The first two hotspots of subterranean biodiversity in South America

Abstract

The term hotspots of subterranean biodiversity has been used to define subterranean habitats with an arbitrary cutoff of twenty or more obligate stygobitic and troglobitic species. Until present, no hotspots of subterranean biodiversity had been identified in South America. Thus, the objective of this work is to present the first two hotspots of subterranean biodiversity in that continent. The two hotspots of subterranean biodiversity are the Toca do Gonçalo cave (22 spp.) and Areias cave systems (28 spp.). The cave species, some of them considered relict species, belong to the Platyhelminthes (1 sp.), Nemertea (1 sp.), Gastropoda (2 spp.), Amphipoda (2) Isopoda (7), Decapoda (1), Collembola (5), Coleoptera (5), Ensifera (1), Sternorrhyncha (1), Zygentoma (1), Diplopoda (6) Chilopoda (5) Araneae (2), Opiliones (1) Palpigradi (2), Pseudoscorpiones (4), and Osteicthyes (2). Although both caves, together, have 50 troglobitic species, only 38% of these species are formally described. Both caves have perennial water bodies, but terrestrial obligate cave invertebrates are dominant in number of species in both systems (around 77%). While the Areias system is partially contained in a conservation unit, Toca do Gonçalo cave is currently unprotected, although it certainly deserves protection.

Light from dark: A relictual troglobite reveals a broader ancestral distribution for kimulid harvestmen (Opiliones: Laniatores: Kimulidae) in South America

“…Some authors consider caves as hotspots of subterranean biodiversity if they contain 20 or more obligate subterranean species, a rather arbitrary number proposed by Culver and Sket [ 79 ]. Presently, there are 38 caves in the world that fall under this definition of a subterranean hotspot [ 79 – 81 ]). Taking a more comprehensive approach, Trajano et al [ 82 ] adopted the concept of “spots of high diversity of troglobites” based not only on taxonomic richness, but also considering phylogenetic and genetic diversity.…”

An Overview of Subterranean Biodiversity Hotspots

“…Although the number of studies measuring both α-diversity (local diversity) and β-diversity (between-site diversity) has grown in the intervening 20+ years, they have largely been confined to Europe and, to a lesser extent, North America [3][4][5][6][7], mainly because it requires extensive datasets for about 100 sites for these to be estimated [6,8]. However, it is also well known that considerable subterranean species α-diversity lies outside these regions, including in Australia [9,10], Brazil [11,12], China [13], South East Asia [14], and Mexico [15], in part as a result of a search for additions to the list of hotspot caves reported by Sket and Culver.…”

Checklist of the Coleoptera of Mordovia State Nature Reserve, Russia

“…The term biodiversity hotspot is commonly used for regions or areas with high species richness, genetic richness, evolutionary important areas of origin, etc. (Reid 1998, Médail and Quézel 1999, Zagmajster et al 2008, Silva and Ferreira 2016, Kumar et al 2020. At the same time, in the most developed areas, such biodiversity hotspots are protected areas.…”