Species Distributions, Quantum Theory, and the Enhancement of Biodiversity Measures

Abstract

Species distributions are typically represented by records of their observed occurrence at a given spatial and temporal scale. Such records are inevitably incomplete and contingent on the spatial-temporal circumstances under which the observations were made. Moreover, organisms may respond differently to similar environmental conditions at different places or moments, so their distribution is, in principle, not completely predictable. We argue that this uncertainty warrants treating species' distributions as analogous to quantum particles, whose distributions are described by a wavefunction rather than by a static set of locations. We relate this approach to the concept of ‘dark diversity’, which incorporates into biodiversity metrics species that could, but which have not yet been observed to, inhabit a region – developing a concept of “potential biodiversity”. We also show how such an approach may help overcome important weaknesses in current biodiversity metrics, in theory and using a worked case study of mammal distribution in Spain over the last decade. We propose that considerable theoretical advances could be gained through interdisciplinary collaboration between biogeographers and quantum physicists.