Quantifying vertebrate zoogeographical regions of Australia using geospatial turnover in the species composition of mammals, birds, reptiles and terrestrial amphibians

Bein, Bernhard; Ebach, Malte C.; Laffan, Shawn W.; Murphy, Daniel J.; Cassis, Gerasimos

doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4802.1.4

Cited by 2 publications

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“…These zones largely divide Australia into latitudinal bands and may be insufficient to represent biogeographic patterns of vertebrates, which also show distinct biotic regions from east to west (Ebach et al, 2013). Thus, drawing on the results of Bein et al (2020), we subdivided the six GEnS zones that spanned the longitudinal extent of Australia at the meridian of 134° E, giving a total of 15 zones (Figure 1). Upscaled to the 10 km analysis resolution with modal-value resampling Separate SEMs were constructed for birds and mammals and for the full continental extent and the regional extent of each bioclimatic zone.…”

Section: Bioclimatic Stratificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…I G U R E 1 Environmental regionalization used to divide Australia into 15 bioclimatic zones. The bioclimatic zones were generated by intersecting the global environmental stratification (GEnS;Metzger et al, 2013) of climate regions with the meridian of 134°E longitude to reflect notable east-west distinctions in vertebrate community composition(Bein et al, 2020;Ebach et al, 2013). Preliminary path diagram for structural equation models of bird and mammal biodiversity.…”

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Facets of functional diversity support niche‐based explanations for Australian biodiversity gradients

Andrew,

Bolton,

Rickbeil

et al. 2023

Journal of Biogeography

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AimThere is widespread support that species richness increases with the available energy of an ecosystem, but the mechanisms underlying this driver of biodiversity patterns remain elusive. We evaluated gradients of functional diversity to test whether the higher species richness of productive, structurally diverse environments is due to a greater range of niches being supported by the abiotic conditions present (environmental filtering), greater availability of biotic resource and habitat niches (more niches) or increasing functional similarity of species (niche packing).LocationAustralia.TaxonBirds and mammals.MethodsWe used structural equation modelling to evaluate the relative contributions of climatic harshness (actual evapotranspiration, AET) and the availability of resource (gross primary productivity, GPP) and habitat (tree height) niches on taxonomic richness and functional richness, dispersion and evenness. We performed parallel analyses within 15 bioclimatic zones and continentally to evaluate the scaling of biodiversity gradients and the shifting balance between niche‐based mechanisms along environmental gradients.ResultsAll continental diversity gradients were primarily associated with energy variables, but while species richness of both taxa and all functional diversity measures of bird assemblages increased with AET, mammal functional diversity was more strongly associated with GPP gradients. Results were more variable at the regional scale, but species richness gradients along tree height (birds and mammals) and GPP (mammals) within bioclimatic zones tended not to be paralleled by increases in functional richness or dispersion.Main ConclusionsThe niche‐based explanations of biodiversity gradients varied in importance with scale, position on environmental gradients and taxonomic group. At the continental extent, bird biodiversity gradients were structured by environmental filtering by climatic harshness, while mammal biodiversity was related to the increasing availability of resource niches with increasing productivity. Niche packing was more prominent at the regional scale, especially in bioclimatic zones where productivity and vegetation height were less limiting, and in mammal assemblages, suggesting that biodiversity patterns scale differently for birds and mammals.

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Section: Bioclimatic Stratificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Facets of functional diversity support niche‐based explanations for Australian biodiversity gradients

Andrew,

Bolton,

Rickbeil

et al. 2023

Journal of Biogeography

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Endemism and regionalization of Neotropical mammals: a multi-taxon analysis

Machado,

Pereira,

Tirelli

et al. 2024

Journal of Mammalogy

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The distribution pattern of a taxon is a consequence of historical and contemporary processes—specifically ecological and evolutionary processes—which tend to result in distributional congruence among species that respond similarly to the same processes. This congruence leads to the establishment of areas of endemism that are important for delimiting biogeographic regions. In the Neotropical region, different definitions of area of endemism have been proposed based on the distributional patterns of mammal species, each according to different methods and assumptions. In this study, we aimed to identify areas of endemism of Neotropical mammals, represented by 361 species of Placentalia (Xenarthra, Chiroptera, and Carnivora) and Marsupialia (Didelphimorphia and Paucituberculata), using an endemicity analysis implemented by the software NDM (eNDeMism software) and a hierarchical cluster analysis based on Simpson’s beta dissimilarity metric (βsim). The results suggest alternative spatial configurations within northern and southern parts of the Neotropics along transition zones. Additionally, there are indications of more restricted areas of endemism throughout the Neotropical region and with more species supporting the areas, such 1 area located in the region corresponding to the Atlantic forest and 2 areas corresponding to Mexican transition zone. The study enhances our understanding of Neotropical mammal biogeography and underscores the importance of using primary distribution data. Previous studies found 82 endemic species based on range maps, whereas our analyses identified 172 endemic species, including 125 that are newly proposed as such, and also confirmed the existence of 47 previously reported endemic species.

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Quantifying vertebrate zoogeographical regions of Australia using geospatial turnover in the species composition of mammals, birds, reptiles and terrestrial amphibians

Cited by 2 publications

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Facets of functional diversity support niche‐based explanations for Australian biodiversity gradients

Facets of functional diversity support niche‐based explanations for Australian biodiversity gradients

Endemism and regionalization of Neotropical mammals: a multi-taxon analysis

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