Research Output Prize 2013

Ecology Letters, 2012, 15 (10): 1174–1179

by Dr Moriaki YASUHARA, Dr Gene HUNT, Dr Harry J DOWSETT, Dr Marci M ROBINSON and Dr Danielle K STOLL.

Marine ecosystems are characterised by high tropical and low polar biodiversity. Although the influence of temperature on such diversity is increasingly well documented, the temporal stability of quantitative relationships among diversity, latitude and temperature is largely unknown. This paper shows that, although the diversity-latitude relationship has been dynamic, diversity-temperature relationships have been remarkably constant over the past three million years, suggesting that species diversity is rapidly reorganised in response to temperature change on ecological time scales. Because the future impact of temperature on biodiversity is a main concern under on-going global warming, this result is fundamentally important for a better understanding of the temperature-biodiversity relationship.