Does biodiversity increase with latitude?
Species richness, or biodiversity, increases from the poles to the tropics for a wide variety of terrestrial and marine organisms, often referred to as the latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG).
How does biodiversity vary with latitude and altitude?
The decrease in diversity when moving from lower latitudes towards higher latitudes is referred to as Latitudinal Diversity Gradient. Generally it is observed that the diversity richness is more in the areas near the equator than at the poles. … Altitude also affects the diversity richness inversely.
Why is biodiversity higher in lower latitudes?
[1] Low-latitude areas have a greater incidence of solar energy, and often a higher air moisture content than higher-latitude areas. This fuels an elevated primary-productivity, providing more resources to the ecology as a whole, enabling competition, specialization and speciation.
Which latitude will have more biodiversity?
For more than three centuries Western science has known that biodiversity is greatest in the tropics. European explorers and traders returned from Africa, Asia and the Americas with thousands of specimens of previously unknown kinds of animals and plants.
What is the relationship between diversity and latitude quizlet?
What is the relationship between diversity and latitude? As latitude increases, moving away from the equator at the center of the Earth toward either the North Pole or the South Pole, biodiversity decreases.
How are latitude and longitude similar and different?
Latitudes are measured in degrees. Longitudes: The vertical lines running north-south, join the two poles. They are called the meridians of longitude.
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What is the difference between Latitude and Longitude?
| Latitude | Longitude |
|---|---|
| It is known as parallels | It is known as meridians |
| The length of the lines are different | The length of the lines are the same |
How does altitude affect biodiversity?
Environmental gradients such as altitude are also known to affect biodiversity and may interact with anthropogenic forces that shape ecosystem function. Higher altitudes are associated with a decline in species richness in many groups of animals, including insects (Lawton, Macgarvin & Heads 1987; Hodkinson 2005).
Which factor affects biodiversity the most?
In freshwater ecosystems:
water regime changes, such as those following the construction of large dams; invasive species, which can lead to species extinction; and pollution, such as high levels of nutrients. More…
Why species diversity is highest at the equator compared to higher latitudes?
A new study led by Oxford Earth Sciences’ Associate Professor Erin Saupe suggests that higher species diversity in equatorial regions may be caused by higher rates of speciation (the formation of new and distinct species in the course of evolution), driven by changes in precipitation across space and through time.
Why does biodiversity increase as you get closer to the equator?
There might be more biodiversity near the equator because it’s warmer year round, allowing organisms to continue growing. Locations away from the equator will have cold winters that will slow growth for microorganisms, plants and animals.
Why does biodiversity increase towards the tropics?
The higher temperatures in the tropics cause higher rates of metabolism, ecological dynamics and coevolutionary processes, which generate and maintain higher biodiversity.