ArticleNature ecology & evolution2019
Spatio-temporal climate change contributes to latitudinal diversity gradients.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed.
- The present does not reflect the past: geographic mismatches between fossil and modern records are widespread across the tree of life.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2026Review
- Macroecological pluralism.npj biodiversity · 2026Review
- Analogous environments across the tropics have similar levels of tree species alpha diversity.National science review · 2026Article
- Upscaling effects on infectious disease emergence risk emphasize the need for local planning in primary prevention within biodiversity hotspots.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Molecular diversity of dissolved organic matter reflects macroecological patterns in river networks.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Standardized diversity estimation uncovers global distribution patterns and drivers of stream insects.npj biodiversity · 2025Article
- Article
- Dynamic interplay between niche variation and flight adaptability drove a hundred million years' dispersion in iconic lacewings.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Modelling of past, current and future distribution of suitable habitat for Menelik's bushbuck (Tragelaphus sylvaticus meneliki Neumann, 1902) in the Ethiopian highlands.BMC ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Plant Functional Traits Better Explain the Global Latitudinal Patterns of Leaf Insect Herbivory than Climatic Factors.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Testing Relationships between Multiple Regional Features and Biogeographic Processes of Speciation, Extinction, and Dispersal.Systematic biology · 2025Article
- Adaptive Management Based on the Habitat Change ofEcology and evolution · 2025Article
- Anomalous latitudinal gradients in parasitoid wasp diversity-Hotspots in regions with larger temperature range.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- Global Species Diversity Patterns of Polypodiaceae Under Future Climate Changes.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Museum 'dark data' show variable impacts on deep-time biogeographic and evolutionary history.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Deep time evolution of the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient: Insights from mechanistic models.PloS one · 2025Article
- Neuron synchronization analyzed through spatial-temporal attention.Frontiers in computational neuroscience · 2025Article
- Geographic Distribution Pattern Determines Soil Microbial Community Assembly Process inMicroorganisms · 2024Article
- Dispersal-diversity feedbacks and their consequences for macroecological patterns.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Tropical Origin, Global Diversification, and Dispersal in the Pond Damselflies (Coenagrionoidea) Revealed by a New Molecular Phylogeny.Systematic biology · 2024Article
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7 authors.
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Abstract
The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG), where the number of species increases from the poles to the Equator, ranks among the broadest and most notable biodiversity patterns on Earth. The pattern of species-rich tropics relative to species-poor temperate areas has been recognized for well over a century, but the generative mechanisms are still debated vigorously. We use simulations to test whether spatio-temporal climatic changes could generate large-scale patterns of biodiversity as a function of only three biological processes-speciation, extinction and dispersal-omitting adaptive niche evolution, diversity-dependence and coexistence limits. In our simulations, speciation resulted from range disjunctions, whereas extinction occurred when no suitable sites were accessible to species. Simulations generated clear LDGs that closely match empirical LDGs for three major vertebrate groups. Higher tropical diversity primarily resulted from higher low-latitude speciation, driven by spatio-temporal variation in precipitation rather than in temperature. This suggests that spatio-temporal changes in low-latitude precipitation prompted geographical range disjunctions over Earth's history, leading to high rates of allopatric speciation that contributed to LDGs. Overall, we show that major global biodiversity patterns can derive from interactions of species' niches (fixed a priori in our simulations) with dynamic climate across complex, existing landscapes, without invoking biotic interactions or niche-related adaptations.
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