期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2015
卷号：112
期号：37
页码：11478-11483
DOI：10.1073/pnas.1503992112
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：SignificanceTo our knowledge, this study is the first investigation of the evolution of species richness hotspots in continental aquatic systems. We demonstrate the development of European richness hotspots over the last 23 My based on a comprehensive dataset combining recent and fossil occurrences of gastropod species. We show that changes in species richness patterns can be related to geodynamic and climatic processes. The addition of tectonics, geological time, and spatial scales to ecology and climate is essential for understanding hotspot development in general. These insights also provide a foundation to explain the modern, uneven distribution of species richness as a whole. The pattern for Recent European faunas is a geologically young phenomenon, triggered by the ice sheet retreat after the Last Glacial Maximum. Continental aquatic species richness hotspots are unevenly distributed across the planet. In present-day Europe, only two centers of biodiversity exist (Lake Ohrid on the Balkans and the Caspian Sea). During the Neogene, a wide variety of hotspots developed in a series of long-lived lakes. The mechanisms underlying the presence of richness hotspots in different geological periods have not been properly examined thus far. Based on Miocene to Recent gastropod distributions, we show that the existence and evolution of such hotspots in inland-water systems are tightly linked to the geodynamic history of the European continent. Both past and present hotspots are related to the formation and persistence of long-lived lake systems in geological basins or to isolation of existing inland basins and embayments from the marine realm. The faunal evolution within hotspots highly depends on warm climates and surface area. During the Quaternary icehouse climate and extensive glaciations, limnic biodiversity sustained a severe decline across the continent and most former hotspots disappeared. The Recent gastropod distribution is mainly a geologically young pattern formed after the Last Glacial Maximum (19 ky) and subsequent formation of postglacial lakes. The major hotspots today are related to long-lived lakes in preglacially formed, permanently subsiding geological basins.
