Toward a trait-based theory of ocean biodiversity

The biogeography of species is shaped in part by physiological traits that govern tolerance to environmental conditions.  The diversity of such traits should thus adapt to the range and relative frequency of abiotic conditions globally, but the slow imprinting of the environment on trait evolution is unobservable.  In this talk, I’ll present a general model for predicting the interspecific frequency distributions of key traits for marine ectotherm fitness using climate niches that reflect the 3-dimensional covariation of environmental properties regulating organismal energy balance.  The model allows large-scale patterns of species richness across latitude and depth to be predicted directly from a volumetric census of observed ocean conditions. These results provide a theoretical basis for inferring trait frequencies among species adapted to dramatically different climates in Earth’s history.