Spatial Congruence Analysis (SCAN): A method for detecting biogeographical patterns based on species range congruences.

ABSTRACT: Species with congruent geographical distributions, potentially caused by common historical and ecological spatial processes, constitute biogeographical units called chorotypes. Nevertheless, the degree of spatial range congruence characterizing these groups of species is rarely used as an explicit parameter. Methods conceived for the identification of patterns of shared ranges often suffer from scale bias associated with the use of grids, or the incapacity to describe the full complexity of patterns, from core areas of high spatial congruence, to long gradients of range distributions expanding from these core areas. Here, we propose a simple analytical method, Spatial Congruence Analysis (SCAN), which identifies chorotypes by mapping direct and indirect spatial relationships among species.

SUBMITTER: Gatto CAFR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8136640 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature