Elevational Gradients in Species Richness - Essay Example

Elevational Gradients in Species Richness According to “Elevational Gradients in Species Richness,” solar radiation, air pressure, and temperature are key factors affecting diversity, habitats productivity, and species activity. The article considers precipitation as a biotic factor with an indirect effect on diversity of flora and fauna. According to 19th century scientists, species richness increase from high latitudes to low latitudes. This was confirmed by the numerous quantitative studies done to evaluate effects of elevation on species richness in the 20th century.

John Terborgh, a late 20th century scientist, confirmed that indeed elevation gradients and latitudes affect species diversity. Decreasing richness, low plateau, low plateau with mid elevational peak, and mid elevational peak were found to describe patterns of species richness with elevation. Each pattern defines the ecology of each classified group. However, very little analysis on microbe diversity is included in the patterns evaluation. This could have been affected by various methodologies used in the study scale and data sampling.

While local scale covers one elevational gradient and regional scale covers fields from the whole region, the sample site should not focus on one portion of gradient truncation of the mountain. Collecting a large number of samples would make prediction of species richness more relevant. The hypotheses on elevation species richness are based on, space, climate, biotic processes, and evolutionary history. According to SAR description of space, increase in area leads to relative increase in the number of species.

This shows that diversity and elevation area have a very close relationship. Climate wise, productivity is controlled by climatic conditions. The condition affects population by controlling individual numbers hence showing that species richness and diversity have a positive relationship too. The relationship between diversity and biotic processes such as habitat heterogeneity, complexity, and diversity in this case has been estimated. Therefore, the hypotheses predict that areas with low extinction and high speciation are diverse.

In my opinion, the article and the topic are perfectly related since knowing about elevational patterns in species richness is essential in the study of diversity. The topic indicates elevation gradients clearly also discusses the effect of latitude as well. I particularly like the methodological discussion part because it compares different methods used. It also points out the benefits and the drawbacks for each. Graphs in the article are excellent illustrations of elevational gradients and the four main elevational patterns.

However, I failed to understand the reason for not having documentation on elevational patterns of microbe species diversity. Having the documentation could help since ecologically different organisms affect each other.