- projecting biodiversity change from theory,
versity of vertebrates, 20–23; definition of, 162–69; species-rich hotspots, 151–53
12; features of, 12–13; synthesis of global Continuous Plankton Recorder, 27
biodiversity patterns, 52; synthesis of latitu- Convention on Biological Diversity, 170
dinal biodiversity patterns, 54 copepods: species richness of, 27; synthesis of
coastal invertebrates: biodiversity, 13–18; spe- global biodiversity patterns, 52
cies richness of, 16–17, 87–88 corals, 43, 97; environmental predictors of
coastal plants: biodiversity, 18–20; spe- species richness, 77, 91; global biodiversity
cies richness of, 19. See also mangroves; data fit, 129; species richness of, 15, 16–17,
seagrasses 18; synthesis of global biodiversity patterns,
coastal sharks: environmental predictors of 52; temperature and climate change, 158;
species richness, 77, 91; global biodiversity univariate relationship of species richness
data fit, 129; ranges and thermal niches in, and sea surface temperature, 85
INDEX 209

coral triangle, 15, 17, 153 predictors of diversity, 58; limiting diversity,
crayfish: environmental predictors of species 58, 66–70; more individuals hypothesis,
richness, 89, 91; synthesis of global bio- 57, 59, 65, 93, 109; observed biodiversity
diversity patterns, 53 change and, 155–62; productivity as, 58,
64–65; promoting diversity, 58, 59–66;
Darwin, Charles, 3, 6 relating to habitat, 58, 71–73; seasonality as,
deep ocean: environmental predictors of spe- 58, 70; solar energy as, 59–60; spatial scale
cies richness in, 81 of biodiversity, 177–78; surface temperature
deep-sea biodiversity, 31–35; global patterns, as, 58, 60–64
33–34; model fit to global biodiversity data,
129; predicting, 135; predictions, 132–33; Earth: greenhouse periods of history, 43
regional studies, 34–35; sensitivity of predic- Earth System Models, 168
tions for, 136; synthesis of, 35 ecological equivalents, 97
deep-sea ectotherms: sensitivity of predictions ecological theory: neutral two-species com-
for, 136 munity model, 176; processes influencing
deep-sea habitat: synthesis of latitudinal bio- community ecology, 175–76; separate bodies
diversity patterns, 54 of, 173; synthesis in, 172
deep-sea species: ambient temperature as ecological timescale, 55, 59, 75, 76, 157, 177,
predictor, 85–87; benthic fauna, 34; benthic 178; evolutionary vs., 178–79
nematodes, 34 efficient theory, 94
diatoms, 24, 27, 43 Encyclopedia of Life, 7
dispersal, 76, 89; capacities for, 18, 20–21, environmental predictors: changes in, with
43; in coastal biodiversity, 131; in deep-sea depth, 79; of diversity, 76, 82–88; special
biodiversity, 136; ecological theory, 172, richness in pelagic realm, 78; species rich-
175; effect on global gradients in species ness in coastal realm, 77, 91; of species
richness, 118; effect of niches on, 142–43; richness in deep ocean, 81, 91; of species
influencing community ecology, 175–76; richness in surface ocean, 80, 91; of spe-
limitation, 31, 43–44, 51, 121, 123, 164; in cies richness on land, 81–82, 88–90, 91; of
metacommunity model, 94–104, 111, 112, vascular plant species richness on land, 79,
124; in model implementation, 156; neutral- 91; synthesis of 89–91; vertebrate species
metabolic-niche model, 114–17; in pelagic richness across scales, 74–75
biodiversity, 132, 134; period, 13; rates, 27, environmental stability: driver promoting
71, 104, 111, 112, 114, 117, 121, 127, 146, diversity, 58, 65–66
162; in terrestrial biodiversity, 139 environmental stress: definition of, 66; drivers
disturbance: biodiversity changes, 160–62; limiting diversity, 58, 67–69
drivers limiting diversity, 58, 69–70; inter- Eocene (late middle): biodiversity hotspots
mediate disturbance hypothesis, 70 during, 41, 42
diversity: hypothesized drivers of, 57–73; pat- Escherichia coli, 67
terns of and changes in, 4–5; sensitivity of eukaryotes, 1, 36, 51, 61
vertebrate patterns, to taxonomic resolution, euphausiids: environmental predictors of spe-
46–47; spatial and temporal scales, 73–76. cies richness, 78, 91; global biodiversity data
See also biodiversity fit, 129; species richness of, 25, 26, 27, 132;
domain, 73 synthesis of global biodiversity patterns, 52;
drivers, 56; disturbance as, 58, 69–70; univariate relationship of species richness
environmental, of diversity over deep and sea surface temperature, 86
time, 63; environmental stability as, 58, evolution: process of, 175; “Red Queen” effect
65–66; environmental stress as, 58, 67–69; of, 64
evolutionary time as, 58, 65–66; global evolutionary-speed hypothesis, 59, 60, 93
impacts on biodiversity, 156; habitat area evolutionary time: driver promoting diversity,
as, 58, 71–72; habitat complexity as, 58, 72; 58, 65–66; ecological vs., 178–79; time-
habitat domain as, 58, 73; hypothesized, and scales, 55, 59, 75, 157, 177, 178
210 INDEX

exploitation: biodiversity changes, 160–62 in interpreting theory of, 180–82; marine

export productivity, 32, 86, 91, 92, 127, 132, coastal biodiversity, 12–24; marine pelagic
135 biodiversity, 24–31; model fit of data by
extinction, 4, 6: global, 100, 149, 161; habitat habitat, 129; theory of, 94; total species rich-
area and, 71–72; mass events, 43, 63, 66, ness and human impact, 151–52. See also
161; in metacommunity model, 94–95; rates theory development
of, 44, 57, 58, 65, 69, 71, 90, 109, 125; risk Global Biodiversity Information Facility
of, 116, 120, 158; seasonality hypothesis, 70; (GBIF), 7, 10
speciation and, 70, 72, 94–95, 111, 122, 146, global biodiversity patterns: synthesis of,
163, 175; warming and climate-related, 158 50–55
global biodiversity predictions: coastal biodiver-
first-order pattern, global biodiversity, 2, 3, sity, 127–32; deep-sea biodiversity, 132–33,
173–74 135; ectotherms vs. endotherms, 137, 142; of
fish: disturbance effects on species richness, endotherms, 140–41; implementing theory,
161; environmental predictors of species 124–25; including niches, 142–43, 144–45;
richness, 77, 91; freshwater, 40, 48, 53, 161; metacommunity size, 125–27; pelagic biodi-
global biodiversity data fit, 129; sensitivity versity, 132, 133, 134; relationship of number
of diversity patterns to sampling methods, of individuals and habitat area or productivity,
48, 49; species richness of bony, 21, 22; 127; synthesis, 145–48; terrestrial biodiver-
synthesis of global biodiversity patterns, 53; sity, 135, 137, 138, 139
temperature and climate-driven changes in, global metacommunity model, 98, 99; biodi-
157; univariate relationship of species rich- versity gradient from community turnover,
ness and sea surface temperature, 84 106; comparison with original results, 102
flowering plants, species richness of, 18, 19 Grassle, Fred, 7
foraminifera: benthic, 34, 41, 42; changes green algae: genus richness of, 20
in biodiversity hotspots through time, 41, greenhouse climates, 43
42; environmental predictors of species
richness, 78, 91; global biodiversity data habitat: changes in environmental predictors
fit, 129; pelagic, in deep-sea sediments, 43; with depth, 79
richness pattern of pelagic, 87, 132; species habitat area: biodiversity changes, 159–60;
richness of, 25, 26; synthesis of global community size and, 162; driver of diversity,
biodiversity patterns, 52; univariate rela- 71–72; ecological vs. evolutionary time,
tionship of species richness and sea surface 178–79; emergence of biodiversity gradient,
temperature, 85 108; environmental predictor of species rich-
fossil record, 62, 92; bivalve, 44, 50; of marine, ness, 74–75, 90, 92; global impact on bio-
62, 64, 75; of pelagic foraminifera, 43; diversity, 156; influencing diversity patterns,
temperature and speciation rate, 62, 64, 107; 97; modeling effect on species richness, 109,
of terrestrial, 64 110, 111, 121; relationship of number of
freshwater fish. See fish individuals to, 127
freshwater habitat: synthesis of global bio- habitat complexity: driver of diversity, 72, 79
diversity patterns, 53 habitat domain: driver of diversity, 73
freshwater taxa: diversity of, 89–90 Hessler, Robert, 6
functional evenness, 50 “Homage to Santa Rosalia” (Hutchinson), 6
functional richness, 48, 50 hopping hotspots, 41, 75, 179
hotspots, 13; changes in biodiversity, through
Geographic Information Systems (GIS), 10 time, 41, 42; diversity, 147; global diversity,
giant squid (Architeuthis sp.), 24 150–55; hopping, 41, 75, 179; museums
global biodiversity: comparing models, of biodiversity, 44; pattern of hopping, 41;
122–23; first-order pattern of, 2, 3; secondary for coastal fish, 21; of species
hotspot approach to conservation, 150–55; richness across taxa, 152–53, 154
integrating land and sea, 2–5; limitations Hutchinson, Gene Evelyn, 3, 6, 7
INDEX 2 11

Indonesian-Australian Archipelago (IAA), 42, Map of Life, 7

54, 83 marine bacteria: diversity of, 27–28
insects, 1–3, 15, 36, 40 marine coastal biodiversity, 12–24; bivalves,
Institute Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL) Coupled 13, 14; coastal invertebrates, 13, 15, 17–18;
Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), coastal plants, 18–20; coastal vertebrates,
167 20–23; corals, 15, 16, 17; synthesis of, 23–24
instrumentalism, 122 marine habitats: biodiversity in, 3, 4; species
intermediate disturbance hypothesis, 70 richness of, 7–8; of vertebrates, 20
International Union for Conservation of Nature marine pelagic biodiversity, 24–31; nekton,
(IUCN) Red List, 7, 161 28–29; pelagic invertebrates, 25–28; pelagic
invertebrates. See coastal invertebrates vertebrates, 28–29, 30–31; plankton, 25–28;
species richness patterns, 30–31; synthesis
Kleiber’s law, 60, 61 of, 29, 31
krill (Euphausiidae): species richness of, 25, marine snow, 32
26, 27. See also Euphausiids marine species: future projections of coastal,
richness, 166; future projections of species
land: biodiversity of vertebrates, 37–40; richness, 164
climate-related extinctions on, 158; envi- mechanistic macroecology, 174
ronmental predictors of species richness on, metabolic-rate hypothesis, 62
81–82, 88–90; global biodiversity data fit, metabolic theory: of biodiversity, 62, 173;
129; predictions for land ectotherms, 138; processes shaping, 172
species richness of land birds, 38, 39–40; metabolic theory of ecology, 7, 60; temperature
species richness of land plants, 37; species effects on community turnover, 104–5, 106;
richness of mammals, 38, 39–40 temperature effects on speciation rates, 104,
land habitat: synthesis of global biodiversity 107–9. See also theory development
patterns, 53; synthesis of latitudinal biodi- metacommunity model, 93–94; 103–4;
versity patterns, 54 analytical solution for spatial model,
land plants, 43, 146, 151; future projections 95–96; assumptions of, 101; basic steps
for species richness, 167; global biodiversity of, 100–101; coalescence approach, 95;
data fit, 129; terrestrial biodiversity of, 36, coalescence mode, 96, 102–4; community
37, 137, 138 size, 97; forward mode, 101–2, 104; global,
lizards, 158 98, 99; Hubbell’s nonspatial model, 95;
immigration to model, 97–98; implementing
macroalgae: species richness of, 20; synthesis data to theory, 124–28; Moore neighborhood
of global biodiversity patterns, 52 of cellular automata, 98; rescue effect, 100;
macroalgae (Sargassum sp.), 24 sensitivity to speciation and turnover, 111,
macroecology, growth of field, 7 112. See also global biodiversity predictions
mammals: environmental predictors of species microbial plankton: synthesis of global bio-
richness across scales, 74–75; global biodi- diversity patterns, 53
versity data fit, 129; predicting biodiversity microfossils: 6; foraminiferan, 25; utility to
of endotherms, 141; sensitivity of biodiver- track biodiversity patterns, 87
sity patterns to taxonomic resolution, 46–47; mid-domain hypothesis, 73
species richness of, 38, 39–40; synthesis of Milankovitch cycles, 179
global biodiversity patterns, 53; vascular minimal realistic model, 8
plants and, 182 Miocene (early): biodiversity hotspots during,
mangroves, 12, 18, 158; environmental pre- 41, 42
dictors of species richness, 77, 91; global mollusks: loss of, 161; species richness of, 48
biodiversity data fit, 129; species richness of, Moore neighborhood: of cellular automata
18, 19, 20; synthesis of global biodiversity theory, 98; of local community, 99–101, 126;
patterns, 52; univariate relationship of spe- of metacommunity, 95–96
cies richness and sea surface temperature, 85 more-individuals hypothesis, 57, 59, 65, 93, 109
212 INDEX

National Center of Ecological Analysis of pelagic cephalopods, 28

Synthesis (NCEAS), 7 pelagic ectotherms: biodiversity models,
nekton: diversity of vertebrate, 28–29 146–47; sensitivity of predictions, 134;
net primary productivity (NPP): environmental thermal niches effect on model predictions,
predictors of species richness, 74–75, 80, 82 144–45
neutral-metabolic-niche model, 113–16, 121; pelagic habitat: synthesis of global biodiversity
biodiversity model, 171, 172; changes in patterns, 52–53; synthesis of latitudinal bio-
thermal niche width and dispersal rate, 118; diversity patterns, 54
effect on species distribution, abundance and pelagic realm: definition of, 24; environmental
extinction risk, 116, 120; framework of, 172; prediction of species richness in, 78
under high dispersal, 116; under moderate pelagic seabirds (Procellariiformes), 25, 29;
dispersal, 115; niches and latitudinal ranges, environmental predictors of, 76, 78, 91,
114–15; parameter space exploration of, 142; global biodiversity data fit, 129; global
117; projecting biodiversity change from, biodiversity pattern, 28–31, 53
165–69; ranges and thermal niches in coastal pelagic sharks (Chondrichthyes), 28–29, 132;
vs. oceanic sharks, 119; Rapoport’s rule, environmental predictors of, 78, 83, 91;
118, 120–21; regionalization and diversity global biodiversity data fit, 129; global
patterns, 115; temperature effects on species biodiversity pattern, 30–31, 52; ranges and
distribution, 121; thermal niches effects thermal niches in, 119. See also coastal
on individual species, 120. See also theory sharks
development pelagic taxa: sea surface temperature as diver-
neutral model: analytical solution for spatially sity predictor, 83–86
explicit, 95–96; limitations of, 180–81 penguins, 23, 88
neutral theory: assumptions of, 101; basic, photosynthetically active solar radiation (PAR),
94–101; basic mechanics of neutral model 59–60
community, 98; basic steps of model, phylogenetic richness, 50
100–101; global metacommunity model, 98, phytoplankton, 24, 165; ongoing changes, 160;
99, 102, 175–76; processes shaping, 172 temperature niche for, 113, 123
Neutral Theory of Biodiversity, 94, 149, 174 pinnipeds, 88, 128, 142, 146, 173, 182; envi-
niches: conservatism, 67; niche vs. neutrality ronmental predictors of species richness, 77,
debate, 176–77; processes shaping niche 91; global biodiversity data fit, 129; species
theory, 172; theory, 173; thermal niche richness of, 22, 23; synthesis of global
hypothesis, 69. See also neutral-metabolic- biodiversity patterns, 52; univariate relation-
niche model ship of species richness and sea surface
NMN Theory of Global Biodiversity, 172 temperature, 83, 84
nutrients: terrestrial habitats, 36 plankton: foraminifera, 25, 26; macrozoo-
plankton, 27; as model systems, 123; pelagic
ocean area: observed global gradients in, 105 invertebrates and, 25–28; phytoplankton, 24,
Ocean Biogeographic Information System 160, 165; temperature and climate-driven
(OBIS), 7, 10 changes in, 157; temperature tolerance of
open-ocean species, 2 phytoplankton strains, 113, 123; zoo-
ophiuroids (brittle stars): deep-sea spatial rich- plankton, 25, 160, 164
ness, 33; species richness patterns, 16, 17, 18 plants, 2; future projections of land species
“out-of-the-tropics” model, 44 richness, 167; mention of diversity in pub-
oxygen: depletion as environmental stress, 67; lished books, 3
effects of climate change on 157, 159 porbeagle (Lamna nasus), 21
potential evapotranspiration (PET), 88, 90
pelagic biodiversity: hotspots of species rich- predation hypothesis, 72
ness across taxa, 154; model fit to global prediction. See global biodiversity predictions
biodiversity data, 129; predicting, 132, 133; predictors, 56; hypothesized drivers and, of
sensitivity of predictions for, 134 diversity, 58; synthesis of, 89–91
INDEX 213

productivity: biodiversity changes, 159–60; selection, 172; ecological theory, 172; influenc-
driver promoting diversity, 58, 64–65, 90, ing community ecology, 175–76
92; ecological vs. evolutionary time, 178–79; sharks. See coastal sharks; pelagic sharks
global impact on biodiversity, 156; modeling snails: environmental predictors of species
effect on species richness, 109, 111, 121; richness, 77. See also cone snails
relationship of number of individuals to, 127 soil fungi: synthesis of global biodiversity
productivity hypothesis, 64–65 patterns, 53
pseudospecies, 164 solar energy: driver promoting diversity, 59–60
published works: species diversity in, 3 spatially explicit metacommunity model, 95–96
speciation, 172; ecological theory, 172, 175;
random drift, 172; influencing community ecol- influencing community ecology, 175–76
ogy, 175–76 species-area relationship (SAR), 71–72
Rapoport’s rule, 68, 118, 120–21, 182 species distribution models (SDMs): bio-
realism, 122, 174, 176, 181 diversity, 169; future projections of marine
red algae: genus richness, 20 species richness, 164; projecting biodiversity
“Red Queen” effect: of evolution, 64 change from, 163–65
regionalization: niches and diversity patterns, species diversity, 2; mentioning, in published
115 books, 3
reptiles: global biodiversity data fit, 129; species-energy hypothesis, 109
species richness of, 38, 39; synthesis of species-energy theory, 59
global biodiversity patterns, 53; terrestrial species richness, 2; coastal invertebrates,
biodiversity, 135, 138 16–17; coastal plants, 18, 19, 20; coastal
vertebrates, 22; conservation of hotspots,
salmon sharks (Lamna ditropis), 21 151–53; in coral triangle, 15, 153; environ-
sampling methods: robustness of biodiversity mental predictors of, in coastal realm, 77,
to, 45–48; sensitivity of fish diversity pat- 91; environmental predictors of, in deep-sea
terns, 48, 49 habitat, 85–87, 91; environmental predictors
Sanders, Howard, 6, 7 of, in freshwater taxa, 89–90, 91; environ-
seabirds: environmental predictors of species mental predictors of, in pelagic realm, 78,
richness, 78; predicting biodiversity of, 142; 91; environmental predictors of, on land,
species richness of, 29, 30; synthesis of 87, 88–89, 91; environmental predictors
global biodiversity patterns, 53; univari- of vertebrate. across scales, 74–75; final
ate relationship of species richness and sea outlook of, 182–83; future projections of
surface temperature, 86. See also pelagic coastal marine, 166; future projections of
seabirds land plant, 167; future projections of marine,
seagrasses: environmental predictors of species 164; hotspot approach to conservation
richness, 77, 91; global biodiversity data prioritization, 150–55; hotspots of, across
fit, 129; species richness of, 18, 19, 20; taxa, 152–53, 154; land plants, 37; land
synthesis of global biodiversity patterns, 52; vertebrates, 38–39; measure of biodiversity,
univariate relationship of species richness 11–12; patterns and changes in diversity,
and sea surface temperature, 85 4–5, 171–74; patterns of vertebrate and
sea lice: diversity of, 34 plants, 89; predictions of, 9; present-day
seasonality: drivers limiting diversity, 58, 70; environmental predictors of, 80–82, 171,
seasonality hypothesis, 70 173; stability-time hypothesis, 6; synthesis
sea surface temperature (SST): as environ- of global patterns, 50–55; temperature and
mental predictor, 80, 84; as environmental metabolic theory for, 62; thermal niche and,
predictor of species richness in coastal 176–77; thermal niches in predicting global
realm, 77; as environmental predictor of spe- biodiversity, 143, 144–45; total, and human
cies richness in pelagic realm, 78; observed impact, 152; univariate relationship of sea
global gradients in, 105; univariate relation- surface temperature and, 83–86. See also
ship of species richness and, 83, 83–86 environmental predictors
214 INDEX

squids: environmental predictors of species Theory of Island Biogeography (MacArthur

richness, 78; global biodiversity data fit, 129; and Wilson), 6, 8, 65, 71, 72, 94, 109, 149,
species richness of, 26, 132; synthesis of 174
global biodiversity patterns, 52; univari- thermal energy: driver promoting diversity, 58,
ate relationship of species richness and sea 60–64
surface temperature, 84 thermal niche, 159, 175; conservatism of, 67,
stability-time hypothesis, 6, 65–66 68; global diversity predictions including,
surface ocean: environmental predictors of 143, 144–45, 147; global warming and, 157;
species richness in, 80 hypothesis, 69, 82; model framework includ-
surface temperature: driver promoting ing, 113–16, 118, 120–21; seasonality and,
diversity, 60–64 70; species distribution models and, 163;
Systems Naturae (Linnaeus), 5 species richness patterns and, 176–77. See
also temperature niches
taxonomic resolution: sensitivity of vertebrate Tilman, David, 1
diversity patterns to, 45 time: biodiversity hotspots changing through,
temperature: biodiversity changes by, 157–59; 42; changes in biodiversity patterns through,
community size and, 173–74; global impact 41–44; ecological vs. evolutionary, 178–79;
on biodiversity, 156 environmental drives of drivers over, 63
temperature niches: dispersal rates of species, tuna and billfish: environmental predictors of
114–16, 118; effects on individual species, species richness, 78; exploitation of, 161;
116, 120; effects on latitudinal ranges, global biodiversity data fit, 129; species
114–16; including in predicting global richness of, 28, 30, 132; synthesis of global
biodiversity, 143, 144–45; in model develop- biodiversity patterns, 52; univariate relation-
ment, 113–21; niche width, 113, 115, 116, ship of species richness and sea surface
117, 118; phytoplankton species, 113. See temperature, 84
also neutral-metabolic-niche model; thermal
niches United Nations Sustainable Development
terrestrial biodiversity, 35–41; changes through Goals, 170
time, 43; freshwater species, 40; in habitat, The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and
4; hotspots of species richness across taxa, Biogeography (Hubbell), 7, 149, 174
154; land plants, 37; land vertebrates, 37–40;
nutrient utilization in, 36; predicting, 135, vascular plants: environmental predictors of
137, 138; sensitivity of predictions for, 139; species richness on land, 79; global bio-
synthesis of, 40–41 diversity data fit, 129; mammals and, 182;
terrestrial birds: species richness of, 38, 39–40 synthesis of global biodiversity patterns, 53
theory development, 93–94; basic model vertebrates, 2; biodiversity of land, 37–40;
implementation in, 97; basic neutral theory, sensitivity of biodiversity patterns to taxo-
94–101; discussion and comparison with nomic resolution, 46–47. See also coastal
other theory, 122–23; including habitat vertebrates
area and productivity, 109, 111; includ- von Humboldt, Alexander, 3, 5
ing metabolic theory, 104–5, 107, 109;
including temperature niches, 113–16, 118, white shark (Carcharodon carchorias), 21
120–21; model implementation in forward
and coalescence mode, 101–4; modeling zero-sum ecological dynamics, 97, 181;
toolbox, 174. See also neutral-metabolic- assumption of, 98, 176
niche model zooplankton, 25, 160, 164
MONOGRAPHS IN POPULATION BIOLOGY
EDITED BY SIMON A. LEVIN AND HENRY S. HORN

1. The Theory of Island Biogeography by Robert H. MacArthur and

Edward O. Wilson
2. Evolution in Changing Environments: Some Theoretical Explorations
by Richard Levins
3. Adaptive Geometry of Trees by Henry S. Horn
4. Theoretical Aspects of Population Genetics by Motoo Kimura and
Tomoko Ohta
5. Populations in a Seasonal Environment by Steven D. Fretwell
6. Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems by Robert M. May
7. Competition and the Structure of Bird Communities by Martin L. Cody
8. Sex and Evolution by George C. Williams
9. Group Selection in Predator-Prey Communities by Michael E. Gilpin
10. Geographic Variation, Speciation, and Clines by John A. Endler
11. Food Webs and Niche Space by Joel E. Cohen
12. Caste and Ecology in the Social Insects by George F. Oster and
Edward O. Wilson
13. The Dynamics of Arthropod Predator-Prey Systems by Michael P. Hassel
14. Some Adaptations of Marsh-Nesting Blackbirds by Gordon H. Orians
15. Evolutionary Biology of Parasites by Peter W. Price
16. Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach by
L. L. Cavalli-Sforza and M. W. Feldman
17. Resource Competition and Community Structure by David Tilman
18. The Theory of Sex Allocation by Eric L. Charnov
19. Mate Choice in Plants: Tactics, Mechanisms, and Consequences by
Nancy Burley and Mary F. Wilson
20. The Florida Scrub Jay: Demography of a Cooperative-Breeding Bird by
Glen E. Woolfenden and John W. Fitzpatrick
21. Natural Selection in the Wild by John A. Endler
22. Theoretical Studies on Sex Ratio Evolution by Samuel Karlin and Sabin
Lessard
23. A Hierarchical Concept of Ecosystems by R. V. O’Neill, D. L. DeAngelis,
J. B. Waide, and T.F.H. Allen
24. Population Ecology of the Cooperatively Breeding Acorn Woodpecker by
Walter D. Koenig and Ronald L. Mumme
25. Population Ecology of Individuals by Adam Lomnicki
26. Plant Strategies and the Dynamics and Structure of Plant Communities by
David Tilman
27. Population Harvesting: Demographic Models of Fish, Forest, and Animal
Resources by Wayne M. Getz and Robert G. Haight
28. The Ecological Detective: Confronting Models with Data by Ray Hilborn
and Marc Mangel
29. Evolutionary Ecology across Three Trophic Levels: Goldenrods,
Gallmakers, and Natural Enemies by Warren G. Abrahamson and
Arthur E. Weis
30. Spatial Ecology: The Role of Space in Population Dynamics and
Interspecific Interactions edited by David Tilman and Peter Kareiva
31. Stability in Model Populations by Laurence D. Mueller and Amitabh Joshi
32. The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography by
Stephen P. Hubbell
33. The Functional Consequences of Biodiversity: Empirical Progress and
Theoretical Extensions edited by Ann P. Kinzig, Stephen J. Pacala, and
David Tilman
34. Communities and Ecosystems: Linking the Aboveground and Belowground
Components by David Wardle
35. Complex Population Dynamics: A Theoretical/Empirical Synthesis by
Peter Turchin
36. Consumer-Resource Dynamics by William W. Murdoch, Cheryl J. Briggs,
and Roger M. Nisbet
37. Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution by F. John
Odling-Smee, Kevin N. Laland, and Marcus W. Feldman
38. Geographical Genetics by Bryan K. Epperson
39. Consanguinity, Inbreeding, and Genetic Drift in Italy by Luigi Luca
Cavalli-Sforza, Antonio Moroni, and Gianna Zei
40. Genetic Structure and Selection in Subdivided Populations by
François Rousset
41. Fitness Landscapes and the Origin of Species by Sergey Gavrilets
42. Self-Organization in Complex Ecosystems by Ricard V. Solé and
Jordi Bascompte
43. Mechanistic Home Range Analysis by Paul R. Moorcroft and
Mark A. Lewis
44. Sex Allocation by Stuart West
45. Scale, Heterogeneity, and the Structure of Diversity of Ecological
Communities by Mark E. Ritchie
46. From Populations to Ecosystems: Theoretical Foundations for a New
Ecological Synthesis by Michel Loreau
47. Resolving Ecosystem Complexity by Oswald J. Schmitz
48. Adaptive Diversification by Michael Doebeli
49. Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions by A. Townsend Peterson,
Jorge Soberón, Richard G. Pearson, Robert P. Anderson, Enrique
Martínez-Meyer, Miguel Nakamura, and Miguel Bastos Araíjo
50. Food Webs by Kevin S. McCann
51. Population and Community Ecology of Ontogenetic Development by
André M. de Roos and Lennart Persson
52. Ecology of Climate Change: The Importance of Biotic Interactions by
Eric Post
53. Mutualistic Networks by Jordi Bascompte and Pedro Jordano
54. The Population Biology of Tuberculosis by Christopher Dye
55. Quantitative Viral Ecology: Dynamics of Viruses and Their Microbial Hosts
by Joshua Weitz
56. The Phytochemical Landscape: Linking Trophic Interactions and Nutrient
Dynamics by Mark D. Hunter
57. The Theory of Ecological Communities by Mark Vellend
58. Evolutionary Community Ecology: The Dynamics of Natural Selection and
Community Structure by Mark A. McPeek
59. Metacommunity Ecology by Mathew A. Leibold and Jonathan M. Chase
60. A Theory of Global Biodiversity by Boris Worm and Derek P. Tittensor