10.7892/BORIS.115671
De Bruyn, Mark
Rüber, Lukas
Nylinder, Stephan
Stelbrink, Björn
Lovejoy, Nathan R.
Lavoué, Sébastien
Tan, Heok Hui
Nugroho, Estu
Wowor, Daisy
Ng, Peter K. L.
Siti Azizah, M. N.
Von Rintelen, Thomas
Hall, Robert
Carvalho, Gary R.
Paleo-Drainage Basin Connectivity Predicts Evolutionary Relationships across Three Southeast Asian Biodiversity Hotspots
Oxford University Press
2013
570 Life sciences; biology
2013
eng
application/pdf
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Understanding factors driving diversity across biodiversity hotspots is critical for formulating conservation priorities in the face of ongoing and escalating environmental deterioration. While biodiversity hotspots encompass a small fraction of Earth's land surface, more than half the world's plants and two-thirds of terrestrial vertebrate species are endemic to these hotspots. Tropical Southeast (SE) Asia displays extraordinary species richness, encompassing four biodiversity hotspots, though disentangling multiple potential drivers of species richness is confounded by the region's dynamic geological and climatic history. Here, we use multilocus molecular genetic data from dense multispecies sampling of freshwater fishes across three biodiversity hotspots, to test the effect of Quaternary climate change and resulting drainage rearrangements on aquatic faunal diversification. While Cenozoic geological processes have clearly shaped evolutionary history in SE Asian halfbeak fishes, we show that paleo-drainage re-arrangements resulting from Quaternary climate change played a significant role in the spatiotemporal evolution of lowland aquatic taxa, and provide priorities for conservation efforts.