Conservation biogeography in North-east India: hierarchical analysis of cross-taxon distributional congruence

• Published in: Diversity & distributions Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 53 - 65
• Main Authors: Pawar, Samraat S, Birand, Ayşegül C, Ahmed, M. Firoz, Sengupta, Saibal, Raman, T.R. Shankar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2007; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Blackwell Science; Blackwell
• Subjects: Amphibians; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Anura; Applied ecology; Biodiversity conservation; Biodiversity Research; Biogeography; Biological and medical sciences; Birds; congruence; conservation biogeography; Conservation biology; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Environmental conservation; Frogs; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Geography; Habitat conservation; Lacertilia; Lizards; North-east India; reptiles; Wildlife conservation; Asia; India; Pakistan, Himalayas; reptiles; Conservation; Amphibia; Biogeography; Biodiversity; birds; Amphibians; congruence; Vertebrata; conservation biogeography; North-east India; Reptilia; Aves; Environmental protection
• ISSN: 1366-9516; 1472-4642
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2006.00298.x

Distributional similarity (congruence) between phylogenetically independent taxonomic groups has important biogeographical as well as conservation implications. When multiple groups show congruence, one or two of them can be used as surrogates of diversity in others; thus, simplifying some of the challenges of area prioritization for conservation action. Here we test for congruence in complementarity between amphibians, reptiles and birds across seven tropical rainforest sites in the Eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burma global biodiversity hotspots. The results show that while frogs and lizards are strongly congruent with each other, birds as a whole do not show congruence with either of them. However, certain bird subgroups delineated on the basis of broad ecological niche and life history attributes are significantly congruent with both frogs and lizards. Multiple Mantel regression between environmental variable and species distribution dissimilarity matrices indicate that along with differential response to between-site ecological differences, inherent life-history characteristics shared by certain groups contributes to observed patterns of congruence. Our analyses indicate that examining biologically distinct subsets of larger groups can improve the resolution of congruence analyses. This approach can refine area-prioritization initiatives by revealing fine-scale discordances between otherwise concordant groups, and vice versa. Given that monetary resources do not always allow inclusion of multiple groups in biodiversity inventorying efforts, performing such analyses also makes economic sense because it can provide better resolution even with single-group data. In the context of conservation in North-east India, the results highlight the biogeographical complexity of the region, and also point at future priorities for biodiversity inventorying and conservation prioritization, both in terms of areas as well as taxonomic groups.