An inverse latitudinal gradient in infection probability and phylogenetic diversity for
            Leucocytozoon
            blood parasites in New World birds

Species richness of marine mammals and birds is highest in cold, temperate seas—a conspicuous exception to the general latitudinal gradient of decreasing diversity from the tropics to the poles. We compiled a comprehensive dataset for 998 species of sharks, fish, reptiles, mammals, and birds to identify and quantify inverse latitudinal gradients in diversity, and derived a theory to explain these patterns. We found that richness, phylogenetic diversity, and abundance of marine predators diverge systematically with thermoregulatory strategy and water temperature, reflecting metabolic differences between endotherms and ectotherms that drive trophic and competitive interactions. Spatial patterns of foraging support theoretical predictions, with total prey consumption by mammals increasing by a factor of 80 from the equator to the poles after controlling for productivity.

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The Lives and Deaths of Caged Birds: Transatlantic Voyages of Wild Creatures from the Americas to Spain, 1740s–1790s

Ethnohistory ◽

10.1215/00141801-8266470 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 67 (3) ◽

pp. 481-501

Author(s):

Martha Few

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Lived Experiences ◽

New World ◽

Material Objects ◽

Transatlantic Trade ◽

New World Birds

Abstract This essay focuses on New World birds caught up in the eighteenth-century transatlantic trade with other living wild creatures, destined for imperial metropoles. Manuscript sources describing this trade, written by political officials, ships’ captains, doctors, naturalists, animal caretakers, and inspectors who cataloged their arrival to Spanish ports, interacted with the animals, tried to keep them alive aboard the ship, and determined their ability to withstand further transport to their final destinations in Madrid and other cities in Spain. In the process, animals caged aboard ship for several weeks or more developed relationships with one another and with their human caretakers. Their lived experiences show the multiple and complicated ways in which individual captured birds and other creatures helped shape those shipboard environments, disrupting systemic human attempts to construct them as colonial animals who functioned solely as scientific or material objects in empire making.

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TESTING FOR LATITUDINAL BIAS IN DIVERSIFICATION RATES: AN EXAMPLE USING NEW WORLD BIRDS

Ecology ◽

10.1890/05-0112 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 86 (9) ◽

pp. 2278-2287 ◽

Cited By ~ 137

Author(s):

Marcel Cardillo ◽

C. David L. Orme ◽

Ian P. F. Owens

Keyword(s):

New World ◽

Diversification Rates ◽

New World Birds

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Phylogenetic support for the Tropical Niche Conservatism Hypothesis despite the absence of a clear latitudinal species richness gradient in Yunnan's woody flora

Biogeosciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/bgd-11-7055-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 7055-7077 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

G. Tang ◽

M. G. Zhang ◽

C. Liu ◽

Z. Zhou ◽

W. Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Phylogenetic Diversity ◽

Latitudinal Gradient ◽

Extreme Temperature ◽

Woody Species ◽

Niche Conservatism ◽

The North ◽

Related Plant ◽

Species Richness Gradient ◽

The Tropics

Abstract. The Tropical Niche Conservatism Hypothesis (TCH) tries to explain the generally observed latitudinal gradient of increasing species diversity towards the tropics. To date, few studies have used phylogenetic approaches to assess its validity, even though such methods are especially suited to detect changes in niche structure. We test the TCH using modeled distributions of 1898 woody species in Yunnan Province (southwest China) in combination with a family level phylogeny. Unlike predicted, species richness and phylogenetic diversity did not show a latitudinal gradient, but identified two high diversity zones, one in Northwest and one in South Yunnan. Despite this, the underlying residual phylogenetic diversity showed a clear decline away from the tropics, while the species composition became progressingly more phylogenetically clustered towards the North. These latitudinal changes were strongly associated with more extreme temperature variability and declining precipitation and soil water availability, especially during the dry season. Our results suggests that the climatically more extreme conditions outside the tropics require adaptations for successful colonization, most likely related to the plant hydraulic system, that have been acquired by only a limited number of phylogenetically closely related plant lineages. We emphasize the importance of phylogenetic approaches for testing the TCH.

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