Explain, giving three reasons, why tropics show greatest levels of species diversity.
There are three different reasons which explain why there is species richness in the tropics.
- Tropical latitudes receive more solar energy than temperate regions, which leads to high productivity and high species diversity.
- Tropical regions have less seasonal variations and have a more or less constant environment. This promotes the niche specialization and thus, high species richness.
- Temperate regions were subjected to glaciations during the ice age, while tropical regions remained undisturbed which led to an increase in the species diversity in this region.