Recent studies at the macro‐scale have demonstrated that geographic gradients in the
richness of plants, in particular of woody plants such as trees and shrubs, can be viewed as
by‐products of water‐energy dynamics. According to this view, they are climatic rather than
latitudinal/longitudinal gradients, relating to coincident and predictable variations in
planetary surface‐atmosphere thermal dynamics and consequent patterns in biological
activity. Previous analyses have shown that a two‐variable model capturing the dynamic …