Biogeography of the West Indies: A complex scenario for species radiations in terrestrial and aquatic habitats

Rodriguez‐Silva, Rodet; Schlupp, Ingo

Biogeography of the West Indies: A complex scenario for species radiations in terrestrial and aquatic habitats

dc.contributor.author	Rodriguez‐Silva, Rodet
dc.contributor.author	Schlupp, Ingo
dc.date.accessioned	2021-04-28T14:28:36Z
dc.date.available	2021-04-28T14:28:36Z
dc.date.issued	2021-02-10
dc.description.abstract	Studies of the biogeography of the West Indies are numerous but not all taxonomic groups have received the same attention. Many of the contributions to this field have historically focused on terrestrial vertebrates from a perspective closely linked to the classical theory of island biogeography. However, some recent works have questioned whether some of the assumptions of this theory are too simplistic. In this review, we compiled information about the West Indies biogeography based on an extensive and rigorous literature search. While we offer some background of the main hypotheses that explain the origin of the Caribbean biota, our main purpose here is to highlight divergent diversification patterns observed in terrestrial versus aquatic groups of the West Indian biota and also to shed light on the unbalanced number of studies covering the biogeography of these groups of organisms. We use an objective method to compile existing information in the field and produce a rigorous literature review. Our results show that most of the relevant literature in the field is related to the study of terrestrial organisms (mainly vertebrates) and only a small portion covers aquatic groups. Specifically, livebearing fishes show interesting deviations from the species‐area relationship predicted by classical island biogeography theory. We found that species richness on the Greater Antilles is positively correlated with island size but also with the presence of elevations showing that not only island area but also mountainous relief may be an important factor determining the number of freshwater species in the Greater Antilles. Our findings shed light on mechanisms that may differently drive speciation in aquatic versus terrestrial environments suggesting that ecological opportunity could outweigh the importance of island size in speciation. Investigations into freshwater fishes of the West Indies offer a promising avenue for understanding origins and subsequent diversification of the Caribbean biota.	en_US
dc.description.peerreview	Yes	en_US
dc.description.sponsorship	We would like to thank to Caribaea Initiative and National Geography Society (WW‐054R‐17) for providing funding for this project. Open Access fees paid for in whole or in part by the University of Oklahoma Libraries.	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Rodriguez‐Silva, R, Schlupp, I. Biogeography of the West Indies: A complex scenario for species radiations in terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Ecol Evol. 2021; 11: 2416– 2430. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7236	en_US
dc.identifier.doi	10.1002/ece3.7236	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/11244/329489
dc.language	en_US	en_US
dc.rights	Attribution 4.0 International	*
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	*
dc.subject	Biogeography	en_US
dc.subject	Island	en_US
dc.subject	Livebearing Fishes	en_US
dc.subject	West Indies	en_US
dc.title	Biogeography of the West Indies: A complex scenario for species radiations in terrestrial and aquatic habitats	en_US
dc.type	Article	en_US
ou.group	College of Arts and Sciences::Department of Biology	en_US