Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Rapoport's rule: time for an epitaph?
Section snippets
Definitions
Stevens[6]defined Rapoport's rule as the circumstance in which `[w]hen the latitudinal extent of the geographical range of organisms occurring at a given latitude is plotted against latitude, a simple positive correlation is found'. He[6]and others[13]have argued that the rule be restricted to measures of the latitudinal extent of geographic ranges, but some authors have tested it in terms of areal measures of range size15, 16, 17. There seem to be no strong reasons why it should not be
Methodology
Some potentially significant complications exist to interpreting the results of empirical studies, weakening the inferences which can be drawn from some of them.
Evidence
Overall, the evidence that the decline in average range size from high to low latitudes at the species level constitutes a general pattern is equivocal (Table 1; Ricklefs and Latham[28]perform an additional analysis at the generic level). While there is no rule for what constitutes a rule, for a random selection of higher taxa it should at the very least be exhibited in more cases than expected by chance alone. This is not so, assuming that published examples are as likely to show the rule as
Mechanisms
While the number of studies which find no evidence for a positive relationship between latitude and geographical range size undermines the case for its continuing status as a rule, they may nonetheless aid understanding of what might cause the pattern in those cases where it does exist. There have been five principal proposals.
Conclusions
The support for sustaining Rapoport's rule as a rule is not strong. Indeed, on this basis less emphatic terminology has already begun to be employed, such as the labelling of a pattern of reduction in geographic range size towards lower latitudes as the Rapoport `effect'[16]. The widespread acceptance of a latitudinal gradient in range size as a general feature of biodiversity is unjustified, although on current evidence its existence as a local phenomenon restricted to high latitudes in the
Acknowledgements
K.J.G. is a Royal Society University Research Fellow. T.M.B. thanks the NERC for financial support. We are grateful to Steven Chown for discussion, and to Kate Lyons for kindly supplying us with a copy of her paper ahead of publication.
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Rapoport effects are inconsistently demonstrated through time
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