Odonates in warm regions of south america largely do not follow Rapoport’s rule

Abstract

One of the major challenges of ecologists and biogeographers is to understand how species are globally distributed. Two of the most well-studied large-scale patterns in species distributions are the Rapoport’s rule and the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient (LDG). We aimed to address whether Neotropical odonates follow the Rapoport’s rule and if there is a latitudinal gradient in species diversity. A total of 1076 records for 190 species, covering a large area from southeastern to the northern regions of Brazil that extends from 23°S (Cerrado) to 3°N (Amazon Rainforest). Generalized Linear Models were used to address whether Neotropical odonates follow the Rapoport’s rule, and if there is a latitudinal gradient in species diversity, based on our predictions. We found a Rapoport effect in the Amazon biome and an inverse Rapoport effect in the Amazon-Cerrado Transition Forest and Cerrado biome. Regarding LDG, we found no significant effect of latitude on species richness patterns when we considered all the species, and a significant relationship between species richness and latitude for zygopterans. The spatial patterns of odonates geographic distribution may be an outcome of geographical barriers, for instance, the continental geometry of South America, which is broader in the north and limits geographical expansion towards the south. Furthermore, species ecophysiological mechanisms may also hamper their expansion and drive the pattern observed in our study, mainly because of evolutionary thermoregulatory adaptations that each taxon exhibits along its environmental gradient.