The latitudinal species richness gradient in New World woody angiosperms is consistent with the tropical conservatism hypothesis.

ABSTRACT: Plant diversity, like that of most other taxonomic groups, peaks in the tropics, where climatic conditions are warm and wet, and it declines toward the temperate and polar zones as conditions become colder and drier, with more seasonally variable temperatures. Climate and evolutionary history are often considered competing explanations for the latitudinal gradient, but they are linked by the evolutionarily conserved environmental adaptations of species and the history of Earth's climate system. The tropical conservatism hypothesis (TCH) invokes niche conservatism, climatic limitations on establishment and survival, and paleoclimatic history to explain the latitudinal diversity gradient. Here, we use latitudinal distributions for over 12,500 woody angiosperm species, a fossil-calibrated sup

SUBMITTER: Kerkhoff AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4050539 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature