The global distribution of known and undiscovered ant biodiversity

Jamie M. Kass, Benoit Guenard, Kenneth L. Dudley, Clinton N. Jenkins, Fumika Azuma, Brian L. Fisher, Catherine L. Parr, Heloise Gibb, John T. Longino, Philip S. Ward, Anne Chao, David Lubertazzi, Michael Weiser, Walter Jetz, Robert Guralnick, Rumsaïs Blatrix, James Des Lauriers, David A. Donoso, Christos Georgiadis, Kiko GomezPeter G. Hawkes, Robert A. Johnson, John E. Lattke, Joe A. MacGown, William Mackay, Simon Robson, Nathan J. Sanders, Robert R. Dunn, Evan P. Economo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Invertebrates constitute the majority of animal species and are critical for ecosystem functioning and services. Nonetheless, global invertebrate biodiversity patterns and their congruences with vertebrates remain largely unknown. We resolve the first high-resolution (∼20-km) global diversity map for a major invertebrate clade, ants, using biodiversity informatics, range modeling, and machine learning to synthesize existing knowledge and predict the distribution of undiscovered diversity. We find that ants and different vertebrate groups have distinct features in their patterns of richness and rarity, underscoring the need to consider a diversity of taxa in conservation. However, despite their phylogenetic and physiological divergence, ant distributions are not highly anomalous relative to variation among vertebrate clades. Furthermore, our models predict that rarity centers largely overlap (78%), suggesting that general forces shape endemism patterns across taxa. This raises confidence that conservation of areas important for small-ranged vertebrates will benefit invertebrates while providing a "treasure map" to guide future discovery.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbereabp9908
JournalScience advances
Volume8
Issue number31
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2022
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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