Climate state controls the strength of the latitudinal diversity gradient
- 1School of Earth Sciences and Engineering and Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, People's Republic of China
- 2Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
- 3State Key Laboratory of Critical Earth Material Cycling and Mineral Deposits, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, People's Republic of China
Abstract
The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG)—a decline in taxonomic richness from the Equator to the poles—is a fundamental biogeographic pattern on Earth today, yet its primary regulators remain debated. Whereas many of the proposed climatic and environmental drivers covary with latitude in the present day, these variables have fluctuated substantially over millions of years. The fossil record therefore offers a unique perspective on the response of diversity and, by extension, the LDG, to global climatic change. We test the hypothesis that Earth's long-term climate state controls LDG strength, determining the conditions under which steep, ‘modern-type’ gradients with low-latitude-centred diversity peaks emerge. By analysing sampling-standardized marine invertebrate diversity across the past 500 million years, we reveal a systematic link: ‘modern-type’ LDGs typically prevail during coldhouse–coolhouse intervals, whereas flattened LDGs or temperate diversity peaks occur predominantly within transitional, warmhouse and hothouse climates. This robust phenomenon demonstrates that long-term climate exerts a primary control on global biodiversity patterns, whereas palaeogeography, including the distribution of shallow-marine habitat and continental configuration, modulates the regional expression of the LDG, including hemispheric variation. As anthropogenic warming pushes Earth towards hothouse conditions, our results offer a critical geohistorical perspective on the impending restructuring of global biodiversity.
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BibTeX
@article{wen2026climate,
title = {{Climate state controls the strength of the latitudinal diversity gradient}},
author = {Die Wen and Lewis A. Jones and Junxuan Fan and Philip D. Mannion},
journal = {Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1098/rspb.2026.1490},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2026.1490},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Climate state controls the strength of the latitudinal diversity gradient
AU - Die Wen
AU - Lewis A. Jones
AU - Junxuan Fan
AU - Philip D. Mannion
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
JO - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
DO - 10.1098/rspb.2026.1490
UR - https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2026.1490
AB - The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG)—a decline in taxonomic richness from the Equator to the poles—is a fundamental biogeographic pattern on Earth today, yet its primary regulators remain debated. Whereas many of the proposed climatic and environmental drivers covary with latitude in the present day, these variables have fluctuated substantially over millions of years. The fossil record therefore offers a unique perspective on the response of diversity and, by extension, the LDG, to global climatic change. We test the hypothesis that Earth's long-term climate state controls LDG strength, determining the conditions under which steep, ‘modern-type’ gradients with low-latitude-centred diversity peaks emerge. By analysing sampling-standardized marine invertebrate diversity across the past 500 million years, we reveal a systematic link: ‘modern-type’ LDGs typically prevail during coldhouse–coolhouse intervals, whereas flattened LDGs or temperate diversity peaks occur predominantly within transitional, warmhouse and hothouse climates. This robust phenomenon demonstrates that long-term climate exerts a primary control on global biodiversity patterns, whereas palaeogeography, including the distribution of shallow-marine habitat and continental configuration, modulates the regional expression of the LDG, including hemispheric variation. As anthropogenic warming pushes Earth towards hothouse conditions, our results offer a critical geohistorical perspective on the impending restructuring of global biodiversity.
SN - 0962-8452
SN - 1471-2954
ER -