E-Locus - Institutional Repository of the University of Crete

Home Search

Results - Details

Search command : Author="Μυλωνάς" And Author="Μωυσής"

Current Record: 9 of 53

[Add to Basket]

Identifier

000426400

Title

Βιογεωγραφία των νησιών του Αιγαίου. H σχέση έκτασης-αριθμού ειδών

Alternative Title

Biogeography of the Aegean islands. The species-area relationship

Author

Μαρούλης, Λεωνίδας Α.

Thesis advisor

Πουλακάκης, Νίκος

Reviewer

Μυλωνάς, Μωυσής
Τριάντης, Κώστας

Abstract

Islands occupy a proportionally small area on Earth, however they play a crucial role in Ecology and Biogeography, as they are “natural laboratories”. The monotonically increased number of species, as the area increases, is such a commonly observed pattern that has been labeled as one of the few laws of Ecology. The Aegean archipelago is of broad biogeographical interest, as it has a considerable number of islands as well as a rich paleogeographical and geological history, while being among three continents. As a result, the composition of life in the Aegean is a mix of european, asian, african as well as endemic species. In this framework, in the present thesis we approached the species-area relationship (SAR) of the Aegean islands for eight different organismic groups (Land Snails, Land Isopods, Koleoptera Tenebrionidae, Lepidoptera, Chilopoda, Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians, and Plants). Statistical analyses were performed in R with the package “sars”, which allows the fit and comparison of 20 different models that have been proposed to describe SAR. For all the taxonomical groups that were examined a strong correlation between the number of species and area was found, except for chilopods and butterflies. Even though there is no universal best model for the SAR of the Aegean, the power model performed better for invertebrates, whereas concerning verterbrates models with an asymptote explained the data better. Further investigation for the deeper understanding of SAR and the processes and mechanisms that shape it is required in our efforts for a better understanding and protection of biological diversity.

Language

Greek

Subject

Biodiversity

Land snails

Model selection

Βιοποικιλότητα

Χερσαία σαλιγκάρια

Issue date

2019-11-29

Collection

School/Department--School of Sciences and Engineering--Department of Biology--Post-graduate theses