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Defining and dividing the greater Caribbean: insights from the biogeography of shorefishes.

ABSTRACT: The Greater Caribbean biogeographic region is the high-diversity heart of the Tropical West Atlantic, one of four global centers of tropical marine biodiversity. The traditional view of the Greater Caribbean is that it is limited to the Caribbean, West Indies, southwest Gulf of Mexico and tip of Florida, and that, due to its faunal homogeneity, lacks major provincial subdivisions. In this scenario the northern 2/3 of the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern USA represent a separate temperate, "Carolinian" biogeographic region. We completed a comprehensive re-assessment of the biogeography of the Greater Caribbean by comparing the distributions of 1,559 shorefish species within 45 sections of shelf waters of the Greater Caribbean and adjacent areas. This analysis shows that that the Greater Caribbean occupies a much larger area than usually thought, extending south to at least Guyana, and north to encompass the entire Carolinian area. Rather than being homogenous, the Greater Caribbean is divided into three major provinces, each with a distinctive, primarily tropical fauna: (1) a central, tropical province comprising the West Indies, Bermuda and Central America; (2) a southern, upwelling-affected province spanning the entire continental shelf of northern South America; and (iii) a northern, subtropical province that includes all of the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and southeastern USA. This three-province pattern holds for both reef- and soft bottom fishes, indicating a general response by demersal fishes to major variation in provincial shelf environments. Such environmental differences include latitudinal variation in sea temperature, availability of major habitats (coral reefs, soft bottom shorelines, and mangroves), and nutrient additions from upwelling areas and large rivers. The three-province arrangement of the Greater Caribbean broadly resembles and has a similar environmental basis to the provincial arrangement of its sister biogeographic region, the Tropical Eastern Pacific.

SUBMITTER: Robertson DR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4108436 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Defining and dividing the greater Caribbean: insights from the biogeography of shorefishes.

Robertson D Ross DR Cramer Katie L KL

PloS one 20140723 7

The Greater Caribbean biogeographic region is the high-diversity heart of the Tropical West Atlantic, one of four global centers of tropical marine biodiversity. The traditional view of the Greater Caribbean is that it is limited to the Caribbean, West Indies, southwest Gulf of Mexico and tip of Florida, and that, due to its faunal homogeneity, lacks major provincial subdivisions. In this scenario the northern 2/3 of the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern USA represent a separate temperate, "Caroli ...[more]

PMID: 25054225

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Project description:BACKGROUND:The immense geologic and ecological complexity of the Caribbean has created a natural laboratory for interpreting when and how organisms disperse through time and space. However, competing hypotheses compounded with this complexity have resulted in a lack of unifying principles of biogeography for the region. Though new data concerning the timing of geologic events and dispersal events are emerging, powerful new analytical tools now allow for explicit hypothesis testing. Arthropods, with varying dispersal ability and high levels of endemism in the Caribbean, are an important, albeit understudied, biogeographic model system. Herein, we include a comprehensive analysis of every publicly available genetic dataset (at the time of writing) of terrestrial Caribbean arthropod groups using a statistically robust pipeline to explicitly test the current extent of biogeographic hypotheses for the region. RESULTS:Our findings indicate several important biogeographic generalizations for the region: the South American continent is the predominant origin of Caribbean arthropod fauna; GAARlandia played a role for some taxa in aiding dispersal from South America to the Greater Antilles; founder event dispersal explains the majority of dispersal events by terrestrial arthropods, and distance between landmasses is important for dispersal; most dispersal events occurred via island hopping; there is evidence of 'reverse' dispersal from islands to the mainland; dispersal across the present-day Isthmus of Panama generally occurred prior to 3 mya; the Greater Antilles harbor more lineage diversity than the Lesser Antilles, and the larger Greater Antilles typically have greater lineage diversity than the smaller islands; basal Caribbean taxa are primarily distributed in the Greater Antilles, the basal-most being from Cuba, and derived taxa are mostly distributed in the Lesser Antilles; Jamaican taxa are usually endemic and monophyletic. CONCLUSIONS:Given the diversity and deep history of terrestrial arthropods, incongruence of biogeographic patterns is expected, but focusing on both similarities and differences among divergent taxa with disparate life histories emphasizes the importance of particular qualities responsible for resulting diversification patterns. Furthermore, this study provides an analytical toolkit that can be used to guide researchers interested in answering questions pertaining to Caribbean biogeography using explicit hypothesis testing.

Project description:Geomorphic differences among Caribbean reefs have long been noted. These differences are considered to reflect the presence of reefs in different stages of development, following an incomplete recovery from rapid deglacial sea-level rise. But the possibility that these reflect real developmental differences caused by variation in wind, wave, and climate regime, has never been fully considered. Here, for the first time, we quantify the geomorphology and distribution of Greater Caribbean reefs using satellite images in Google Earth and public-domain bathymetry. To do this, we first standardise their classification based on shallow geomorphology, substrate depth, and physiographic setting, and then count and categorise the total number of reefs. These data show a total of 1023 linear breakwater reefs with a combined length of 2237 km. Of this total length, 80% are fringing reefs, 16% are barriers and 4% are faros and atolls. In terms of categories, there are 16 reef subtypes present, but only 9 are common. Their distribution, however, is not uniform. In particular, flat-subtypes form 60% of breakwater reefs in southern regions, but are less common in northern regions where crest-subtypes dominate (80%). To distinguish the geomorphology of these common reef subtypes, we collect size- and length-related morphometric data from their main reef zones. These data reveal that flat and crest subtypes also have morphometric differences: flat subtypes have well-constrained morphologies with statistically consistent unimodal morphometrics characterised by large back-reef zones, smaller and steeper reef fronts, and more sinuous and persistent crestlines. Crest subtypes, by contrast, have multimodal morphometrics suggesting less consistent morphologies (or unresolved subtypes), and are characterised by crestlines with lower sinuosity, more variable back-reef and reef-front areas, and slopes. These differences in geomorphology and distribution imply that flat- and crest-subtypes are neither successional stages of a single reef type, nor a genetically related sequence of types, but distinct reefal geoforms with different modes of development. In subsequent work we will explore what controls these differences.

Project description:The phylogenetic relationships and biogeographic history of Caribbean island ameivas (Pholidoscelis) are not well-known because of incomplete sampling, conflicting datasets, and poor support for many clades. Here, we use phylogenomic and mitochondrial DNA datasets to reconstruct a well-supported phylogeny and assess historical colonization patterns in the group. We obtained sequence data from 316 nuclear loci and one mitochondrial marker for 16 of 19 extant species of the Caribbean endemic genus Pholidoscelis. Phylogenetic analyses were carried out using both concatenation and species tree approaches. To estimate divergence times, we used fossil teiids to calibrate a timetree which was used to elucidate the historical biogeography of these lizards. All phylogenetic analyses recovered four well-supported species groups (clades) recognized previously and supported novel relationships of those groups, including a (P. auberi + P. lineolatus) clade (western + central Caribbean), and a (P. exsul + P. plei) clade (eastern Caribbean). Divergence between Pholidoscelis and its sister clade was estimated to have occurred ~25 Ma, with subsequent diversification on Caribbean islands occurring over the last 11 Myr. Of the six models compared in the biogeographic analyses, the scenario which considered the distance among islands and allowed dispersal in all directions best fit the data. These reconstructions suggest that the ancestor of this group colonized either Hispaniola or Puerto Rico from Middle America. We provide a well-supported phylogeny of Pholidoscelis with novel relationships not reported in previous studies that were based on significantly smaller datasets. We propose that Pholidoscelis colonized the eastern Greater Antilles from Middle America based on our biogeographic analysis, phylogeny, and divergence time estimates. The closing of the Central American Seaway and subsequent formation of the modern Atlantic meridional overturning circulation may have promoted dispersal in this group.

Project description:BackgroundHispanic/Latinx (HL) ethnicity encompasses racially and culturally diverse subgroups. Studies suggest that Puerto Ricans (PR) may bear greater asthma-related morbidity than Mexicans, but these were conducted in children or had limited clinical characterization.ObjectivesThis study sought to determine whether disparities in asthma morbidity exist among HL adult subgroups.MethodsAdults with moderate-severe asthma were recruited from US clinics, including from Puerto Rico, for the Person Empowered Asthma Relief (PREPARE) trial. Considering the shared heritage between PR and other Caribbean HL (Cubans and Dominicans [C&D]), the investigators compared baseline self-reported clinical characteristics between Caribbean HL (CHL) (PR and C&D: n = 457) and other HLs (OHL) (Mexicans, Spaniards, Central/South Americans; n = 141), and between CHL subgroups (C&D [n = 56] and PR [n = 401]). This study compared asthma morbidity measures (self-reported exacerbations requiring systemic corticosteroids, emergency department/urgent care (ED/UC) visits, hospitalizations, health care utilization) through negative binomial regression.ResultsCHL compared to OHL were similar in age, body mass index, poverty status, blood eosinophils, and fractional exhaled nitric oxide but were prescribed more asthma controller therapies. Relative to OHL, CHL had significantly increased odds of asthma exacerbations (odds ratio [OR]: 1.84; 95% CI: 1.4-2.4), ED/UC visits (OR: 1.88; 95% CI: 1.4-2.5), hospitalization (OR: 1.98; 95% CI: 1.06-3.7), and health care utilization (OR: 1.91; 95% CI: 1.44-2.53). Of the CHL subgroups, PR had significantly increased odds of asthma exacerbations, ED/UC visits, hospitalizations, and health care utilization compared to OHL, whereas C&D only had increased odds of exacerbations compared to OHL. PR compared to C&D had greater odds of ED/UC and health care utilization.ConclusionsCHL adults, compared with OHL, adults reported nearly twice the asthma morbidity; these differences are primarily driven by PR. Novel interventions are needed to reduce morbidity in this highly impacted population.

Dataset Information

Defining and dividing the greater Caribbean: insights from the biogeography of shorefishes.

Publications

Defining and dividing the greater Caribbean: insights from the biogeography of shorefishes.

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