How do diversity and stability depend on productivity? The relation between plant species diversity and productivity at a continental scale Australian vegetation Soil PO 4 [ppm] Number of species British herbs Plant biomass + litter Number of species Mediterranean plant plots Rain [cm] Number of species

The relation between animal species diversity and productivity at a continental scale Texas carnivores Productivity Number of species

Evapotranspiration S Palearctic birds Evapotranspiration is the sum of evaporation and transpiration, hence the total amount of water going from living organismas and the soil into the atmosphere. It is a measure of total energy input

Bird species numbers are correlated with annual evapotranspiration and temperature.

Patterns of fish species richness in China’s lakes

Fish species richness scales significantly with altitude and maximum depth of a lake Lake volume is of minor importance

Main determinants of fish species richness were annual PET, altitude, and lake area.

From local to global patterns of energy use of single species Define: D: population density W: individual body weightPET: potential evapotransiration M: individual metabolic rate (energy use)T: temperature Empirical results Population energy use scales to body weight to to 0.25, hence is roughly constant Energy equivalence rule Population energy use decreases or increases with evapotranspiration Often it will be roughly constant Population densities should decrease with evapotranspiration Population densities should decrease with increasing temperature

If total biomass is at least stable or increases with evapotranspiration we can introduce species richness into the previous equations Species richness should nonlinear increase with potential evapotranspiration

Global patterns in energy use and population characteristics in mammals as derived from the compilation of Currie and Fritz (1993) Potential evapotranspiration [m / yr] log (factor) Total biomass Individual energy use Total energy use Population energy use Potential evapotranspiration [m / yr] log (factor) Population biomass Population density Species richness Individual body weight

Gillman, Wright (2006) The influence of productivity on the species richness of plants

Productivity and stability Are tropical populations more stable than populations in temperate or arctic regions? There is no general latitudinal trend in population variability Vazquez, Stevens 2004

Today’s reading Global patterns in biodiversity: aturepadroes.pdf Diversity and stability: