Colwell RK, Lees DC
Trends Ecol Evol. 2000 Feb;15(2):70-76. doi: 10.1016/s0169-5347(99)01767-x.
Geographic patterns of species richness are influenced by many factors, but the role of shared physiographical and physiological boundaries in relation to range-size distributions has been surprisingly neglected, in spite of the fact that such geometric constraints lead to mid-domain richness peaks even without environmental gradients (the mid-domain effect). Relying on null models, several recent studies have begun to quantify this problem using simulated and empirical data. This approach promises to transform how we perceive geographic variation in diversity, including the long unresolved latitudinal gradient in species richness. The question is not whether geometry affects such patterns, but by how much.
物种丰富度的地理格局受多种因素影响，但共享的自然地理和生理边界在范围大小分布方面的作用却出人意料地被忽视了，尽管事实上即使没有环境梯度，这种几何约束也会导致中域丰富度峰值（中域效应）。基于零模型，最近的几项研究已开始使用模拟数据和实证数据对这一问题进行量化。这种方法有望改变我们对多样性地理变化的认知，包括长期未解决的物种丰富度纬度梯度问题。问题不在于几何结构是否会影响这些格局，而在于影响程度有多大。
