Species Diversity Distribution Patterns — NEET Biology
📚 Practice ConceptSpecies diversity on earth is not uniformly distributed but shows interesting patterns. It is generally highest in the tropics and decreases towards the poles. Important explanations for the species richness of the tropics are: Tropics had more evolutionary time; they provide a relatively constant environment and, they receive more solar energy which contributes to greater productivity. Species richness is also function of the area of a region; the species-area relationship is generally a rectangular hyperbolic function.
Which of the following statements are correct regarding the reasons for high tropical biodiversity? S1. Tropical latitudes have remained relatively undisturbed for millions of years, providing a long evolutionary time for species diversification. S2. Tropical regions experience high seasonality and unpredictable climatic conditions, which promote frequent extinction and recolonisation. S3. Greater solar energy availability in the tropics directly increases primary consumption, leading to higher biodiversity without involving productivity. S4. Temperate regions have experienced frequent glaciations in the past, reducing the evolutionary time available for speciation compared to tropical regions. S5. Long-term ecosystem experiments showed that communities with higher species diversity have greater year-to-year variation in total biomass production.
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