Large sampling effort is not related to richness and geographic distribution of Cladocera (Crustacea, Branchiopoda) in the Brazilian Savannah

ABSTRACT

The Cerrado is home of the headwaters of some important Brazilian basins. Such biome has a high diversity of animal and plant species with a high degree of endemism. This premise is well documented for microcrustaceans of the Superorder Cladocera, although many areas still need sampling. In this context, the objective of the present investigation was to evaluate the geographic distribution and richness of Cladocera in the Cerrado biome. The analyzed data were obtained from the authors database on Brazilian Cladocera and distributed according to the hydrographic regions comprised in the biome. Species distribution models were used to determine the areas with the highest probability of occurrence of Cladocera. We analyzed 125 publications, resulting in 2829 records. In total, we obtained 161 taxa, belonging to 48 genera and seven families. Regarding the Hydrographic Regions, Paraná presented the highest richness, followed by TocantinsAraguaia and São Francisco. Our result indicates that most studies are concentrated in certain areas. Furthermore, the species distribution models indicated that transition areas between biomes have the highest probability of occurrence of genera and families. Our results indicate significant gaps in the knowledge, making it necessary to expand inventories and ecological studies in areas still unsampled.

KEYWORDS:

• Biodiversity
• Chydoridae
• ecotones
• Linnean Shortfall
• Wallacean Shortfall

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Dra. Carolina Ribeiro Noronha de Souza, Dr. Riccardo Mugnai and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable criticisms, comments and suggestions that greatly improved this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/01650521.2023.2186678

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) through an undergraduate grant to GBM and Capes (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de nível Superior) through to PhD grant to EGS.