From Island Biogeography to Conservation: A Multi-Taxon and Multi-Taxonomic Rank Approach in the Tuscan Archipelago

Enrico Ruzzier, Leonardo Forbicioni, Rodolfo Gentili, Nicola Tormen, Olivia Dondina, Valerio Orioli and Luciano Bani
Additional contact information
Enrico Ruzzier: Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and the Environment, University of Padova, Viale dell’Università 16, Legnaro, 35020 Padova, Italy
Leonardo Forbicioni: World Biodiversity Association Onlus c/o NAT LAB Forte Inglese, Portoferraio, 57037 Livorno, Italy
Rodolfo Gentili: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza Della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
Nicola Tormen: World Biodiversity Association Onlus c/o NAT LAB Forte Inglese, Portoferraio, 57037 Livorno, Italy
Olivia Dondina: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza Della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
Valerio Orioli: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza Della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
Luciano Bani: World Biodiversity Association Onlus c/o NAT LAB Forte Inglese, Portoferraio, 57037 Livorno, Italy

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-22

Abstract: Investigating the drivers that support species richness (S) in insular contexts can give insights for the conservation of insular biodiversity. Our aim was to decouple the effect of drivers (island area, distance from mainland and habitat diversity) accounted in three hypotheses or a combination of them in explaining S in seven islands of the Tuscan Archipelago: Area (species–area relationship, SAR), area and distance from mainland (equilibrium hypothesis, EQH) and habitat (habitat diversity hypothesis, HDH). We used published and original datasets to assess S (except aliens) for 42 taxa (14 animal and 28 plant taxa) in each island, and we used S as the dependent variable and the drivers as covariates in regression models. In 31 taxa, the data supported one of the tested hypotheses or a combination of them, and the most commonly supported hypotheses were SAR (12 taxa) and EQH (10 taxa). The effect of the area was also evident in SAR + HDH (five taxa) and EQH + HDH (one taxon), making it the prevailing driver in explaining S. Since distances are relatively short, and three out of four islands are land-bridge islands, the effect of distance was significant for 12 taxa. The effects of habitat diversity were evident for just nine taxa. The multi-taxon approach allowed us to understand the differential effect of drivers among taxa in influencing S in a single archipelago. Moreover, the multi-taxonomic rank approach highlighted how the information contained within higher taxonomic ranks (e.g., Division) can be substantially different from that derived from lower ranks (e.g., Family). These insights are of particular importance from a conservation perspective of the archipelago’s biodiversity, and this approach can be transferred to mainland fragmented systems.

Keywords: biodiversity; equilibrium hypothesis; insular fauna; insular flora; island biogeography; habitat diversity hypothesis; multi-model inference; species–area relationship (SAR); species richness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/5/486/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/5/486/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:5:p:486-:d:548856

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().