Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA.
Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA.
Nat Commun. 2023 Feb 11;14(1):773. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-36501-4.
Although the tropics harbor the greatest species richness globally, recent work has demonstrated that, for many taxa, speciation rates are faster at higher latitudes. Here, we explore lability in oceanic depth as a potential mechanism for this pattern in the most biodiverse vertebrates - fishes. We demonstrate that clades with the highest speciation rates also diversify more rapidly along the depth gradient, drawing a fundamental link between evolutionary and ecological processes on a global scale. Crucially, these same clades also inhabit higher latitudes, creating a prevailing latitudinal gradient of deep-sea invasions concentrated in poleward regions. We interpret these findings in the light of classic ecological theory, unifying the latitudinal variation of oceanic features and the physiological tolerances of the species living there. This work advances the understanding of how niche lability sculpts global patterns of species distributions and underscores the vulnerability of polar ecosystems to changing environmental conditions.
尽管热带地区拥有全球最多的物种丰富度，但最近的研究表明，对于许多分类群来说，高纬度地区的物种形成速度更快。在这里，我们探索了海洋深度的不稳定性，这可能是最具生物多样性的脊椎动物——鱼类中这种模式的潜在机制。我们证明，具有最高物种形成率的进化枝也沿着深度梯度更快地多样化，在全球范围内建立了进化和生态过程之间的基本联系。至关重要的是，这些相同的进化枝也栖息在高纬度地区，从而在向极地区域集中形成了一个占主导地位的深海入侵的纬度梯度。我们根据经典生态学理论来解释这些发现，将海洋特征的纬度变化与生活在那里的物种的生理耐受性统一起来。这项工作增进了对生态位不稳定性如何塑造物种分布的全球模式的理解，并强调了极地生态系统对环境变化的脆弱性。
