Biogeographical patterns of species richness in stream diatoms from southwestern South America.

ABSTRACT: The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) hypothesis has been validated for many taxon groups, but so far, stream diatoms have not conformed to this pattern. Research on diatoms that includes data from South America is lacking, and our study aims to address this knowledge gap. Previous studies have successfully explained stream diatom species richness by considering niche dimensionality of physicochemical variables. Moreover, in southwestern South America, the observed biogeographical pattern differs from LDG and has been shown to be determined by historical factors. We used a dataset comprising 373 records of stream diatom communities located between 35° S and 52° S latitude, southwestern South America. The dataset included physicochemical river water variables, climate data, and ice sheet

SUBMITTER: Zamorano D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10954374 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature