Geographical Patterns in Biodiversity: Towards an Integration of Concepts and Methods from Genes to Species Diversity

Abstract

Definitions of Biodiversity that encompass multiple levels of the biological hierarchy are common and fulfill theoretical and conservation expectations. However, these definitions are usually not fully operational because these levels are usually analyzed independently. We understand that the difficulties in integrating concepts and methods for distinct "Fundamental Biodiversity Units" (FBUs) for analyses, including genes, haplotypes or neutral molecular variants, species, biomes or ecosystem, arise both because of operational and conceptual difficulties in dealing with the evolutionary continuum and because of 'sociological' issues regarding how different research traditions in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology deal with these different FBUs. Here we explore some common patterns of geographic variation in FBUs at different hierarchical levels, starting from the conceptual view by which evolution give rises to a continuum of biodiversity. We seek for an integrated methodological and conceptual framework to study FBUs, searching for the relationships and commonalities of concepts and methods traditionally developed to evaluate patterns and processes at a given level of the biological hierarchy. We point out several cases where conceptual and theoretical advances have been made by using an integrated perspective based for FBUs, for the analysis of broad-scale gradients in richness, distance decay similarity and systematic conservation planning. We conclude by stating that the recognition of an integrated approach that takes the evolutionary continuum into account may be an important step to mitigate biodiversity loss.

Interspecific interactions influence contrasting spatial genetic structures in two closely related damselfly species

“…By focusing on the mechanisms driving diversity across levels, we could target conservation or management actions that are based on process rather than pattern. Such an approach has been called for by ecologists, conservationists and evolutionary biologists alike , Diniz-Filho and Bini 2011.…”

Planning for optimal conservation of geographical genetic variability within species

“…In a conservation context, the conservation of intraspecific variation has been dominated by the debate among how to define evolutionary significant units (ESUs) or management units (MUs) (e.g., Fraser and Bernatchez 2001; see also Diniz-Filho and Telles 2002 for a proposal to define operational units to be used with continuous variation in the geographical space), or meta-population dynamic processes related to persistence (e.g., McCarthy et al 2005). It is important, however, to generalize this to a more basic representation of the genetic variability throughout geographical space and, in this context, SCP procedures may be quite useful as well (e.g., see Diniz-Filho and Bini 2011;Loyola et al 2011;Neel and Cummings 2003).…”

GIS and Spatial Analysis Meet Conservation: a Promising Synergy to Address Biodiversity Issues

“…The issues "area conservation prioritization" or "spatial support decision" were present in 18% of the papers, being well represented in this special issue Jenkins et al 2011;Crouzeilles et al 2011;Holvorcem et al 2011;Lemes et al 2011). "Scale" was addressed by 10% of the papers and also by Diniz-Filho & Bini (2011). The topic "space use and movements" was present in 8% of the papers and although considered an emergent and promising area, with the advances of Global positioning system (GPS) telemetry technology (Cagnacci et al 2010), was the only theme not represented in this special issue of N&C.…”

“…"Spatial patterns of biodiversity", the most frequent research theme, was addressed by 80% of the articles (see Diniz-Filho & Bini 2011;Werneck et al 2011;Hortal & Lobo 2011;Souza et al 2011). "Threats and impacts on biodiversity" and "biodiversity assessment, management and monitoring" were the research theme in more than 30% of the papers (see Esteves et al 2011;Koblitz et al 2011).…”