Tests of the mid-domain hypothesis: A review of the evidence

Ecological Monographs

Volumn 78, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 3-18

  Currie, David J ^a,b   Kerr, Jeremy T ^b  

^a STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY   (South Africa)

^b UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA   (Canada)

Author keywords

Diversity; Mid domain effect literature review; Mid domain hypothesis; Species richness

Indexed keywords

ENVIRONMENTAL GRADIENT; GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION; HYPOTHESIS TESTING; LITERATURE REVIEW; SPECIES RICHNESS;

INDIAN OCEAN; INDIAN OCEAN ISLANDS; MADAGASCAR;

EID: 40349100387     PISSN: 00129615     EISSN: 15577015     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1890/06-1302.1     Document Type: Review

References (79)

1. Aliabadian, M., C. S. Roselaar, V. Nijman, R. Sluys, and M. Vences. 2005. Identifying contact zone hotspots of passerine birds in the Palaearctic region. Biology Letters 1:21-23.
2. Almeida-Neto, M., G. Machado, R. Pinto-da-Rocha, and A. A. Giaretta. 2006. Harvestman (Arachnida: Opiliones) species distribution along three Neotropical elevational gradients: an alternative rescue effect to explain Rapoport's rule? Journal of Biogeography 33:361-375.
3. Arita, H., P. Rodríguez, and E. Vásquez-Domínguez. 2005. Continental and regional ranges of North American mammals: Rappoport's rule in real and null worlds. Journal of Biogeography 32:961-971.
4. Bachman, S., W. J. Baker, N. Brummitt, J. Dransfield, and J. Moat. 2004. Elevational gradients, area and tropical island diversity: an example from the palms of New Guinea. Ecography 27:299-310.
5. Bellwood, D. R., T. P. Hughes, S. R. Connolly, and J. Tanner. 2005. Environmental and geometric constraints on Indo-Pacific coral reef biodiversity. Ecology Letters 8:643-651.
6. Bokma, F., J. Bokma, and M. Mönkkönen. 2001. Random processes and geographic species richness patterns: Why so few species in the North? Ecography 24:43-49.
7. Brehm, G., R. K. Colwell, and J. Kluge. 2007. The role of environment and mid-domain effect on moth species richness along a tropical elevational gradient. Global Ecology and Biogeography 16:205-219.
8. Cardelús, C. E., R. W. Colwell, and J. E. Watkins. 2006. Vascular epiphyte distribution patterns: explaining the mid-elevation peak in richness. Journal of Ecology 94:144-156.
9. Carpenter, C. 2005. The environmental control of plant species density on a Himalayan elevation gradient. Journal of Biogeography 32:999-1018.
10. Colwell, R. K., and G. C. Hurtt. 1994. Nonbiological gradients in species richness and a spurious Rapoport effect. American Naturalist 144:570-595.
11. Colwell, R. K., and D. C. Lees. 2000. The mid-domain effect: geometric constraints on the geography of species richness. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 15:70-76.
12. Colwell, R. K., C. Rahbek, and N. J. Gotelli. 2004. The mid-domain effect and species richness patterns; What have we learned so far? American Naturalist 163:E1-E23.
13. Colwell, R. K., C. Rahbek, and N. J. Gotelli. 2005. The mid-domain effect: there's a baby in the bathwater. American Naturalist 166:E149-E154.
14. Connolly, S. R., D. R. Bellwood, and T. P. Hughes. 2003. Indo-Pacific biodiversity of coral reefs: deviations from a mid-domain model. Ecology 84:2178-2190.
15. Currie, D. J., and V. Paquin. 1987. Large-scale geographical patterns of species richness in trees. Nature 329:326-327.
16. Diniz-Filho, J. A. F., E. R. De Sant'Ana, M. C. De Souza, and T. F . L. V. B. Rangel. 2002. Null models and spatial patterns of species richness in South American birds of prey. Ecology Letters 5:47-55.
17. Dunn, R. R., R. K. Colwell, and C. Nilsson. 2006. The river domain: Why are there more species halfway up the river? Ecography 29:251-259.
18. Ellison, A. M. 2002. Macroecology of mangroves: large-scale patterns and processes in tropical coastal forests. Trees: Structure and Function 16:181-194.
19. Ferrer-Castán, D., and O. R. Vetaas. 2005. Pteridophyte richness, climate and topography in the Iberian Peninsula: comparing spatial and nonspatial models of richness patterns. Global Ecology and Biogeography 14:155-165.
20. Field, R., E. M. O'Brien, and R. J. Whittaker. 2005. Global models for predicting woody plant richness from climate: development and evaluation. Ecology 86:2263-2277.
21. Fleishman, E., G. T. Austin, and A. D. Weiss. 1998. An empirical test of Rapoport's rule: elevational gradients in montane butterfly communities. Ecology 79:2482-2493.
22. Francis, A. P., and D. J. Currie. 2003. A globally-consistent richness-climate relationship for angiosperms. American Naturalist 161:523-536.
23. Fraser, R. H., and D. J. Currie. 1996. The species richness-energy hypothesis in a system where historical factors are thought to prevail: coral reefs. American Naturalist 148:138-159.
24. Fu, C., X. Hua, J. Li, Z. Chang, Z. Pu, and J. Chen. 2006. Elevational patterns of frog species richness and endemic richness in the Hengduan Mountains, China: geometric constraints, area, and climatic effects. Ecography 29:919-927.
25. Grytnes, J. A. 2003a. Species-richness patterns of vascular plants along several altitudinal transects in Norway. Ecography 26:291-300.
26. Grytnes, J. A. 2003b. Ecological interpretations of the mid-domain effect. Ecology Letters 6:883-888.
27. Grytnes, J. A., and O. R. Vetaas. 2002. Species richness and altitude: a comparison between null models and interpolated plant species richness along the Himalayan altitudinal gradient, Nepal. American Naturalist 159:294-304.
28. H-Acevedo, D., and D. J. Currie. 2003. Does climate determine broad-scale patterns of species richness? A test by natural experiment. Global Ecology and Biogeography 12:461-473.
29. Hawkins, B. A., and J. A. F. Diniz-Filho. 2002. The mid-domain effect cannot explain the diversity gradient of Nearctic birds. Global Ecology and Biogeography 11:419-426.
30. Hawkins, B. A., J. A. F. Diniz-Filho, and A. E. Weis. 2005. The mid-domain effect and diversity gradients: Is there anything to learn? American Naturalist 166:E140-E143.
31. Hawkins, B. A., R. Field, H. V. Cornell, D. J. Currie, J.-F. Guégan, D. M. Kaufmann, J. T. Kerr, G. G. Mittelbach, T. Oberdorf, E. E. Porter, and J. R. G. Turner. 2003. Energy, water, and broad-scale patterns of species richness. Ecology 84:3105-3117.
32. Hay, L. E. 1998. Stochastic calibration of an orographic precipitation model. Hydrological Processes 12:613-634.
33. Hernández, C. E., R. A. Moreno, and N. Rozbaczylo. 2005. Biogeographical patterns and Rappoport's rule in southeastern Pacific benthic polychaetes of the Chilean coast. Ecography 28:363-373.
34. Herzog, S. K., M. Kessler, and K. Bach. 2005. The elevational gradient in Andean bird species richness at the local scale: a foothill peak and a high-elevation plateau. Ecography 28:209-222.
35. Jankowski, T. A., and G. Weyhenmeyer. 2006. The role of spatial scale and area in determining richness-altitude gradients in Swedish lake phytoplankton communities. Oikos 115:433-442.
36. Jetz, W., and C. Rahbek. 2001. Geometric constraints explain much of the species richness pattern in African birds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 98:5661-5666.
37. Jetz, W., and C. Rahbek. 2002. Geographic range size and determinants of avian species richness. Science 297:1548-1551.
38. Kalmar, A., and D. J. Currie. 2007. A unified model of avian species richness on islands and continents. Ecology 88:1309-1321.
39. Kendall, V. J., and R. L. Haedrich. 2006. Species richness in Atlantic deep-sea fishes assessed in terms of the mid-domain effect and Rapoport's rule. Deep-Sea Research I 53:506-515.
40. Kerr, J. T., M. Perring, and D. J. Currie. 2006. The missing Madagascan mid-domain effect. Ecology Letters 9:149-159.
41. Kerr, J. T., T. R. E. Southwood, and J. Cihlar. 2001. Remotely sensed habitat diversity predicts butterfly species richness and community similarity in Canada. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 98:11365-11370.
42. Kessler, M. 2001. Patterns of diversity and range size of selcected plant groups along an elevational transect in the Bolivean Andes. Biodiversity and Conservation 10:1897-1921.
43. Kluge, J., M. Kessler, and R. R. Dunn. 2006. What drives elevational patterns of diversity? A test of geometric constraints, climate and species pool effects for pteridophytes on an elevational gradient in Costa Rica. Global Ecology and Biogeography 15:358-371.
44. Koleff, P., and K. J. Gaston. 2001. Latitudinal gradients in diversity: real patterns and random models. Ecography 24:341-351.
45. Krömer, T. K. M., M. R. Gradstein, and A. Acebey. 2005. Diversity patterns of vascular epiphytes along an elevational gradient in the Andes. Journal of Biogeography 32:1799-1809.
46. Laurie, H., and J. A. J. Silander. 2002. Geometric constraints and spatial patterns of species richness: critique of range-based models. Diversity and Distributions 8:351-364.
47. Lees, D. C., C. Kremen, and L. Andriamampianina. 1999. A null model for species richness gradients: bounded range overlap of butterflies and other rainforest endemics in Madagascar. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 67:529-584.
48. Legates, D. R., and C. J. Willmott. 1992. Monthly average surface air temperature and precipitation: digital raster data on a 30-minute geographic (lat/long) 360 x 720 grid. Version 1.0, Disc A. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA.
49. Lennon, J. J., P. Koleff, J. J. D. Greenwood, and K. J. Gaston. 2004. Contribution of rarity and commonness to patterns of species richness. Ecology Letters 7:81-87.
50. McCain, C. M. 2003. North American desert rodents: a test of the mid-domain effect in species richness. Journal of Mammalogy 84:967-980.
51. McCain, C. M. 2004. The mid-domain effect applied to elevational gradients: species richness of small mammals in Costa Rica. Journal of Biogeography 31:19-31.
52. McCain, C. M. 2005. Elevational gradients in diversity of small mammals. Ecology 86:366-372.
53. McCain, C. M. 2007. Could temperature and water availability drive elevational richness? A global case study for bats. Global Ecology and Biogeography 16:1-13.
54. McClain, C. R., and R. J. Etter. 2005. Mid-domain models as predictors of species diversity patterns: bathymetric diversity gradients in the deep sea. Oikos 109:555-566.
55. Mena, J. L., and E. Vázquez-Domínguez. 2005. Species turnover on elevational gradients in small rodents. Global Ecology and Biogeography 14:539-547.
56. Mora, C., and D. R. Robertson. 2005. Causes of latitudinal gradients in species richness: a test with fishes of the Tropical Eastern Pacific. Ecology 86:1771-1782.
57. Moreno, R. A., C. E. Hernandez, M. M. Rivadeneira, M. A. Vidal, and N. Rozbaczylo. 2006. Patterns of endemism in south-eastern Pacific benthic polychaetes of the Chilean coast. Journal of Biogeography 33:750-759.
58. Nilsson, C., G. Grelsson, M. Johansson, and U. Sperens. 1989. Patterns of plant species richness along riverbanks. Ecology 70:77-84.
59. Oommen, M. A., and K. Shanker. 2005. Elevational species richness patterns emerge from multiple local mechanisms in Himalayan woody plants. Ecology 86:3039-3047.
60. Pimm, S. L., and J. H. Brown. 2004. Domains of diversity. Science 304:831-833.
61. Pineda, J., and H. Caswell. 1998. Bathymetric species-diversity patterns and boundary constraints on vertical range distributions. Deep Sea Research II 45:83-101.
62. Rahbek, C. 1997. The relationship among area, elevation, and regional species richness in Neotropical birds. American Naturalist 149:875-902.
63. Rahbek, C., N. Gotelli, R. Colwell, G. Entsminger, T. Rangel, and G. Graves. 2007. Predicting continental-scale patterns of bird species richness with spatially explicit models. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274:165-174.
64. Rangel, T. F. L. V. B., and J. A. F. Diniz-Filho. 2003. Spatial patterns in species richness and the geometric constraint simulation model: a global analysis of mid-domain effect in Falconiformes. Acta Oecologica 24:203-207.
65. Rangel, T. F. L. V. B., and A. F. Diniz-Filho. 2005. An evolutionary tolerance model explaining spatial patterns in species richness under environmental gradients and geometric constraints. Ecography 28:253-263.
66. Romdal, T. S., R. K. Colwell, and C. Rahbek. 2005. The influence of band sum area, domain extent, and range sizes on the latitudinal mid-domain effect. Ecology 86:235-244.
67. Rosenzweig, M. L. 1995. Species diversity in time and space. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
68. Sanders, N. L. 2002. Elevational gradients in ants species richness: area, geometry and Rapoport's rule. Ecography 25:25-32.
69. Smith, K. F., and J. H. Brown. 2002. Patterns of diversity, depth range and body size among pelagic fished along a gradient of depth. Global Ecology and Biodiversity 11:313-322.
70. Smith, S. A., P. R. Stephens, and J. J. Wiens. 2005. Replicate patterns of species richness, historical biogerography and phylogeny in holarctic treefrogs. Evolution 59:2433-2450.
71. Storch, D., et al. 2006. Energy, range dynamics and global species richness patterns: reconciling mid-domain effects and environmental determinants of avian diversity. Ecology Letters 9:1308-1320.
72. Vannote, R., G. W. Minshall, K. W. Cummins, J. R. Sedell, and G. E. Cushing. 1980. The river continuum concept. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 37:130-137.
73. Vázquez, L.-B., and K. J. Gaston. 2004. Rarity, commonness, and patterns of species richness: the mammals of Mexico. Global Ecology and Biogeography 13:535-542.
74. Watkins, J. E. J., C. Cardelu's, R. K. Colwell, and R. C. Moran. 2006. Species richness and distribution of ferns along an elevational gradient in Costa Rica. American Journal of Botany 93:73-83.
75. White, P. J., and J. T. Kerr. 2006. Contrasting spatial and temporal global change impacts on butterfly species richness during the 20th century. Ecography 29:908-918.
76. Willig, M. R., D. M. Kaufman, and R. D. Stevens. 2003. Latitudinal gradients of biodiversity: patterns, process, scale, and synthesis. Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systematics 34:273-309.
77. Willig, M. R., and S. K. Lyons. 1998. An analytical model of latitudinal gradients of species richness with an empirical test for marsupials and bats in the New World. Oikos 73:579-582.
78. Zapata, F. A., K. J. Gaston, and S. L. Chown. 2003. Mid-domain models of species richness gradients: assumptions, methods and evidence. Journal of Animal Ecology 72:677-690.
79. Zapata, F. A., K. J. Gaston, and S. L. Chown. 2005. The mid-domain effect revisited. American Naturalist 166:E144-E148.