The role of spatial scale and the perception of large‐scale species‐richness patterns

Abstract Despite two centuries of exploration, our understanding of factors determining the distribution of life on Earth is in many ways still in its infancy. Much of the disagreement about governing processes of variation in species richness may be the result of differences in our perception of species‐richness patterns. Until recently, most studies of large‐scale species‐richness patterns assumed implicitly that patterns and mechanisms were scale invariant. Illustrated with examples and a quantitative analysis of published data on altitudinal gradients of species richness ( n = 204), this review discusses how scale effects (extent and grain size) can influence our perception of patterns and processes. For…