Exploring the role of environmental variables in shaping patterns of seabed biodiversity composition in regional-scale ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: 1. Environmental variables are often used as indirect surrogates for mapping biodiversity because species survey data are scant at regional scales, especially in the marine realm. However, environmental variables are measured on arbitrary scales unlikely to have simple, direct relationships with biological patterns. Instead, biodiversity may respond nonlinearly and to interactions between environmental variables.2. To investigate the role of the environment in driving patterns of biodiversity composition in large marine regions, we collated multiple biological survey and environmental data sets from tropical NE Australia, the deep Gulf of Mexico and the temperate Gulf of Maine. We then quantified the shape and magnitude of multispecies responses along >30 environmental gradients and the ex

SUBMITTER: Roland Pitcher C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3412211 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature