title: Continental drift and climate change drive instability in insect assemblages.
abstract: Global change has already had observable effects on ecosystems worldwide, and the accelerated rate of global change is predicted in the future. However, the impacts of global change on the stability of biodiversity have not been systematically studied in terms of both large spatial (continental drift) and temporal (from the last inter-glacial period to the next century) scales. Therefore, we analyzed the current geographical distribution pattern of Plecoptera, a thermally sensitive insect group, and evaluated its stability when coping with global change across both space and time throughout the Mediterranean region--one of the first 25 global biodiversity hotspots. Regional biodiversity of Plecoptera reflected the geography in both the historical movements of continents and the current environmental conditions in the western Mediterranean region. The similarity of Plecoptera assemblages between areas in this region indicated that the uplift of new land and continental drift were the primary determinants of the stability of regional biodiversity. Our results revealed that climate change caused the biodiversity of Plecoptera to slowly diminish in the past and will cause remarkably accelerated biodiversity loss in the future. These findings support the theory that climate change has had its greatest impact on biodiversity over a long temporal scale.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Fengqing
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Granada, Granada 18071, Spain.
authors.forename: José Manuel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Tierno de Figueroa
authors.affiliation: Lab EDB (Evolution &Diversité Biologique), UMR CNRS-Université Paul Sabatier, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse 31062, France.
authors.forename: Sovan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lek
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Biology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea [2] Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Young-Seuk
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000352:Africa, Northern; D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D057231:Climate Change; D017753:Ecosystem; D005060:Europe; D007313:Insecta