Article: Gaston, K. J. (1996). Species-range-size distributions: patterns, mechanisms and implications. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 11(5), 197-201.
... This reflects a more general observation that variation in geographic distribution is related to many other large-scale spatial patterns of biodiversity. Latitudinal, altitudinal and depth gradients, as well as patterns of hotspots, turnover and complementarity, all follow from the fact that species exhibit ranges of differing geographic extent, which are then distributed non-randomly across the land-scape and through the media which envelop it... ... Charles Darwin (1975) described the study of geographic ranges as "a grand game of chess with the world for a board". The game is not a simple one. The pieces -- the species occupy different numbers of squares on the board at different times, they appear and then disappear, and many pieces may occupy the same square at the same time. Moreover, we can only gain glimpses of the past moves. Nonetheless, this is also no idle game. The pattern of moves has resulted in the patterns of biodiversity that we observe today.
0 Comments
|
ArchivesCategories |