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Describe two hypotheses that explain why species diversity is greater in tropical regions than in temperate and polar regions.

Short Answer

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The species diversity is rich in tropical regions due to the availability of sufficient sunlight and water. The species of tropical regions also have a longer evolutionary history.

Step by step solution

01

Species diversity

The relative abundance of species present in any ecosystem is called species diversity. In other words, the different number of species inhabiting the biological organization is known as species diversity.

The biological diversity of an ecosystem is measured through a variety of species found in an ecological community.

02

Effect of biogeographical factors on species diversity. 

The latitudinal gradients and geographical area that species occupy also influence their diversity. Species richness is found in tropical regions.

The temperate areas or polar regions do not show much divergence of species than the tropical regions. Ecologists have investigated for more than centuries to determine the factors that influence diversity.

03

The hypothesis that explains species richness in tropical regions

Factors such as climate and evolutionary history of species enable the species to show more diversity in the tropical regions.The climate, in a sense, receiving sufficient sunlight, moderate temperature, and availability of water induces species richness.

The tropical regions are older than the temperate regions. The communities are older because evolution had started in these regions and later distributed all over the world. Therefore, there was enough time for speciation to occur.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

The principle of competitive exclusion states that

(A) two species cannot coexist in the same habitat.

(B) competition between two species always causes extinction or emigration of one species.

(C) two species that have exactly the same niche cannot coexist in a community.

(D) two species will stop reproducing until one species leaves the habitat.

The most plausible hypothesis to explain why species richness is higher in tropical than in temperate regions is that

(A) tropical communities are younger.

(B) tropical regions generally have more available water and higher levels of solar radiation.

(C) higher temperatures cause more rapid speciation.

(D) diversity increases as evapotranspiration decrease.

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