Understanding species distribution

5 important questions on Understanding species distribution

What 4 factors have influence on the number of species, and in what way?

Number of species tends to:
  1. Increase with area size
  2. Decrease with distance to the equator
  3. Decrease with distance from islands to mainland
  4. Decrease from lowlands to mountain peaks

What are the constraints for terrestrial and aquatic animals?

  • Terrestrial species: climate and soil type
  • Aquatic species: water temperature, salinity, light and pressure

What 2 types of hypotheses are there for the latitudinal diversity gradients (LDG)? Name the 2 hypotheses per type.

Historical hypotheses:
  1. Out of the tropics
  2. Niche conservatism
Ecological hypotheses:
  1. Solar radiation
  2. Primary productivity
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Explain the niche conservatism hypothesis

Tropical environments are stable and that equals safety.

Explain the solar radiation hypothesis

Metabolic theory of ecology: higher temperatures --> higher rates of metabolism/shorter generation times/faster mutation rates --> generate higher biodiversity

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