title: Plate tectonics drive tropical reef biodiversity dynamics.
abstract: The Cretaceous breakup of Gondwana strongly modified the global distribution of shallow tropical seas reshaping the geographic configuration of marine basins. However, the links between tropical reef availability, plate tectonic processes and marine biodiversity distribution patterns are still unknown. Here, we show that a spatial diversification model constrained by absolute plate motions for the past 140 million years predicts the emergence and movement of diversity hotspots on tropical reefs. The spatial dynamics of tropical reefs explains marine fauna diversification in the Tethyan Ocean during the Cretaceous and early Cenozoic, and identifies an eastward movement of ancestral marine lineages towards the Indo-Australian Archipelago in the Miocene. A mechanistic model based only on habitat-driven diversification and dispersal yields realistic predictions of current biodiversity patterns for both corals and fishes. As in terrestrial systems, we demonstrate that plate tectonics played a major role in driving tropical marine shallow reef biodiversity dynamics.
authors.affiliation: UMR MARBEC, (CNRS, IRD, IFREMER, UM), cc 093, Place E. Bataillon, FR-34095 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Fabien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Leprieur
authors.affiliation: University of Fribourg, Unit of Ecology &Evolution, Ch. du Musée 10, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.|Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland.|Landscape Ecology, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zürich, 8044 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Patrice
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Descombes
authors.affiliation: UMR MARBEC, (CNRS, IRD, IFREMER, UM), cc 093, Place E. Bataillon, FR-34095 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Théo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gaboriau
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology &Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 21 Sachem St, New Haven, Connecticut 16 06511, USA.
authors.forename: Peter F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Cowman
authors.affiliation: CRIOBE, USR 3278 CNRS-EPHE-UPVD, LABEX 'CORAIL', University of Perpignan, 66860 Perpignan, France.|CESAB-FRB, Immeuble Henri Poincaré, Domaine du Petit Arbois, FR-13857 Aix-en-Provence, France.
authors.forename: Valeriano
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Parravicini
authors.affiliation: Institut pour la Recherche en Développement, UR UMR "Entropie" -Labex Corail- Université de Perpignan, 66000 Perpignan, France.
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kulbicki
authors.affiliation: Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology 6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Carlos J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Melián
authors.affiliation: Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology 6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Charles N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: de Santana
authors.affiliation: EarthByte Group, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Heine
authors.affiliation: UMR MARBEC, (CNRS, IRD, IFREMER, UM), cc 093, Place E. Bataillon, FR-34095 Montpellier, France.|Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mouillot
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.|College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Bellwood
authors.affiliation: University of Fribourg, Unit of Ecology &Evolution, Ch. du Musée 10, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland.|Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland.|Landscape Ecology, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zürich, 8044 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Loïc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pellissier
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037421:Anthozoa; D001315:Australia; D044822:Biodiversity; D057894:Coral Reefs; D017753:Ecosystem; D005399:Fishes; D005580:Fossils; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D014329:Tropical Climate