A global test of ecoregions

Smith, Jeffrey R.; Letten, Andrew D.; Ke, Po‐Ju; Anderson, Christopher B.; Hendershot, J. Nicholas; Dhami, Manpreet K.; Dlott, Glade; Grainger, Tess Nahanni; Howard, Meghan E.; Morrison, Beth M. L.; Routh, Devin; Juan, Priscilla A San; Mooney, Harold A.; Mordecai, Erin A.; Crowther, Thomas W.; Daily, Gretchen C.

doi:10.1038/s41559-018-0709-x

Cited by 93 publications

(98 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Our ecoregions differed markedly from the Brazilian official vegetation units (Veloso et al 1991) and from the WWF ecoregions (Olson et al 2001, Dinerstein et al 2017 (Fig. woody plants) ecoregions are necessary complements to physiognomy-based and multi-taxa/ physiography-based maps (Smith et al 2018), being potentially useful in different situations. woody plants) ecoregions are necessary complements to physiognomy-based and multi-taxa/ physiography-based maps (Smith et al 2018), being potentially useful in different situations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…Ecoregions are relatively large land units containing distinct natural communities and species assemblages delimited by their contemporary distribution and with boundaries that approximate their original extent prior to major land-use change (Olson et al 2001). Biogeographical units like ecoregions may be the closest we can get to map metacommunities because they reflect sharp boundaries in species turnover (Marcilio-Silva et al 2017, Smith et al 2018) and predictable species associations based on similar ecological requirements and non-neutral interactions Legendre 2012, Smith et al 2018). Biogeographical units like ecoregions may be the closest we can get to map metacommunities because they reflect sharp boundaries in species turnover (Marcilio-Silva et al 2017, Smith et al 2018) and predictable species associations based on similar ecological requirements and non-neutral interactions Legendre 2012, Smith et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here we address the issue of the bioregionalization of the Atlantic Forest domain in South America using both presence and abundance data. This is because previous studies have relied mainly on predefined physiognomic differences like deciduousness and architectural complexity (Oliveira-Filho andFontes 2000, Neves et al 2017), or subdivisions like multi-taxa/ physiognomic ecoregions (Olson et al 2001, Dinerstein et al 2017, Smith et al 2018. It is one of the main clusters of rare species in the Neotropics (Zizka et al 2018) and a global biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al 2000), with ca 15 000 angiosperm species, half of which are endemic to the domain (BFG 2015) and particularly vulnerable to climate change (Bellard et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aridity, soil and biome stability influence plant ecoregions in the Atlantic Forest, a biodiversity hotspot in South America

Cantidio

Souza

2019

Ecography

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Our aims were to quantify and map the plant ecoregions of the Atlantic Forest, a biodiversity hotspot that covers ca 150 million ha in eastern South America. We used a data set on the distribution of 4378 shrub and tree species across 711 localities. Plant ecoregions were identified using analyses of species turnover for both species occurrences and relative abundances. We interpolated NMDS axes of compositional variation over the entire the Atlantic Forest extent, and then classified the compositional dissimilarity according to the number of biogeographical ecoregions previously identified through K-means analyses. We assessed the ability of environmental, historical vegetation stability and the current human footprint to explain the occurrence of the identified ecoregions through multinomial logistic regression models. We identified 21 spatially cohesive occurrence and 14 abundance ecoregions. Aridity, soil and historical biome stability were retained in the best model explaining both occurrence and abundance ecoregions. Broad compositional zones were identified through UPGMA cluster analysis of ecoregions, and formed north and south compositional blocks. Our work confirms the existence of a broad north-south divide within the Atlantic Forest, previously suggested based on climatic and amphibious data. Differences between the occurrence and abundance maps suggest the location of transition zones to neighbouring domains and endemism centres. Due to the aggregate nature of our analyses, site-level disturbance degree was not considered, implying that human impacts could be broader then we could detect. There was limited overlap between our results and previous Atlantic Forest regionalization efforts, indicating that multi-taxa, physiognomic and environmental regionalization schemes based on expert opinion or vegetation maps are poor proxies for compositional ecoregions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aridity, soil and biome stability influence plant ecoregions in the Atlantic Forest, a biodiversity hotspot in South America

Cantidio

Souza

2019

Ecography

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“…Ecoregions are an appropriate scale to measure diversity as they represent distinct biogeographic and ecological entities (Smith et al. ), they have a reasonable sample size, and they contain highly variable numbers of species. For each ecoregion, we estimated the mean value across grid cells for each climatic and edaphic variable, as well as net primary productivity (NPP).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equilibrium and non‐equilibrium phases in the radiation of Hakea and the drivers of diversity in Mediterranean‐type ecosystems

Skeels

Cardillo

2019

Evolution

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Mediterranean‐type ecosystems (MTEs) contain exceptional plant diversity. Explanations for this diversity are usually classed as either “equilibrium,” with elevated MTE diversity resulting from greater ecological carrying capacities, or “non‐equilibrium,” with MTEs having a greater accumulation of diversity over time than other types of ecosystems. These models have typically been considered as mutually exclusive. Here, we present a trait‐based explanatory framework that incorporates both equilibrium and non‐equilibrium dynamics. Using a large continental Australian plant radiation (Hakea) as a case study, we identify traits associated with niche partitioning in coexisting species (α‐traits) and with environmental filtering (β‐traits), and reconstruct the mode and relative timing of diversification of these traits. Our results point to a radiation with an early non‐equilibrium phase marked by divergence of β‐traits as Hakea diversified exponentially and expanded from the southwest Australian MTE into biomes across the Australian continent. This was followed from seven million years ago by an equilibrium phase, marked by diversification of α‐traits and a slowdown in lineage diversification as MTE‐niches became saturated. These results suggest that processes consistent with both equilibrium and non‐equilibrium models have been important during different stages of the radiation of Hakea, and together they provide a richer explanation of present‐day diversity patterns.

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“…Ecoregions represent ecologically and geographically distinct units that typically share a common fauna (Smith et al, 2018). Ecoregions represent ecologically and geographically distinct units that typically share a common fauna (Smith et al, 2018).…”

Section: Geographic Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alternative pathways to diversity across ecologically distinct lizard radiations

Skeels

Esquerré

Cardillo

2019

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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Aim: Lizard assemblages vary greatly in taxonomic, ecological and phenotypic diversity, yet the mechanisms that generate and maintain these patterns at a macroecological scale are not well understood. We aimed to characterize the ecological and environmental drivers of species richness patterns in the context of macroecological theory for 10 independent lizard radiations. Location: Global. Time period: Present day.Major taxa: Lizards. Methods:We analysed patterns of species and functional trait diversity in 10 ecologically distinct and widely distributed clades encompassing nearly all known lizard species. Using recently published spatial, phylogenetic, and functional trait datasets, we built spatially explicit structural equation models to ask whether species richness was directly or indirectly related to functional divergence or convergence within communities, and with features of the environment, including measures of productivity, complexity and harshness. Results:Our results show that high species richness is achieved via different pathways in different lizard clades, with both functionally divergent and convergent assemblages harbouring high diversity in different clades. More generally, we also find common, positive effects of temperature, productivity and topography on species richness within lizard clades.Main conclusions: Thermal constraints, topographic complexity and spatial structuring of functional diversity help explain the presence of highly diverse lizard assemblages, suggesting the importance of environmental filters in shaping present-day diversity and assemblage structure. Our results show how different pathways to high richness in different clades have contributed to the overall global pattern of species richness in reptiles. K E Y W O R D Sfunctional divergence, macroecology, reptiles, species richness, squamates | 455 SKEELS Et aL.

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A global test of ecoregions

Cited by 93 publications

References 65 publications

Aridity, soil and biome stability influence plant ecoregions in the Atlantic Forest, a biodiversity hotspot in South America

Aridity, soil and biome stability influence plant ecoregions in the Atlantic Forest, a biodiversity hotspot in South America

Equilibrium and non‐equilibrium phases in the radiation of Hakea and the drivers of diversity in Mediterranean‐type ecosystems

Alternative pathways to diversity across ecologically distinct lizard radiations

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