Patterns and controlling factors of species diversity in the Arctic Ocean

AIM: The Arctic Ocean is one of the last near-pristine regions on Earth and although human activities are expected to impact on Arctic ecosystems, we know very little about baseline patterns of Arctic Ocean biodiversity. This paper aims to describe Arctic Ocean-wide patterns of benthic biodiversity and to explore factors related to the large-scale species diversity patterns. LOCATION: Arctic Ocean. METHODS: We used large ostracode and foraminiferal datasets to describe the biodiversity patterns and apply comprehensive ecological modelling to test the degree to which these patterns are potentially governed by environmental factors, including temperature, productivity, seasonality, ice cover, and others. To test environmental control of the observed diversity patterns, subsets of samples for which all environmental parameters were available were analysed with multiple regression and model averaging. RESULTS: Well-known negative latitudinal species diversity gradients (LSDGs) were found in...