The geography of climate and the global patterns of species diversity

Marco Túlio P. Coelho (), Elisa Barreto, Thiago F. Rangel, José Alexandre F. Diniz-Filho, Rafael O. Wüest, Wilhelmine Bach, Alexander Skeels, Ian R. McFadden, David W. Roberts, Loïc Pellissier, Niklaus E. Zimmermann and Catherine H. Graham
Additional contact information
Marco Túlio P. Coelho: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
Elisa Barreto: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
Thiago F. Rangel: Universidade Federal de Goiás
José Alexandre F. Diniz-Filho: Universidade Federal de Goiás
Rafael O. Wüest: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
Wilhelmine Bach: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
Alexander Skeels: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
Ian R. McFadden: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
David W. Roberts: Montana State University
Loïc Pellissier: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
Niklaus E. Zimmermann: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
Catherine H. Graham: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research

Nature, 2023, vol. 622, issue 7983, 537-544

Abstract: Abstract Climate’s effect on global biodiversity is typically viewed through the lens of temperature, humidity and resulting ecosystem productivity1–6. However, it is not known whether biodiversity depends solely on these climate conditions, or whether the size and fragmentation of these climates are also crucial. Here we shift the common perspective in global biodiversity studies, transitioning from geographic space to a climate-defined multidimensional space. Our findings suggest that larger and more isolated climate conditions tend to harbour higher diversity and species turnover among terrestrial tetrapods, encompassing more than 30,000 species. By considering both the characteristics of climate itself and its geographic attributes, we can explain almost 90% of the variation in global species richness. Half of the explanatory power (45%) may be attributed either to climate itself or to the geography of climate, suggesting a nuanced interplay between them. Our work evolves the conventional idea that larger climate regions, such as the tropics, host more species primarily because of their size7,8. Instead, we underscore the integral roles of both the geographic extent and degree of isolation of climates. This refined understanding presents a more intricate picture of biodiversity distribution, which can guide our approach to biodiversity conservation in an ever-changing world.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06577-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:622:y:2023:i:7983:d:10.1038_s41586-023-06577-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06577-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().