Regionalization of the Western Atlantic

[maxmaronna]

Dear members of the TDWG Geoschemes task group,
I just read your article "A worldwide geographical scheme for recording the distribution of marine biota: proposal and call for feedback". Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e157371; doi: 10.3897/BDJ.13.e157371

Taking into account the western Atlantic region(s), I recommend the recent article "Beta diversity and regionalization of the western Atlantic marine biota" Journal of Biogeography, 2024; Volume 51, Issue8: 1469-1480.
https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14837

Abstract Aim: Understanding the factors determining marine community variations is important for biogeography and conservation. Beta diversity is a metric for mapping species composition variations between communities and regionalizing biota. Ecoregions are commonly used for regionalization, but their empirical testing has been limited. Our aim is to map marine species composition variations in the Western Atlantic, identify variables related to these variations, and regionalize areas based on community distribution. Additionally, we test whether currently proposed ecoregions represent unique biota units and specific environmental conditions. Location: Western Atlantic Ocean. Taxon: Vertebrates, invertebrates and algae. Methods: We constructed a large marine biodiversity database, including vertebrates, invertebrates, and algae, totalling over 4 million records. We used the generalized dissimilarity model (GDM) to identify variables most related to species composition variations and map beta-diversity variations. We employed an unsupervised classifier for community regionalization. To test if the ecoregion regionalization boundaries are corroborated by species distribution data, we used the Sørensen index. To assess if ecoregions correspond to environmental units, we checked if areas had distinct environmental conditions using a PCA of 134 marine environmental variables.

Best
maxmaronna