Dataset Information

Restructuring of the 'Macaronesia' biogeographic unit: A marine multi-taxon biogeographical approach.

ABSTRACT: The Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canary Islands and Cabo Verde are commonly united under the term "Macaronesia". This study investigates the coherency and validity of Macaronesia as a biogeographic unit using six marine groups with very different dispersal abilities: coastal fishes, echinoderms, gastropod molluscs, brachyuran decapod crustaceans, polychaete annelids, and macroalgae. We found no support for the current concept of Macaronesia as a coherent marine biogeographic unit. All marine groups studied suggest the exclusion of Cabo Verde from the remaining Macaronesian archipelagos and thus, Cabo Verde should be given the status of a biogeographic subprovince within the West African Transition province. We propose to redefine the Lusitanian biogeographical province, in which we include four ecoregions: the South European Atlantic Shelf, the Saharan Upwelling, the Azores, and a new ecoregion herein named Webbnesia, which comprises the archipelagos of Madeira, Selvagens and the Canary Islands.

SUBMITTER: Freitas R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6831653 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Restructuring of the 'Macaronesia' biogeographic unit: A marine multi-taxon biogeographical approach.

Freitas Rui R Romeiras Maria M Silva Luís L Cordeiro Ricardo R Madeira Patrícia P González José Antonio JA Wirtz Peter P Falcón Jesús M JM Brito Alberto A Floeter Sergio R SR Afonso Pedro P Porteiro Filipe F Viera-Rodríguez María Ascensión MA Neto Ana Isabel AI Haroun Ricardo R Farminhão João N M JNM Rebelo Ana Cristina AC Baptista Lara L Melo Carlos S CS Martínez Alejandro A Núñez Jorge J Berning Björn B Johnson Markes E ME Ávila Sérgio P SP

Scientific reports 20191105 1

The Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canary Islands and Cabo Verde are commonly united under the term "Macaronesia". This study investigates the coherency and validity of Macaronesia as a biogeographic unit using six marine groups with very different dispersal abilities: coastal fishes, echinoderms, gastropod molluscs, brachyuran decapod crustaceans, polychaete annelids, and macroalgae. We found no support for the current concept of Macaronesia as a coherent marine biogeographic unit. All marine grou ...[more]

PMID: 31690834

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Project description:Habitat diversity (spatial heterogeneity within and between habitat patches in a landscape, HD) is often invoked as a driver of species diversity at small spatial scales. However, the effect of HD on species richness (SR) of multiple taxa is not well understood. We quantified HD and SR in a wet-dry gradient of open grassland habitats in Hortobágy National Park (E-Hungary) and tested the effect of compositional and structural factors of HD on SR of flowering plants, orthopterans, true bugs, spiders, ground beetles and birds. Our dataset on 434 grassland species (170 plants, 264 animals) showed that the wet-dry gradient (compositional HD at the between-patch scale) was primarily related to SR in orthopterans, ground-dwelling arthropods, and all animals combined. The patchiness, or plant association richness, of the vegetation (compositional HD at the within-patch scale) was related to SR of vegetation-dwelling arthropods, whereas vegetation height (structural HD at the within-patch scale) was related to SR of ground-dwelling arthropods and birds. Patch area was related to SR only in birds, whereas management (grazing, mowing, none) was related to SR of plants and true bugs. All relationships between HD and SR were positive, indicating increasing SR with increasing HD. However, total SR was not related to HD because different taxa showed similar positive responses to different HD variables. Our findings, therefore, show that even though HD positively influences SR in a wide range of grassland taxa, each taxon responds to different compositional or structural measures of HD, resulting in the lack of a consistent relationship between HD and SR when taxon responses are pooled. The idiosyncratic responses shown here exemplify the difficulties in detecting general HD-SR relationships over multiple taxa. Our results also suggest that management and restoration aimed specifically to sustain or increase the diversity of habitats are required to conserve biodiversity in complex landscapes.

Dataset Information

Restructuring of the 'Macaronesia' biogeographic unit: A marine multi-taxon biogeographical approach.

Publications

Restructuring of the 'Macaronesia' biogeographic unit: A marine multi-taxon biogeographical approach.

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