Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, 119 Foster Hall, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA.
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History, University of Nevada Las Vegas, 4505 S Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV, 89154, USA.
Ecol Lett. 2012 Nov;15(11):1318-1325. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01855.x. Epub 2012 Aug 22.
The Tropical Niche Conservatism hypothesis is a leading explanation for why biodiversity increases towards the equator. The model suggests that most lineages have tropical origins, with few dispersing into temperate regions. However, biotas are comprised of lineages with differing geographical origins, thus it is unclear whether lineages that originated on different continents will exhibit similar patterns of niche conservatism. Here, we summarised biogeographical patterns of New World vertebrates and compared species diversity patterns between families that originated in North and South America. Overall, families with southern origins exhibit niche conservatism with many lineages restricted to the Neotropics, whereas many northern-origin families are distributed across the Neotropics and the Nearctic. Consequently, northern lineages have contributed to high tropical biodiversity, but southern lineages have contributed relatively little to temperate biodiversity in North America. The asymmetry in niche conservatism between northern and southern lineages is an important contributor to the biodiversity gradient.
热带生态位保守假说 是解释为什么生物多样性会随着向赤道增加的主要原因。该模型表明，大多数谱系起源于热带，只有少数谱系扩散到温带地区。然而，生物群由具有不同地理起源的谱系组成，因此尚不清楚起源于不同大陆的谱系是否会表现出相似的生态位保守模式。在这里，我们总结了新世界脊椎动物的生物地理格局，并比较了起源于南北美洲的科之间的物种多样性模式。总体而言，起源于南方的科表现出生态位保守性，许多谱系局限于新热带地区，而许多起源于北方的科分布在新热带地区和近北极地区。因此，北方谱系为热带高生物多样性做出了贡献，但南方谱系对北美的温带生物多样性贡献相对较小。北方和南方谱系之间生态位保守性的不对称性是生物多样性梯度的一个重要贡献因素。
