Files

Download

Download Full Text (902 KB)

Publication Date

January 2014

Publication Title

Arxius de Miscel·lània Zoològica

Volume Number

12

Abstract

A total of, 160 terrestrial troglobiont species are known to date in the Canary Islands. These species are mainly located on the youngest islands that have abundant volcanic tubes (Tenerife, La Palma and El Hierro). On Gran Canaria, an older island with few volcanic caves, the hypogean fauna was considered poor until recent explorations in the mesocavernous shallow substratum and water mines were carried out, with remarkable results. The island covers an area of 1,560 km² and has a maximum height of 1,949 m. As ecological diversity is high, it is fundamental to identify the best areas to conduct effective sampling. Software for species habitat modelling such as MaxEnt, can be useful to select such areas, creating species distribution maps from environmental data. We obtained a potential distribution map using MaxEnt and including all the known troglobiont species of the island. This predictive map is statistically significant and accurately classifies a high percentage of the observed data. Lithology and average rainfall are the two variables that best predict the presence of these species. Basaltic materials —preferably modern— and gravitational landslides are good places for finding subterranean fauna. Locations with high average rainfall appear to be the most appropriate for this purpose.

Keywords

Troglobionts, Fauna, Modelling, Sdm, Habitat, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

Document Type

Article

Identifier

K26-05753

Share

 
COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.