On the Generality of the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient

By H. Hillebrand. American Naturalist, 2004

1,927 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The decline of biodiversity with latitude has received great attention, but both the concise pattern and the causes of the gradient are under strong debate. Most studies of the latitudinal gradient comprise only one or few organism types and are often restricted to certain region or habitat types. To test for significant variation in the gradient between organisms, habitats, or regions, a meta‐analysis was conducted on nearly 600 latitudinal gradients assembled from the literature. Each gradient was characterized by two effect sizes, strength (correlation coefficient) and slope, and additionally by 14 variables describing organisms, habitats, and regions. The analysis corroborated the high generality of the latitudinal diversity decline. Gradients on regional scales were significantly stronger and steeper than on local scales, and slopes also varied with sampling grain. Both strength and slope increased with organism body mass, and strength increased with trophic level. The body mass–effect size relation varied for ecto‐ versus homeotherm organisms and for different dispersal types, suggesting allometric effects on energy use and dispersal ability as possible mechanisms for the body mass effect. Latitudinal gradients were weaker and less steep in freshwater than in marine or terrestrial environments and differed significantly between continents and habitat types. The gradient parameters were not affected by hemisphere or the latitudinal range covered. This analysis is the first to describe these general and significant patterns, which have important consequences for models aiming to explain the latitudinal gradient.

Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Paleontology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/dbcd6515e41fdeccbdfffb4975c97d5be94ab50a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecological Modeling

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

In Paleontology

Citations in the corpus

Strength, slope and variability of marine latitudinal gradients (2004, methodology): “Whereas this pattern was significant in the marine data set, it did not emerge in the general analysis including terrestrial and freshwater data (Hillebrand 2004).”
Hull fouling as an invasion vector: can simple models explain a complex problem? (2011, background): “Vessels servicing Vancouver operate at significantly lower latitudes and potentially entrain more taxa and propagules due to longer reproductive seasons, higher temperatures, and increased marine diversity at the ports visited (Hillebrand 2004; Locarnini et al. 2010).”
Spatial species‐richness gradients across scales: a meta‐analysis (2009, background): “Willig et al. (2003) and Hillebrand (2004) documented the generality of the latitudinal diversity gradient, and Hillebrand’s meta-analysis found stronger and steeper latitudinal gradients at ‘regional’ than at ‘local’ scales.”
Evolution and the latitudinal diversity gradient: speciation, extinction and biogeography. (2007, background): “First, the evolutionary speed hypothesis applies only to ectotherms, but endotherms also exhibit pronounced latitudinal diversity gradients (Hillebrand 2004).”
Dispersal traits drive the phylogenetic distance decay of similarity in Neotropical stream metacommunities (2015, background): “…that smaller insects would have lower decay rates (i.e. the slope of the distance decay regression) as they have greater chance of dispersal due to their larger population sizes and higher chance of travelling long distances carried by winds (Hillebrand et al., 2001; Hillebrand, 2004) (H4b).”
Using functional and phylogenetic diversity to infer avian community assembly along elevational gradients (2019, neutral): “Understanding spatial patterns of biodiversity along environmental gradients and the mechanisms driving them is a main focus in ecol‐ ogy (Hillebrand, 2004; Ricklefs, 2004; Swenson, 2011).”
One-dimensional analyses of Rapoport's rule reviewed through meta-analysis (2007, background): “© 2007 The Authors Global Ecology and Biogeography, 16, 401–414, Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 409 we confirm that, in contrast to the ubiquitous latitudinal gradient in species diversity (Hillebrand, 2004) or the species–area relationship (Drakare et al.”
Climate change impacts on structure and diversity of fish communities in rivers (2007, background): “1 (and lower) level were discussed (Hillebrand, 2004).”