Abstract
The selection of priority areas is an enormous challenge for biodiversity conservation. Some biogeographic methods have been used to identify the priority areas to conservation, and panbiogeography is one of them. This study aimed at the utilization of panbiogeographic tools, to identify the distribution patterns of aquatic insect genera, in wetland systems of an extensive area in the Neotropical region (approximately 280 000km2), and to compare the distribution of the biogeographic units identified by the aquatic insects, with the conservation units of Southern Brazil. We analyzed the distribution pattern of 82 genera distributed in four orders of aquatic insects (Diptera, Odonata, Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera) in Southern Brazil wetlands. Therefore, 32 biogeographic nodes corresponded to the priority areas for conservation of the aquatic insect diversity. Among this total, 13 were located in the Atlantic Rainforest, 16 in the Pampa and three amongst both biomes. The distribution of nodes showed that only 15% of the dispersion centers of insects were inserted in conservation units. The four priority areas pointed by node cluster criterion must be considered in further inclusions of areas for biodiversity conservation in Southern Brazil wetlands, since such areas present species from different ancestral biota. The inclusion of such areas into the conservation units would be a strong way to conserve the aquatic biodiversity in this region.
Highlights
The selection of priority areas is a huge challenge for biodiversity conservation (Sarkar & Margules 2002)
The specific aims of this study were to: (1) recognize the common patterns of distributions of the aquatic insects in Southern Brazil wetlands; (2) recognize the centers of origin of aquatic insects in Southern Brazil; (3) compare the distribution of the biogeographic units identified by the aquatic insects with the conservation units of Southern Brazil and (4) propose the prioritization of areas for aquatic insects conservation in the Neotropical region
A total of 146 wetlands (Fig. 1) were selected in Southern Brazil based on three criteria: (1) area smaller than 10ha to ensure a representative measure of the total richness and composition of each wetland, (2) presence of macrophytes, since the aquatic vegetation is a wetland indicator (Tiner 1999) and (3) fairly even distribution of the wetlands across Southern Brazil to cover an extensive area of the Neotropical region and a wide altitudinal and climatic gradient
Summary
The selection of priority areas is a huge challenge for biodiversity conservation (Sarkar & Margules 2002). Biogeographic data for prioritizing the selection of areas for conservation has been used in several countries of South America (Morrone & Lopretto 1994, Menu-Marque et al 2000, Contreras-Medina & Eliosa-León 2001, Franco-Rosselli 2001, Morrone 2001, Morrone 2003, Roig-Juñent et al 2003), including Brazil (Franco-Rosselli & Berg 1997, Carvalho et al 2003, Lowenberg-Neto & Carvalho 2004, Morrone 2004, Morrone et al 2004, Prevedello & Carvalho 2006) These works were carried out for different group of organisms such as coleopterans in the Andes The hydroperiod and habitat heterogeneity have been used as criteria for conservation of wetland communities (Collinson et al 1995, Snodgrass et al 2000, Babbitt 2005, Van Geest et al 2005)
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