The oceans appear ideal for biodiversity—they have unlimited water, a large area, are well
connected, have less extreme temperatures than on land, and contain more phyla and …

The latitudinal gradient in species richness, with more species in the tropics and richness
declining with latitude, is widely known and has been assumed to be stable over recent …

Marine biogeographic realms have been inferred from small groups of species in particular
environments (eg, coastal, pelagic), without a global map of realms based on statistical …

Our review of the literature and available data on latitudinal gradients in marine species
richness found that in all previous studies, and for a dataset of 65 000 species, they were …

Seagrasses form one of the most ecologically important and productive three-dimensional
habitats in coastal seas. Knowing the global distribution of seagrass meadows is essential …

Kelp, seaweeds of the order Laminariales, are of ecological and conservation importance
because they form undersea forest habitat for many varieties of fauna and flora including …

The distance travelled by marine larvae varies by seven orders of magnitude. Dispersal
shapes marine biodiversity, and must be understood if marine systems are to be well …

A major research question concerning global pelagic biodiversity remains unanswered:
when did the apparent tropical biodiversity depression (ie, bimodality of latitudinal diversity …

Identifying priority areas for biodiversity conservation requires systematic approaches and
integrated ecological and biological information. Here, we applied a range of ecological …

The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is recognized as one of the most pervasive, global
patterns of present-day biodiversity. However, the controlling mechanisms have proved …