Species Richness Net Primary Productivity and the Water Balance Problem

Species Richness Net Primary Productivity and the Water Balance Problem

Allen G. Hunt, Muhammad Sahimi, Erica A. Newman

19th Century Naturalists von Humboldt, Darwin, and Wallace were struck by the remarkable species richness of the tropics. We show that species energy theory explains the variability of plant, and particularly tree, species around the world if our existing result for net primary productivity, NPP, is used for species number prediction. The result confirms the relevance also of the prescription for finding the water balance given in the Eagleson Report’ “Opportunities in the Hydrologic Sciences,” on page 65-66, which the authors inadvertently followed in developing a solution of the water balance using ecological optimality (maximizing carbon assimilation, or NPP, with respect to the hydrologic fluxes). In the past year, results of this optimization have been shown to make accurate predictions of the change of streamflow with climate, net primary productivity, and species richness.

Entropy 2024, 26, 641
Corresponding author: Allen G. Hunt

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