Abstracts of Oral Presentations
Lundin

Setting priorities for research
and conservation in the Caribbean Islands.


Michael L. Smith
Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International,
2501 M St NW, Washington, D.C. 20037, U.S.A.
  E-mail: m.smith@conservation.org.

Patterns of the diversity and endemism of vascular plants were used by scientists from several institutions to delineate a relatively small portion of the earth’s surface that contains a very large proportion of its species. Combined with information about threats and biogeographic data from other groups of organisms, this information can be used to guide research and conservation strategies that will have high pay-offs in the amount of biodiversity that can be protected with limited resources. 

Initial identification of priority regions, or hotspots, was based on diversity of vascular plants because the group is fairly well known scientifically. On this basis, twenty-five hotspots were identified around the globe, each of which contains 0.5% of the world’s plant species as endemics. These areas comprise only 1.4% of the world’s land area, but they contain as much as 44% of all species of vascular plants and a significant proportion of the animal species that are dependent upon them.  Among the regions so identified is the Caribbean hotspot which embraces the islands included in the Flora of the Greater Antilles project plus tropical southern Florida and the Lesser Antilles.

In order to compare hotspots, additional analyses have been carried out using information about alteration of habitats and data from the most well known group of animals, the tetrapod vertebrates.  In a series of ranking exercises, the Caribbean hotspot is one of the eight hotspots that recurs most frequently among the highest priorities for conservation. 

In order to initiate a priority-setting exercise within the Caribbean hotspot, additional data about the diversity and endemism of fishes were analyzed.  Fishes are probably the most well-known group of organisms in the aquatic habitats that dominate the Caribbean region, making them useful in the same way that plants are useful as indicators of terrestrial hotspots.  Analysis of distributions and patterns of endemism of fishes shows that: 1) distributions of marine species conserve information about plate tectonic events as old as 35 MY; 2) marine species exhibit a degree of endemism that has not previously been recognized and that is similar to endemism of continental fishes; 3) marine species are therefore vulnerable to extinction due to local human activity; 4) western Cuba is a center of endemism at higher taxonomic levels reflecting ancient patterns of diversification; and 5) Hispaniola is a center of endemism at a lower taxonomic level reflecting geologically younger patterns of hydrography.