The latitudinal speciation gradient in freshwater fishes: Higher speciation across assemblages at higher latitudes in the northern hemisphere.

ABSTRACT: Speciation rates are a key driver of diversity patterns and are often used to explain the latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG). However, latitudinal variation in speciation rates at both assemblage and species levels remains poorly explored in freshwater fishes. This highlights a gap in understanding the mechanisms driving geographic biodiversity gradients in freshwater fishes. Here, we investigated the latitudinal speciation gradient in freshwater fishes, using a comprehensive database of freshwater fish distributions and phylogenetic relationships of Actinopterygian fishes at the global scale. We estimated speciation rates using three metrics (BAMM, DR, and ClaDS) and evaluated the latitudinal speciation gradient through spatial and phylogenetic regressions at assemblage and species leve

SUBMITTER: Herrera-Perez J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12829809 | biostudies-literature | 2026

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature