Defining and Dividing the Greater Caribbean: Insights from the Biogeography of Shorefishes

The Greater Caribbean biogeographic region is the high-diversity heart of the Tropical West Atlantic, one of four global centers of tropical marine biodiversity. The traditional view of the Greater Caribbean is that it is limited to the Caribbean, West Indies, southwest Gulf of Mexico and tip of Flo...

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Veröffentlicht in:PloS one Jg. 9; H. 7; S. e102918
Hauptverfasser: Robertson, D. Ross, Cramer, Katie L.
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: United States Public Library of Science 23.07.2014
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Schlagworte:
Acanthuridae
Analysis
Animals
Biodiversity
Biogeography
Biology and Life Sciences
Caribbean Region
Continental shelves
Coral reefs
Corals
Earth Sciences
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Ecosystem
Enneanectes boehlkei
Environment
Fauna
Fish
Fishes
Fishes - physiology
Homogeneity
Hypoplectrus
Mangroves
Reefs
Shorelines
Synodus
Teleostei
Upwelling
Caribbean Region
Brazil
Gulf of Mexico
Florida
United States > US
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
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Zusammenfassung:The Greater Caribbean biogeographic region is the high-diversity heart of the Tropical West Atlantic, one of four global centers of tropical marine biodiversity. The traditional view of the Greater Caribbean is that it is limited to the Caribbean, West Indies, southwest Gulf of Mexico and tip of Florida, and that, due to its faunal homogeneity, lacks major provincial subdivisions. In this scenario the northern 2/3 of the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern USA represent a separate temperate, "Carolinian" biogeographic region. We completed a comprehensive re-assessment of the biogeography of the Greater Caribbean by comparing the distributions of 1,559 shorefish species within 45 sections of shelf waters of the Greater Caribbean and adjacent areas. This analysis shows that that the Greater Caribbean occupies a much larger area than usually thought, extending south to at least Guyana, and north to encompass the entire Carolinian area. Rather than being homogenous, the Greater Caribbean is divided into three major provinces, each with a distinctive, primarily tropical fauna: (1) a central, tropical province comprising the West Indies, Bermuda and Central America; (2) a southern, upwelling-affected province spanning the entire continental shelf of northern South America; and (iii) a northern, subtropical province that includes all of the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and southeastern USA. This three-province pattern holds for both reef- and soft bottom fishes, indicating a general response by demersal fishes to major variation in provincial shelf environments. Such environmental differences include latitudinal variation in sea temperature, availability of major habitats (coral reefs, soft bottom shorelines, and mangroves), and nutrient additions from upwelling areas and large rivers. The three-province arrangement of the Greater Caribbean broadly resembles and has a similar environmental basis to the provincial arrangement of its sister biogeographic region, the Tropical Eastern Pacific.
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Conceived and designed the experiments: DRR KC. Performed the experiments: DRR KC. Analyzed the data: KC DRR. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DRR. Wrote the paper: DRR KC.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0102918