Drainage network position and historical connectivity explain global patterns in freshwater fishes' range size.

ABSTRACT: Identifying the drivers and processes that determine globally the geographic range size of species is crucial to understanding the geographic distribution of biodiversity and further predicting the response of species to current global changes. However, these drivers and processes are still poorly understood, and no ecological explanation has emerged yet as preponderant in explaining the extent of species' geographical range. Here, we identify the main drivers of the geographic range size variation in freshwater fishes at global and biogeographic scales and determine how these drivers affect range size both directly and indirectly. We tested the main hypotheses already proposed to explain range size variation, using geographic ranges of 8,147 strictly freshwater fish species (i.e., 63% of

SUBMITTER: Carvajal-Quintero J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6613146 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature