Macroecological and macroevolutionary factors related to vertebrate diversity

  1. Castro Insua, Adrián
Supervised by:
  1. Andrés Baselga Fraga Director
  2. Carola Gómez Rodríguez Director

Defence university: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

Fecha de defensa: 14 June 2018

Committee:
  1. Jesús R. Aboal Viñas Chair
  2. Joaquín Hortal Muñoz Secretary
  3. Ana Márcia Enes Barbosa Committee member
Department:
  1. Department of Zoology, Genetics and Physical Anthropology

Type: Thesis

Abstract

nvestigating the distribution of biodiversity in the planet and the involved processes and mechanisms might be important in order to plan successful strategies for its conservation. Probably, the most studied biodiversity pattern is the latitudinal species richness gradient, and current climatic conditions are a widely accepted explanation for this pattern. However, it is possible that the correlation between biodiversity and climate is not causal, due to the spatial structure of climatic variables, and other factors (like past climatic conditions and recolonisation of glaciated areas) could explain these patterns. Following the ecological niche theory, the niche could affect the geographic distributions of species, but neutral models consider that their distribution is the result of stochastic and limited migrations. The main objective of this dissertation is to analyse how these factors and processes are involved in shaping the biodiversity and distribution of terrestrial mammals at continental and global scales.