Zoogeography of South American Forest-Dwelling Bats: Disjunct Distributions or Sampling Deficiencies?

ABSTRACT: Many forest-dwelling bats are purported to be widespread in South America, although records are scant from the vast diagonal belt of dry ecosystems that straddles the continent, implying possible sampling deficiencies. Here, we investigate this possibility in the case of four species of bat (Centronycteris maximiliani, Lampronycteris brachyotis, Peropteryx kappleri and Trinycteris nicefori), evaluating whether their disjunct present-day distributions reflect their true zoogeographic characteristics or the subsampling of intermediate zones. We use environmental niche modelling (ENM) in an ensemble approach, combining four different modeling techniques, and using niche descriptors based on climatic and remote sensing data, to estimate the potential distribution of the four species. The model

SUBMITTER: da Rocha PA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4505876 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature