Places that don t have many species provide opportunity for rapid diversification
Birds such as the white-browed purpletuft may have more opportunity to diversify in cold spots.
December 14, 2020
The Amazon rainforest may be a hotspot for animal and plant diversity, but Louisiana State University scientists report that new species form there less often than previously thought. Places such as deserts and mountaintops that do not have many species provide more opportunity for rapid diversification. This paradox of diversity that new species form at a faster pace in cold spots than hotspots was reported in the journal
U.S. National Science Foundation-funded researchers studied diversity in a major group of tropical birds and found that although cold spots might be extreme, with dry, unstable environments, they are also relatively empty, giving new species the elbow room to evolve. In contrast, biodiversity hotspots such as the Amazon rainforest are the result of the gradual
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New species are more likely to emerge in extreme environment ‘coldspots’ rather than ‘hotspots’ like the Amazon rainforest
New species are more likely to emerge in extreme environment ‘coldspots’ rather than ‘hotspots’ like the Amazon rainforest
Prabhjote GillDec 11, 2020, 00:30 IST
Coldspots like those within the Andes (seen above) could be more conducive for fostering new species, concludes new studyWikimedia
The common belief that conserving ‘hotspots’ like the
Amazon rainforest are the best bet to maintain biodiversity is being contested by a new study published in Science.
The researchers show that while’ hotspots’ are the most diverse, ‘coldspots’ is where there is more elbow room for
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The Amazon rainforest may be a hotspot for animal and plant diversity, but this week, scientists report that new species actually form there less often than previously thought. Places like deserts and mountaintops that do not have a lot of species provide more opportunity for rapid diversification. This paradox of diversity - that new species form at a faster pace in cold spots than hotspots - was reported this week in the journal
Science.
A multinational team of scientists studied diversity in a major group of tropical birds and they found that although coldspots might be extreme with dry, unstable environments, they are also relatively empty, giving new species the elbow room to evolve. In contrast, biodiversity hotspots like the Amazon rainforest are the result of the gradual accumulation of species over time.
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IMAGE: The paper The evolution of a tropical biodiversity hotspot led by Michael Harvey (pictured), Ph.D., assistant professor of biological sciences at UTEP and Gustavo Bravo, Ph.D., research associate at the. view more
Credit: Michael Harvey
A faculty member from The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is at the forefront of research that is shaping new realities about the potential for new organisms to thrive in seemingly harsh, desolate areas of the planet.
A report published Dec. 11, 2020, in the research journal
Science dispels the premise that areas such as the Amazon rainforest are biodiversity hotspots because new species tend to evolve there. A multinational team of scientists, who conducted their research in a major group of tropical birds, found that new species are actually less likely to form in these hotspots than coldspots places such as deserts and mountaintops that do not have a lot of species but do have a lot of opportunity.
Credit: Image courtesy of C. Albano
Tropical regions contain many of the world s species and scientists consider them hotspots due to their immense biological diversity. However, due to limited sampling our knowledge of tropical diversity remains incomplete, making it difficult for researchers to answer the fundamental questions of the mechanisms that drive and maintain diversity.
In a paper published December 10 in
Science, an international team of scientists has produced the first complete, species-level phylogeny of a major group of tropical birds known as the suboscine passerines. Passerines are the largest order of birds and among the most diverse orders of terrestrial vertebrates. The suboscine group includes more than 1,306 species and in the Neotropics they make up roughly one-third of the total avian population.