Features of the distribution of the taxonomic diversity of bivalve fauna in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean

Abstract

Among the components of biological diversity such as taxonomic richness and ecological diversity (distribution of species with respect to their abundance), one should also distinguish the taxonomic diversity as a function of taxonomic richness and evenness of the distributions of taxa of lower ranks over those of higher rank. In the direction from the high latitudes to the tropics, the taxonomic richness and Shannon’s index of taxonomic diversity regularly increase, while the taxonomic evenness, on the contrary, decreases. Toward the north, a relatively small number of mass species become better manifested; they are approximately even over a few genera and families. In warm waters, more common is the existence of a relatively large number of families, which strongly differ in the number of species; each of the latter features low abundance parameters. The meridional asymmetry in the distribution of the taxonomic richness and diversity reveals itself in the higher values of these parameters in the northeast of the Pacific Ocean as compared to their values at the same latitudes in the northwest; in the former case, the trend of latitudinal variations in the taxonomic diversity is poorer expressed.