BISC 204 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Intertidal Zone, Sawfly, Species Richness
8 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Species richness is greater at lower latitudes near the equator. It is sunny, hot and dry near the equator. Marine iguanas have a unique adaptation to feed on algae in intertidal zone as they live on the shore. Galapagos islands have 2700 endemic species while in denali, alaska there are no endemic species with very low species diversity (latitude difference) Endemic species = species found nowhere else on earth (it is unique to one defined geographic location such as an island or nation) There is much less species diversity as you go further south or north from the equator. Birds from new world , at the equator is the most species while at the poles there is much less diversity. But other features can also influence diversity: Consider the mississippi river, there are very different environments on each side of the mountain due to the rainfall. Hypotheses for species diversity being dependent on latitudes.
