Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil.
PLoS One. 2013;8(2):e56073. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056073. Epub 2013 Feb 7.
Species richness and range size are key features of biogeographic and macroecological analyses, which can yield a first assessment tool to define conservation priorities. Here we combined both features in a simultaneous analysis, based on range-diversity plots, to identify sets of rich-rare (high species richness with restricted ranges) and poor-rare cells (low species richness with restricted ranges). We applied this analysis to the anurans of South America and evaluated the representation of those sets of cells within the protected area system. South American anurans showed high species richness in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and East Tropical Andes, while regions harboring most of the rare species were concentrated in the Andes and Atlantic Coast from North-Eastern Brazil to River Plate. Based on such patterns, we identified as rich-rare cells the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and Tropical Andes and as poor-rare cells the southern part of Andes and Uruguay. A low fraction of both sets of cells was represented within the protected area system. We show that a simultaneous consideration of species richness and rarity provides a rapid assessment of large-scale biodiversity patterns and may contribute to the definition of conservation priorities.
物种丰富度和分布范围大小是生物地理和宏观生态学分析的关键特征，可作为确定保护优先级的初步评估工具。在这里，我们基于分布-多样性图，将这两个特征结合在一次同步分析中，以确定丰富-稀有（高物种丰富度但分布范围受限）和贫乏-稀有（低物种丰富度但分布范围受限）单元的集合。我们将这种分析应用于南美洲的两栖动物，并评估了这些单元集合在保护区系统中的代表性。南美洲的两栖动物在巴西大西洋森林和东热带安第斯地区具有很高的物种丰富度，而拥有大多数稀有物种的地区则集中在安第斯山脉和从巴西东北部到拉普拉塔河的大西洋沿岸。基于这些模式，我们将巴西大西洋森林和热带安第斯山脉确定为丰富-稀有单元，将安第斯山脉南部和乌拉圭确定为贫乏-稀有单元。这两组单元在保护区系统中的代表性都很低。我们表明，同时考虑物种丰富度和稀有度可以快速评估大规模生物多样性模式，并有助于确定保护优先级。
