Hypotheses that attempt to explain latitudinal gradients in species diversity are reviewed. Some hypotheses are circular, i.e. they are based on the assumption that some taxa have greater diversity in the tropics. These include explanations assuming different degrees of competition, mutualism, predation, epiphyte load, epidemics, biotic spatial heterogeneity, host diversity, population size, niche width, population growth rate, environmental harshness, and patchiness at different latitudes

Latitudinal gradients in species diversity: the search for the primary cause

Comparison of rates of accumulation of organic carbon in surface marine sediments from the central North Pacific, the continental margins off northwest Africa, northwest and southwest America, the Argentine Basin, and the western Baltic Sea with primary production rates suggests that the fraction of primary produced organic carbon preserved in the sediments is universally related to the bulk sedimentation rate. Accordingly, less than 0.01% of the primary production becomes fossilized in slowly accumulating pelagic sediments [(2 to 6 mm (1000 y)−1] of the Central Pacific, 0.1 to 2% in moderately rapidly accumulating [2 to 13 cm (1000 y)−1] hemipelagic sediments off northwest Africa, northwest America (Oregon) and southeast America (Argentina), and 11 to 18% in rapidly accumulating [66 to 140 cm (1000 y)−1] hemipelagic sediments off southwest America (Peru) and in the Baltic Sea. The emiprical expression: % Org-C = 0.0030· R · S 0.30 p s (1−θ) implies that the sedimentary organic carbon content (% Org-C) doubles with each 10-fold increase in sedimentation rate (S), assuming that other factors remain constant; i.e., primary production (R), porosity (φ) and sediment density (ps). This expression also predicts the sedimentary organic carbon content from the primary production rate, sedimentation rate, dry density of solids, and their porosity; it may be used to estimate paleoproductivity as well. Applying this relationship to a sediment core from the continental rise off northwest Africa (Spanish Sahara) suggests that productivity there during interglacial oxygen isotope stages 1 and 5 was about the same as today but was higher by a factor of 2 to 3 during glacial stages 2, 3, and 6.

Productivity, sedimentation rate, and sedimentary organic matter in the oceans—I. Organic carbon preservation

Time series of ocean properties provide a measure of global ice volume and monitor key features of the wind-driven and density-driven circulations over the past 400,000 years. Cycles with periods near 23,000, 41,000, and 100,000 years dominate this climatic narrative. When the narrative is examined in a geographic array of time series, the phase of each climatic oscillation is seen to progress through the system in essentially the same geographic sequence in all three cycles. We argue that the 23,000- and 41,000-year cycles of glaciation are continuous, linear responses to orbitally driven changes in the Arctic radiation budget; and we use the phase progression in each climatic cycle to identify the main pathways along which the initial, local responses to radiation are propagated by the atmosphere and ocean. Early in this progression, deep waters of the Southern Ocean appear to act as a carbon trap. To stimulate new observations and modeling efforts, we offer a process model that gives a synoptic view of climate at the four end-member states needed to describe the system's evolution, and we propose a dynamic system model that explains the phase progression along causal pathways by specifying inertial constants in a chain of four subsystems.

“Solutions to problems involving systems of such complexity are not born full grown like Athena from the head of Zeus. Rather they evolve slowly, in stages, each of which requires a pause to examine data at great lengths in order to guarantee a sure footing and to properly choose the next step.”

—Victor P. Starr

On the Structure and Origin of Major Glaciation Cycles 1. Linear Responses to Milankovitch Forcing

The North Atlantic Ocean during the last deglaciation

Sudden changes in the flow of warm Atlantic surface waters into the Norwegian Sea occurred frequently during the last deglaciation, typically involving shifts in sea surface temperature of ⩾5 °C in fewer than 40 years. These led to equally large and rapid changes in atmospheric temperatures, and to shifts in Atlantic deep thermo-haline circulation and ice-sheet melting rates.

Allen W. H. Bé

Papers

Glacial North Atlantic 18,000 Years Ago: A climap Reconstruction