Journal
ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 12, Issue 8, Pages 735-743Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01333.x
Keywords
Biodiversity; biogeography; diversification; evolutionary rates; extinction; latitudinal diversity gradient; macroevolution; speciation; species richness
Categories
Funding
- NSF-DEB [0814277]
- Division Of Environmental Biology
- Direct For Biological Sciences [0814277] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Diversification rate is one of the most important metrics in macroecological and macroevolutionary studies. Here I demonstrate that diversification analyses can be misleading when researchers assume that diversity increases unbounded through time, as is typical in molecular phylogenetic studies. If clade diversity is regulated by ecological factors, then species richness may be independent of clade age and it may not be possible to infer the rate at which diversity arose. This has substantial consequences for the interpretation of many studies that have contrasted rates of diversification among clades and regions. Often, it is possible to estimate the total diversification experienced by a clade but not diversification rate itself. I show that the evidence for ecological limits on diversity in higher taxa is widespread. Finally, I explore the implications of ecological limits for a variety of ecological and evolutionary questions that involve inferences about speciation and extinction rates from phylogenetic data.
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