Abstract
As a natural bridge between Europe and Africa, Italy occupies a prominent position to understand the biogeography of Europe. The influence of climatic, spatial, and historical factors on current patterns of species richness and turnover (i.e., inter-regional biogeographical differences) has been analyzed for 88 species occurring in 17 Italian natural regions. Use of multimodel inference showed that odonate richness decreased southwards in response to decreasing rainfall, as expected for animals that depend on freshwater for their development. Use of Mantel tests indicated that patterns of inter-regional similarities were influenced by both climate and geographical distances. These patterns, as highlighted using Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling, indicate a role for historical factors. Biogeographical similarities between Italian regions and adjacent areas revealed multiple colonization pathways. These results, coupled with the overall southward decrease in species richness, suggest that, after serving as a Pleistocene refuge from which odonates may have colonized medio-European areas, Italy was in turn subject to colonization from north to south. This resulted in Italian odonate fauna being less species rich compared to faunas in the medio-European territories, but also being biogeographically very complex.
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Reference95 articles.
1. World Odonata Listhttps://www2.pugetsound.edu/academics/academic-resources/slater-museum/biodiversity-resources/dragonflies/world-odonata-list2/
2. Critical species of Odonata in Europe
3. European Red List of Dragonflies;Kalkman,2010
4. The Odonata Red Data List for Great Britain;Daguet,2008
5. Rote Liste und Gesamtartenliste der Libellen Deutschlands (Odonata);Ott;Libellula Suppl.,2015
Cited by
3 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献