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2018-11-14Zeitschriftenartikel DOI: 10.18452/20719
The Definition of Bioregions in Palaeontological Studies of Diversity and Biogeography Affects Interpretations
dc.contributor.authorBrocklehurst, Neil
dc.contributor.authorFröbisch, Jörg
dc.date.accessioned2019-11-06T12:32:49Z
dc.date.available2019-11-06T12:32:49Z
dc.date.issued2018-11-14none
dc.date.updated2019-08-10T17:37:02Z
dc.identifier.urihttp://edoc.hu-berlin.de/18452/21444
dc.description.abstractStudies of diversity, whether of species richness within regions (alpha diversity) or faunal turnover between regions (beta diversity), will depend heavily on the “bioregions” into which a study area is divided. However, such studies in the palaeontological literature have often been extremely arbitrary in their definition of bioregions and have employed a wide variety of spatial scales, from individual localities to formations/basins to entire continents. Such bioregions will not necessarily be separated by biologically meaningful boundaries, and results obtained at different spatial scales will not be directly comparable. In many neontological studies, however, bioregions are defined more rigorously, usually as areas of endemicity. Here a procedure is proposed whereby this principal may be applied to palaeontological datasets. In each time bin/assemblage localities are subjected to two hierarchical cluster analyses, the first grouping the localities by geographic distance, the second by taxonomic distance. Clusters shared between the two will represent geographically continuous areas of endemicity and so may be used as bioregions. When calculating alpha or beta diversity through time, the spatial scale at which the bioregions are defined needs to be standardized between each time bin. This is done by grouping clusters of localities below a predefined geographic cluster node height. This approach is used to assess changes in beta diversity of Palaeozoic tetrapods and resolve disagreements regarding changes in faunal provinciality across the Carboniferous/Permian boundary. When the bioregions are defined at a smaller spatial scale, splitting the globe into many small regions, beta diversity decreases substantially during the earliest Permian. However, when the bioregions are defined at larger spatial scales, representing areas roughly the size of continents, beta diversity remains high. This result indicates that local environmental barriers to dispersal were decreasing in importance, rejecting previous suggestions that the rainforest collapse caused an “island biogeography” effect. Instead, dispersal at this time is restricted by continental-scale barriers, with the increased orogenic uplift as a possible control.eng
dc.language.isoengnone
dc.publisherHumboldt-Universität zu Berlin
dc.rights(CC BY 4.0) Attribution 4.0 Internationalger
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectbioregionseng
dc.subjectbiogeographyeng
dc.subjectalpha diversityeng
dc.subjectbeta diversityeng
dc.subjectPalaeozoiceng
dc.subjecttetrapodeng
dc.subject.ddc550 Geowissenschaftennone
dc.titleThe Definition of Bioregions in Palaeontological Studies of Diversity and Biogeography Affects Interpretationsnone
dc.typearticle
dc.identifier.urnurn:nbn:de:kobv:11-110-18452/21444-4
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.18452/20719
dc.type.versionpublishedVersionnone
local.edoc.pages14none
local.edoc.type-nameZeitschriftenartikel
local.edoc.container-typeperiodical
local.edoc.container-type-nameZeitschrift
dc.description.versionPeer Reviewednone
dc.identifier.eissn2296-6463
dc.title.subtitlePalaeozoic Tetrapods as a Case Studynone
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.doi10.3389/feart.2018.00200none
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.journaltitleFrontiers in Earth Sciencenone
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.volume6none
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.articlenumber200none
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.originalpublishernameFrontiers Media S.A.none
dcterms.bibliographicCitation.originalpublisherplaceLausannenone
bua.departmentLebenswissenschaftliche Fakultätnone

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