Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK.
Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD, UK.
Ecol Lett. 2019 Apr;22(4):664-673. doi: 10.1111/ele.13228. Epub 2019 Feb 7.
The formation and maintenance of biogeographic regions and the latitudinal gradient of species richness are thought to be influenced, in part, by the spatial distribution of physical habitat (habitat continuity). But the importance of habitat continuity in relation to other variables for shaping richness gradients and delimiting biogeographic regions has not been well established. Here, we show that habitat continuity is a top predictor of biogeographic structure and the richness gradient of eastern Pacific rocky shore gastropods (spanning c. 23 000 km, from 43°S to 48°N). Rocky shore habitat continuity is generally low within tropical/subtropical regions (compared to extratropical regions), but particularly at biogeographic boundaries where steep richness gradients occur. Regions of high rocky shore habitat continuity are located towards the centres of biogeographic regions where species turnover tends to be relatively low. Our study highlights the importance of habitat continuity to help explain patterns and processes shaping the biogeographic organisation of species.
生物地理区域的形成和维持以及物种丰富度的纬度梯度被认为部分受到物理生境（栖息地连续性）的空间分布影响。但是，在塑造丰富度梯度和划定生物地理区域方面，栖息地连续性相对于其他变量的重要性尚未得到很好的确定。在这里，我们表明，栖息地连续性是东部太平洋岩岸腹足动物生物地理结构和丰富度梯度的主要预测因子（跨越约 23,000 公里，从南纬 43°到北纬 48°）。与亚热带/热带地区相比，岩岸栖息地的连续性通常在热带/亚热带地区较低（与亚热带地区相比），但在生物地理边界处尤其如此，那里发生了陡峭的丰富度梯度。高岩岸栖息地连续性的区域位于生物地理区域的中心，那里物种更替相对较低。我们的研究强调了栖息地连续性的重要性，有助于解释塑造物种生物地理组织的模式和过程。
