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Tropics Are the Cradle of Biodiversity
Photo: Scripps/J.T. SmithJablonski, D., K. Roy and J.W. Valentine. 2006. Out of the tropics: evolutionary dynamics of the latitudinal diversity gradient. Science 314(5796):102-106.
New research establishes that most of the marine bivalve lineages worldwide that first appeared in the past 11 million years did so in the tropics. This suggests that, besides having the most species, the tropics are likely the primary source of diversity elsewhere on Earth. "A tropical diversity crisis would thus have profound evolutionary effects at all latitudes," say David Jablonski of the University of Chicago and two coauthors in Science.
Biodiversity increases dramatically from the poles to the tropics, across species—from fungi to plants to vertebrates—and across habitats—from forests to wetlands to the deep sea. This diversity gradient depends partly on two factors:
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