Data from: Species distributions, quantum theory, and the enhancement of biodiversity measures

Species distributions are typically represented by records of their observed occurrence at a given spatial and temporal scale. Such records are inevitably incomplete and contingent on the spatial-temporal circumstances under which the observations were made. Moreover, organisms may respond differently to similar environmental conditions at different places or moments, so their distribution is, in principle, not completely predictable. We argue that this uncertainty exists, and warrants considering species distributions as analogous to coherent quantum objects, whose distributions are better described by a wavefunction rather than by a set of locations. We use this to extend the existing concept of "dark diversity", which incorporates into biodiversity metrics those species that could, but which have not yet been observed to, inhabit a region-thereby developing the idea of "potential biodiversity". We show how conceptualizing species' distributions in this way could help overcome important weaknesses in current biodiversity metrics, both in theory and by using a worked case study of mammal distributions in Spain over the last decade. We propose that considerable theoretical advances could eventually be gained through interdisciplinary collaboration between biogeographers and quantum physicists.物种分布通常以特定时空尺度下的观测记录来表征。此类记录不可避免地存在不完备性，且依赖于观测开展时的时空环境。此外，生物对相似环境条件的响应会因所处地点或时间的不同而存在差异，因此原则上其分布无法被完全预测。我们认为，这种不确定性确实存在，因此有必要将物种分布类比为相干量子客体：这类客体的分布更适合用波函数而非一系列点位来描述。我们基于这一类比拓展了“暗多样性（dark diversity）”的既有概念，该概念将本可栖息于某一区域但尚未被观测到的物种纳入生物多样性指标体系，由此发展出“潜在生物多样性”的理念。我们通过理论推导与近十年西班牙哺乳动物分布的实证案例，阐明了这种物种分布的概念化方式如何有助于克服当前生物多样性指标存在的重要缺陷。我们提出，生物地理学家与量子物理学家开展跨学科合作，有望在未来取得显著的理论进展。