The Latitudinal Diversity Gradient: Novel Understanding through Mechanistic Eco-evolutionary Models

The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is one of the most widely debated patterns in ecology and evolution, associated with hundreds of papers, dozens of hypotheses, and disagreements about its underlying processes. The lack of agreement stems from: (i) the verbal nature of existing hypotheses, (ii) the failure to mechanistically integrate all relevant ecological and evolutionary processes to the LDG, and (iii) the degree to which many...