Plate tectonics drive tropical reef biodiversity dynamics

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 11461 - 8
• Main Authors: Leprieur, Fabien, Descombes, Patrice, Gaboriau, Théo, Cowman, Peter F., Parravicini, Valeriano, Kulbicki, Michel, Melián, Carlos J., de Santana, Charles N., Heine, Christian, Mouillot, David, Bellwood, David R., Pellissier, Loïc
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 06.05.2016; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 704/158/2446/837; 704/158/670; 704/2151/2809; 704/445/562; Animals; Anthozoa; Archipelagoes; Australia; Biodiversity; Biodiversity and Ecology; Cenozoic; Coral Reefs; Cretaceous; Distribution patterns; Earth Sciences; Ecology; Ecosystem; Endangered & extinct species; Environmental Sciences; Extinction; Fishes; Fossils; Habitats; Humanities and Social Sciences; Miocene; multidisciplinary; Ocean basins; Oceans and Seas; Plate tectonics; Reefs; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sciences of the Universe; Tectonics; Tropical Climate; Queensland Australia; Australia; France; Switzerland
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11461

The Cretaceous breakup of Gondwana strongly modified the global distribution of shallow tropical seas reshaping the geographic configuration of marine basins. However, the links between tropical reef availability, plate tectonic processes and marine biodiversity distribution patterns are still unknown. Here, we show that a spatial diversification model constrained by absolute plate motions for the past 140 million years predicts the emergence and movement of diversity hotspots on tropical reefs. The spatial dynamics of tropical reefs explains marine fauna diversification in the Tethyan Ocean during the Cretaceous and early Cenozoic, and identifies an eastward movement of ancestral marine lineages towards the Indo-Australian Archipelago in the Miocene. A mechanistic model based only on habitat-driven diversification and dispersal yields realistic predictions of current biodiversity patterns for both corals and fishes. As in terrestrial systems, we demonstrate that plate tectonics played a major role in driving tropical marine shallow reef biodiversity dynamics. Over a geological timescale, plate tectonics are thought to promote biodiversity, but this link remained descriptive. Here, Leprieur et al . model dynamically how plate tectonics shaped species diversification and movement of hotspots on tropical reefs over the past 140 million years.