A comprehensive analysis of the relationship between temperature and species diversity: The case of planktonic foraminifera

• Published in: Frontiers in Marine Science
• Main Authors: Gao, Junfeng, Su, Qiang
• Other Authors: National Natural Science Foundation of China
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Frontiers Media SA 2022
• Subjects: Ocean Engineering; Water Science and Technology; Aquatic Science; Global and Planetary Change; Oceanography; Planktonic foraminifera
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.1069276; https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.1069276/full

The relationship between temperature ( T ) and species diversity is one of the most fundamental issues in marine diversity. Although their relationships have been discussed for many years, how species diversity is related to T remains a controversial question. Previous studies have identified three T –diversity relationships: positive, negative, and unimodal. Recently, the unimodal relationship has received great attention. However, these studies may be biased by (1) considering the insufficient T range of database, (2) using a single diversity metric (generally species richness, S ), and (3) rarely considering species abundance distribution (SAD) that can better represent diversity. Here, to seek a more comprehensive understanding of T –diversity relationships, their relationships are evaluated according to a global planktonic foraminifera dataset, which is usually considered as a model dataset for exploring diversity pattern. Species diversity are estimated by four most commonly used metrics and a new SAD parameter ( p ). Results show that S and Shannon’s index support the typical unimodal relationship with T . However, evenness and dominance do not have significant unimodality. Additionally, this study conjectures that the SAD parameter p with increasing T will gradually approach the minimum 1, noting that SAD ( N r / N 1 , where N r and N 1 are the abundance of the r th and the first species in descending order) tends to be 1:1/2:1/3…. This study suggests that the T –diversity relationship cannot be wholly reflected by S and the other aspects of diversity (especially SAD) should be considered.