Patterns and hotspots of carabid beetle diversity in the Palaearctic – insights from a hyperdiverse invertebrate taxon

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Authors

With the rapid loss of biodiversity worldwide, understanding diversity distributions is central to develop efficient conservation strategies. However, current efforts such as the identification of biodiversity hotspots focus primarily on plants and vertebrates. To assess the generality of diversity distributions and hotspots derived from these taxa, we examine species richness and endemism patterns of carabid beetles as a hyperdiverse invertebrate taxon across the Palaearctic. The diversity of carabid beetles shows clear latitudinal dependencies, and centres of carabid diversity are located in southern Europe, Japan and south-west China. Richness and endemism distributions show a high degree of congruence with those of plants and amphibians across large parts of the Palaearctic. They also strongly covary with patterns of other invertebrates. Our results indicate that plant and vertebrate hotspots can also include high invertebrate diversity, with especially China qualifying as an outstanding Palaearctic hotspot of collective diversity. Similar environmental dependencies and strong effects of historical processes (i.e., long-term environmental stability) are probably key drivers of these common patterns. Our study extends the limited knowledge on invertebrate diversity distributions and helps to better understand general patterns in the spatial distribution of biodiversity.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationBiodiversity Hotspots : distribution and protection of conservation priority areas
EditorsFrank E. Zachos, Jan C. Habel
Number of pages14
Place of PublicationBerlin, Heidelberg
PublisherSpringer
Publication date2011
Pages175-188
ISBN (print)978-3-642-20991-8
ISBN (electronic)978-3-642-20992-5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2011

    Research areas

  • Biology - Species Richness, Coarse Scale, Total Species Richness, Carabid Beetle, Invertebrate Taxon