Detecting areas of endemism with a taxonomically diverse data set: plants, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and insects from Argentina

SZUMIK CLAUDIA; AAGESEN LONA; CASAGRANDA DOLORES; ARZAMENDIA VANESA; BALDO DIEGO; CLAPS LUCIA; CUEZZO FABIANA; DÍAZ GÓMEZ JUAN MANUEL; DI GIACOMO ADRIÁN; GIANNINI NORBERTO; GIRAUDO ALEJANDRO RAUL; GOLOBOFF PABLO; GRAMAJO C.; KOPUCHIAN CECILIA; KRETZSCHMAR SONIA; LIZARRALDE MERCEDES; MOLINA ALEJANDRA; MOLLERACH MARCOS; NAVARRO FERNANDO; NOMDEDEU SOLEDAD; PANIZZA ADELA; PEREYRA VERONICA; SANDOVAL MARÍA; SCROCCHI GUSTAVO; ZULOAGA FERNANDO

CLADISTICS (PRINT)

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2012 vol. 27 p. 317 - 329

0748-3007

Abstract.- The notion of area of endemism implies that different groups of plants and animals should have largely coincident distributions. This paper analyzes (in a surface of 1,152,000 km2 , between parallels 21S-32S and meridians 70W-53W) whether a large and taxonomically diverse data set actually displays areas supported by different groups. The data set includes the distribution of 805 species of plants (45 families), mammals (25 families), reptiles (6 families), amphibians (5 families), birds (18 families) and insects (30 families), and is analyzed with the optimality criterion (based on the notion of endemism) implemented in the program NDM/VNDM. Almost 50% of the areas obtained are supported by three or more major groups; areas supported by fewer major groups generally contain species from different genera, families or orders.