Data from: Ephemeral ecological speciation and the latitudinal biodiversity gradient

The richness of biodiversity in the tropics compared to high latitude parts of the world forms one of the most globally conspicuous patterns in biology, and yet few hypotheses aim to explain this phenomenon in terms of explicit micro-evolutionary mechanisms of speciation and extinction. We link population genetic processes of selection and adaptation to speciation and extinction by way of their interaction with environmental factors to drive global scale macro-ecological patterns. High latitude regions are both cradle and grave with respect to species diversification. In particular, we point to a conceptual equivalence of ‘environmental harshness’ and ‘hard selection’ as eco-evolutionary drivers of local adaptation and ecological speciation. By describing how ecological speciation likely occurs more readily at high latitudes, with such nascent species especially prone to extinction by fusion, we derive the ephemeral ecological speciation hypothesis as an integrative mechanistic explanation for latitudinal gradients in species turnover and the net accumulation of biodiversity.

与全球高纬度区域相比，热带地区的生物多样性丰富度构成了生物学领域最引人注目的全球性格局之一。然而，目前鲜有假说以物种形成与灭绝的显性微观进化机制为框架来解释这一现象。本研究将选择与适应的种群遗传过程，通过其与环境因子的相互作用，与物种形成和灭绝过程相联系，以此驱动全球尺度的宏观生态格局。就物种多样化而言，高纬度区域同时扮演着物种形成的摇篮与灭绝的坟场。具体而言，本研究指出“环境严酷性”与“硬性选择（hard selection）”在概念上等价，二者均可作为本地适应与生态物种形成的生态-进化驱动因子。通过阐明生态物种形成在高纬度地区更易发生，且此类新生物种尤其容易通过融合走向灭绝，本研究提出了“短暂生态物种形成假说（ephemeral ecological speciation hypothesis）”，以此作为物种周转与生物多样性净积累纬度梯度的整合性机制解释。