Freshwater biogeography and limnological evolution of the Tibetan Plateau--insights from a plateau-wide distributed gastropod taxon (Radix spp.).

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Tibetan Plateau is not only the highest and largest plateau on earth; it is also home to numerous freshwater lakes potentially harbouring endemic faunal elements. As it remains largely unknown whether these lakes have continuously existed during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), questions arise as to whether taxa have been able to exist on the plateau since before the latest Pleistocene, from where and how often the plateau was colonized, and by which mechanisms organisms conquered remote high altitude lentic freshwater systems. In this study, species of the plateau-wide distributed freshwater gastropod genus Radix are used to answer these biogeographical questions.

Methodology/principal findings

Based on a broad spatial sampling of Radix spp. on the Tibetan Pla

SUBMITTER: von Oheimb PV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3197626 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature