Contrasting habitat associations of imperilled endemic stream fishes from a global biodiversity hot spot.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Knowledge of the factors that drive species distributions provides a fundamental baseline for several areas of research including biogeography, phylogeography and biodiversity conservation. Data from 148 minimally disturbed sites across a large drainage system in the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa were used to test the hypothesis that stream fishes have similar responses to environmental determinants of species distribution. Two complementary statistical approaches, boosted regression trees and hierarchical partitioning, were used to model the responses of four fish species to 11 environmental predictors, and to quantify the independent explanatory power of each predictor.

Results

Elevation, slope, stream size, depth and water temperature were identified by

SUBMITTER: Chakona A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3528430 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature